{"id":677191,"date":"2026-09-07T17:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T17:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/677191\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T17:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T17:38:09","slug":"im-never-ill-joanna-lumley-on-the-3-simple-nutrition-rules-she-swears-by-to-stay-fit-and-healthy-at-80","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/677191\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I’m never ill\u2019: Joanna Lumley on the 3 simple nutrition rules she swears by to stay fit and healthy at 80"},"content":{"rendered":"

As autumn looms nearer, so, too, do the dreaded seasonal colds and flu. So, what steps can you take to swerve them? Perhaps it\u2019s time to take a health lesson from Dame Joanna Lumley, 80, who has said she\u2019s \u2018never ill\u2019. The Ab Fab actor is, of course, famed for her energy and youthful glow\u2026 so, what\u2019s her secret? Look no further than the food you put on your plate, she says.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve been a vegetarian for more than 40 years and I\u2019m never ill,\u2019 says Dame Joanna in an interview<\/a>. And she goes on to outline the three nutrition rules she swears by. \u2018The diet I love best is: eat stuff, mostly vegetables, not too much.\u2019<\/p>\n

And exercise? \u2018I have a tall, thin house and I run up and down the stairs a lot!\u2019 she adds.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the only time Dame Joanna \u2013 who made the switch to vegetarianism in the late 70s \u2013 has shared her love of nutritious food. \u2018I like raw things very much, like salads and stuff,\u2019 she recently told Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett on their Waitrose-sponsored Dish podcast. \u2018I do believe that not eating meat holds back the ageing process,\u2019 she said. \u2018But if vegetarianism is not for you, so be it. My husband Stephen isn\u2019t a veggie, and he\u2019s wonderful.\u2019<\/p>\n

Research suggests she\u2019s on to something. A 2023 study found that adults with the healthiest plant-based diets had a 14% lower risk of being hospitalised with a respiratory infection. And a 2024 study found that vegetarians had 39% lower odds of contracting Covid than omnivores.<\/p>\n

Being vegetarian can also help your overall health. A study released in August suggested that vegetarian or vegan diets significantly reduced total cholesterol; and according to a 2026 analysis<\/a> of 1.8 million people, vegetarian diets might even help lower the risk for several cancers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As autumn looms nearer, so, too, do the dreaded seasonal colds and flu. So, what steps can you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[277],"tags":[341,286581,343,18,135,19,17,201411,342,508,286580,240005],"class_list":["post-677191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-951306de-6073-416e-9167-66c00d38c2ce","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-eire","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-gb","tag-nutrition","tag-shorttitle-im-never-ill-joanna-lumley-on-the-nutrition-rules-she-swears-by-at-80","tag-sponsored-false"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117230980848478378","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}