(Doctormercola.com) -- Despite an abundant food supply and the highest spending on healthcare in the world, the U.S. doesn’t have a better life expectancy than other industrialized countries.

While American life expectancy at birth has increased five years for men and three years for women from 1980 to 2007, the U.S. still lags behind 21 other industrialized countries including Australia, Canada, France, and Japan in terms of average life span, the National Research Council (NRC) reports.

The NRC, an arm of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, blames smoking and obesity for decreasing longevity. These two factors greatly contribute to heart disease, lung cancer, and respiratory illness, which cause thousands of early deaths every year.

It’s a no-brainer that leading an unhealthy lifestyle leads to premature aging and shortens your life span. For Dr. Joseph Mercola, the leading cause of premature death is insulin/leptin sensitivity. This stems from eating too much sugar and processed foods, combined with insufficient exercise.

Dr. Mercola believes that controlling these two factors can likely eliminate more than 90 percent of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity.

Barring an accident, your lifestyle has everything to do with your life expectancy. Take control of your health and longevity with Dr. Mercola’s top anti-aging tips:

1. Eat according to your Nutritional Type.
Dr. Mercola’s nutrition plan is based on natural whole foods and is your first step toward increasing your chances of living a longer, healthier life. At the heart of his program is the drastic reduction or elimination of grains and sugars from your diet, which will help you control your insulin and leptin levels. Take the FREE Nutritional Typing test to learn more about this program.

2. Optimize your vitamin D levels.
Safe sun exposure is a powerful and inexpensive intervention that can have profound benefits on your health. But before taking a vitamin D supplement, take the 25(OH)D or 25-hydroxyvitamin D test. For more information on vitamin D supplementation and appropriate dosage, visit vitamind.mercola.com.

3. Exercise regularly and correctly
Numerous studies show that regular, moderate-to-vigorous exercise can help prevent or delay the onset of heart disease, hypertension, obesity, and osteoporosis. A lifetime of regular exercise is ideal, and it’s never too late to start. A type of exercise known as interval training promotes human growth hormone production, which provides anti-aging benefits.

4. Practice effective stress management.
Stress directly impacts inflammation, which contributes to a number of chronic diseases that kill people prematurely every day. Thus developing effective stress-coping mechanisms is a major longevity-promoting factor. Exercise, meditation, physical activity, and prayer can help you maintain emotional and mental equilibrium. Dr. Mercola personally uses energy psychology tools such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to address deeper and oftentimes hidden emotional problems.

5.. Consume the right type of fats.
Having the right ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats is a strong longevity factor. You can get the right balance by increasing your intake of animal-based omega-3 fats such as krill oil while decreasing your intake of damaged omega-6 fats like trans fats from vegetable oils. Coconut oil is another excellent anti-aging food — it can help reduce your risk of heart disease and lower your cholesterol levels. Use coconut oil instead of butter, margarine, or shortening. You can also apply it to your skin as an anti-aging massage oil or moisturizer.

6. Load up on antioxidants.
Antioxidant-rich foods include artichokes, blackberries, cherries, cranberries, green tea, raspberries, strawberries, and turmeric. Resveratrol is a powerful antioxidant with anti-aging benefits found in blueberries, dark chocolate, and grapes. It helps:

- -Boost your body’s natural defences

-- Increase the lifespan of your cells and protect them from free radical damage

-- Lower your blood pressure and improve blood vessel elasticity

-- Normalize your anti-inflammatory response

-- Regulate your insulin levels

Toss out those toxic air fresheners, bug sprays, household cleaners, insecticides, lawn pesticides, and personal hygiene products and replace them with non-toxic alternatives. Avoid pharmaceutical drugs. Over-the-counter and prescription drugs kill thousands of people prematurely every year as an expected side effect.

Dr. Mercola strongly believes that incorporating these healthy lifestyle changes will help you take control of your health and serve as your best shot at living a longer life.