Researchers modeling data from nearly half a million UK adults found that sustained shifts toward a healthier eating pattern were linked to as much as 10.8 extra years of life expectancy for men and 10.4 years for women who make the change at age 40, according to a study published in Nature Food.
The five changes doing most of the heavy lifting, the authors report, are eating more whole grains, more nuts, and more legumes, while cutting back on sugar-sweetened drinks and processed meats. This is a modeling study, not a randomized trial, so the numbers are projections built from long-term observational data, not a promise for any one person.
Where the 10-year figure comes from
The team, led by Lars T. Fadnes at the University of Bergen with colleagues at the University of Glasgow, used dietary and mortality data from 467,354 participants in the UK Biobank cohort.
They compared a typical unhealthy eating pattern against two alternatives: the UK Eatwell Guide and a "longevity-associated" pattern built from foods most consistently linked to lower death rates in the literature.
Also read: A compound made by your gut bacteria may be quietly raising your Alzheimer's risk
The longevity-associated pattern was high in vegetables, nuts, legumes, and dairy, moderate in whole grains, fruit, fish, and white meat, and low in refined grains, processed meat, and sugary drinks.
Switching from the unhealthy pattern to this longevity pattern at age 40 was associated with the largest gains. Starting later still helped. Adults who made the same shift at 70 were projected to add roughly four to five years of life.
The gains are estimates, not guarantees. The model assumes a change is sustained for the rest of a person's life and draws on associations that can be influenced by factors other than food.
What the five changes look like on a plate
Whole grains are the intact or minimally processed forms of grains, such as oats, brown rice, whole-wheat bread, and barley. Harvard's Nutrition Source cites a meta-analysis of more than 786,000 people showing that 70 grams of whole grains a day was linked to a 22 percent lower risk of total mortality compared with eating little or none.
Also read: 8 warning signs of anxiety disorder most people mistake for everyday stress
Nuts show a similar pattern. In the Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study, people who ate a one-ounce serving of nuts daily were 20 percent less likely to die during the follow-up period than those who did not eat nuts, Harvard researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Legumes, the fourth pillar of the longevity pattern, are beans, lentils, chickpeas, and peas. Previous work by the same Bergen group put legumes near the top of the list of foods most strongly tied to a longer life.
The two cuts: processed meat and added sugar
Processed meat is any meat preserved by salting, curing, fermentation, or smoking, including bacon, ham, sausages, and deli slices. The World Health Organization's cancer agency classifies it as carcinogenic to humans, with each 50-gram daily portion estimated to raise the risk of colorectal cancer by about 18 percent.
Sugar-sweetened beverages are the largest single source of added sugar in the US diet. The American Heart Association recommends no more than 9 teaspoons (about 36 grams) of added sugar a day for men and 6 teaspoons (about 25 grams) for women. Average US intake sits at roughly 22 teaspoons.
Also read: The everyday habits that could ease stomach pain
None of these shifts requires an overhaul. Swapping white bread for whole grain, keeping a jar of unsalted nuts on the counter, working beans into a weekly meal, treating processed meats as an occasional food, and pouring water in place of soda are, together, the everyday moves the study points to.
Anyone weighing a major dietary change, especially alongside a chronic condition or medication, should talk it through with their doctor first.
Also read: New study suggests some men could skip painful prostate biopsies
This article is made and published by Jesper Bengtson, who may have used AI in the preparation.