It’s never too late to gain years of life. A healthy diet can prevent the development of diseases and increase longevity, although adherence to healthy eating patterns begins after age 40.
This is confirmed by a study led by Lars Fadnes, public health researcher at the University of Bergen in Norway – published in Nature – which used data on 467,354 people from the UK Biobank. The researchers have grouped participants based on their eating patterns and they noticed how they changed over time.
In 2016 the UK government published guidance Eatwell, to help citizens follow a healthy and balanced diet. The handbook highlights the importance of eating at least five servings of fruit and vegetables a dayreducing the intake of salt and saturated fats, and promotes the consumption of whole grains and legumes. The researchers identified those who followed an “average” diet and those who followed an unhealthy one, the people who respected the suggestions of the guide Eatwell and those who ate particularly well (the researchers nicknamed their diet the “longevity diet”).
Follow the guide’s suggestions Eatwell leads an increase of 8.9 and 8.6 years in life expectancy for those in their forties males and females, respectively. Those who put in the extra effort and went a step further, abandoning sugary drinks and processed meats in favor of a diet rich in whole grains, nuts, fruits, vegetables and moderate amounts of fish (i.e. those who followed the so-called «longevity diet») they added about 10 years – 10.4 years for women and 10.8 years for men – to their life expectancy. In short, the more decisive the changes towards healthier eating patterns, the greater the gains in terms of life expectancy.
The estimate of the remaining years to live, for people in their forties with an average dietary pattern, is 44.7 years for females and 41.5 years for males. That of a seventy-year-old with an “average” diet is 15.5 years and of a seventy-year-old 17.6 years.
Even after the age of 40, however, it is worth investing in health: according to the study, even people in their 70s can gain longevity improving nutrition. By switching from a normal diet to a very healthy one, you can gain 1.5 years of life, and by abandoning an unhealthy diet even 4 or 5 years.
Source: Vanity Fair
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