Eating healthy extends life (up to 10 years!)

Improving nutrition gives years of life: yes, but how many exactly, what if we made a serious commitment to eat better? Six or seven, for adults who previously followed the typical Western diet; even ten, if you switch to healthier foods at the age of twenty. These are the results of a study published in PLOS Medicine and related to a site, Food for healthy life, where you can calculate gains and losses related to the consumption or renunciation of various foods.

The ingredients of health. The estimated addition of years of life depends above all on the decrease in the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes. Researchers from the University of Bergen (Norway) analyzed data from hundreds of studies on diet and longevity and crossed them with information from the Global Burden of Disease, a research that periodically takes stock of the health of the global population and on the main causes of death. In this way it was possible to calculate how much life expectancy varied on average by increasing or decreasing the amount of certain foods, such as fruits, vegetables, whole or refined cereals, nuts, legumes, fish, eggs, dairy products, red meats or processed, sugary drinks.

How much are you willing to change? The average amount of years “made up” varies based on when you start eating better and how much … you get serious. The optimal diet to maximize health benefits includes a total renunciation of red meats, sausages and sugary drinks, a reduction in eggs and dairy products, and an increase in the consumption of fruit and vegetables, legumes, fish, whole grains and nuts.

But the team also envisioned a middle ground between this ideal diet and the typical Western diet, rich in fatty, processed, processed foods and low in fiber and legumes. The so-called “feasibility diet” includes fewer red meats, eggs and dairy products, prefers whole grains to refined ones, increases the consumption of fish, dried fruit and legumes, but without imposing total sacrifices.

The important thing is to start. By fully embracing the optimal diet, a 20-year-old from China, USA or Europe would gain over 10 years of life. A sixty year old would acquire 8 more on average and an eighty year old almost three and a half. So it’s never too late to start. With a more realistic feasibility diet, a twenty year old would acquire 6-7 years of life, a sixty year old more than 4, an eighty year old, a half. These benefits would be achieved with a sustained and sustained change in diet over ten years.

How to interpret the results. Of course these are based estimates on average life expectancy: when you go from the general to the single individual, there are many other factors in addition to nutrition, which affect longevity. The study does not take into account previous medical conditions, for example, or other risk factors such as smoking, a stressful life, alcohol consumption and exercise. It does not consider future advances in prevention and medical science, and some uncertainties remain about the health effects of eggs, oils and white meats. Therefore it should not be taken literally, but the general message counts: nutrition has an important impact on the duration of life, at any age, as well as an important footprint on the health of the planet.

A brake on advancing age. How diet affects life expectancy is not yet fully understood. Many foods included in the optimal diet for health are rich in antioxidants, substances that can slow down or prevent cell damage, one of the drivers of aging. Others have anti-inflammatory properties that can slow the progression of many chronic diseases.