By Dr Laura Brown, PhD, Teesside University — The Conversation, 8 February 2022
A new study has found that eating healthier could extend lifespan by six to seven years in middle-aged adults, and in young adults, could increase lifespan by about ten years. The researchers brought together data from many studies that looked at diet and longevity alongside data from the Global Burden of Disease study, estimating how life expectancy varied with changes in intake of fruit, vegetables, whole grains, refined grains, nuts, legumes, fish, eggs, dairy, red meat, processed meat and sugary drinks.
An optimal diet for longevity, compared with the typical western diet, included more legumes (beans, peas and lentils), whole grains (oats, barley and brown rice) and nuts, and less red and processed meat. The researchers found that eating an optimal diet from age 20 would increase life expectancy by more than a decade for women and men from The US, China and Europe. They also found that changing from a western diet to the optimal diet at age 60 would increase life expectancy by eight years. For 80-year olds, life expectancy could increase by almost three and a half years.
Even a “feasibility approach diet” halfway between the optimal diet and a typical western diet could still increase life expectancy for 20-year-olds by just over six years for women and just over seven years for men. Many of the foods in the optimal diet have anti-inflammatory properties that may delay the onset of various diseases and the ageing process. The message is clear: making long-term diet changes at any age may have substantial benefits to life expectancy — and the gains are largest if these changes start early in life. This article has been republished under Creative Commons licence.