It is likely that you are aware that eating a balanced diet can help you to live longer. It may surprise you to learn that the benefit of eating healthily is not limited to your younger years but can be seen in your later years of life too. So, in other words, eating well as an older adult can still reap rewards for more years of life.
A new study investigated the effects on life years in 467,354 participants who switched their eating patterns from unhealthy to a healthier diet. Each participant completed a food frequency questionnaire and or a twenty-four-hour recall at the start of the study. The researchers put participants into groups based on the amount of thirteen different foods. These were wholegrains such as wholegrain pasta, couscous, rice, wholegrain crackers, wholegrain bread, and oats. Also, fruit, vegetables, nuts, legumes, fish, eggs, milk and dairy products, red meat, refined grains, processed meat, white meat, and sugar sweetened drinks.
Researchers then investigated the effects of all causes of death and whether switching from an unhealthy diet to the diet from UK’s Eatwell Guide was associated with a higher life expectancy. The diet which was linked to a longer life expectancy contained higher amounts of milk and dairy products, and vegetables. Moderate amounts of wholegrains, eggs, fish, fruit, nuts, legumes, and white meat. Thirdly, lower amounts of red meat, processed meat, refined grains, and sugar sweetened drinks.
The food groups linked to the greatest impact on an increased years to life expectancy were fruits, wholegrains, and nuts. The foods linked to the greatest risk of a decrease in life expectancy were the processed meats, and sugar sweetened drinks.
The unhealthy diet pattern contained high amounts of processed meat, red meat, eggs, refined grains, sugar sweetened drinks. Low amounts of vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts, fish, milk and dairy products, white meat, and wholegrains.
It may surprise you that the benefits of switching from a less healthy to a healthier eating pattern had benefits both as a younger adult and later in life. It was estimated that switching from a less healthy eating pattern to a healthier eating pattern may increase a forty-year old’s life expectancy by eight years. The benefit of a diet switch from less healthy to healthy in a seventy-year-old person was associated with an increase in life expectancy of four years.
By specifically switching from a less healthy eating patter to the UK’s Eatwell Guide diet this increased a forty-year-olds life expectancy by six to seven years and by three years in an adult aged seventy years.
When the researchers investigated the average life expectancy of the average UK diet with the longevity diet the benefits were evident here too. It was estimated that when a forty-year-old made this switch it could potentially add three years to life expectancy. When a seventy-year-old made this diet switch
If you feel like your diet could use a spring clean it is wise to make small changes that you can maintain. This way the change feels easy, maintainable and you will stick to it in the long term. If you are not sure how to achieve this reach out to an Accredited Practising Dietitian who can provide you with individualised support to help you to achieve and maintain your nutrition and health goals.
Take home message: It is never too late to add years to your life. Creating a diet which is balanced and made up of the higher quantities of the foods listed above linked to greater life expectancy is a smart strategy to potentially add more years to your life.
Reference:
- Fadnes LT, Celis-Morales C, Økland JM, Parra-Soto S, Livingstone KM, Ho FK, Pell JP, Balakrishna R, Javadi Arjmand E, Johansson KA, Haaland ØA, Mathers JC. Life expectancy can increase by up to 10 years following sustained shifts towards healthier diets in the United Kingdom. Nat Food. 2023 Nov;4(11):961-965. doi: 10.1038/s43016-023-00868-w. Epub 2023 Nov 20. PMID: 37985698; PMCID: PMC10661734.
