Improving diet at a young age may add more than 10 years to life expectancy
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Young adults in the U.S. may increase their life expectancy by more than a decade if they optimize their diet to include more legumes, whole grains and nuts, and less red and processed meat, according to findings published in PLoS Medicine.
“Gains are reduced substantially with delayed initiation of changes, particularly when approaching the age of 80 years,” Lars T. Fadnes, MD, a professor in the department of global public health and primary care at the University of Bergen in Norway, and colleagues wrote.
The findings suggest that nutritional recommendations should further emphasize the benefit of eating more legumes and whole grains while reducing intake of red and processed meats, Fadnes told Healio.
The researchers developed a model that can estimate the impact sustained dietary changes may have on life expectancy (LE) using existing meta-analyses and data from the 2019 Global Burden of Diseases study. They specifically looked at data pertaining to the U.S., China and Europe, although diet and life expectancy in the U.S. was the primary focus of the study. Data on background mortality in these countries were also considered. Fandes and colleagues were particularly interested in sustained changes in the intake of fruits, vegetables, milk or dairy, processed meat and sugar-sweetened beverages.
Feasible and optimized diets
The researchers considered a “feasible” diet as the midpoint between an optimal and a typical Western diet. For the optimal diet and feasibility approach diet, Fandes and colleagues recommended 225 g and 137.5 g of whole grains, 400 g and 325 g of vegetables, 400 g and 300 g of fruits, 25 g and 12.5 g of nuts, 200 g and 100 g of legumes, 200 g and 100 g of fish, 25 g and 37.5 g of eggs, 200 g and 250 g of milk or dairy, 50 g and 100 g of refined grains, 0 g and 50 g of red meat, 0 g and 25 g of processed meat, 50 g and 62.5 g of white meat, 0 g and 250 g of sugar-sweetened beverages and 25 g and 25 g of added plant oils.
Life expectancy changes by age and sex
While the largest gains in LE were associated with eating more legumes, whole grains and nuts and eating less red or processed meat, increasing intake of fruits and vegetables appeared to have a lower LE benefit. This is because “most people have already ‘harvested’ some of the benefits from fruits and vegetables by consuming more of these already,” Fadnes said.
For a person aged 20 years, a sustained change from a typical Western diet to an optimal diet would increase LE for women in the U.S. by about 10.7 years (95% uncertainty interval, 8.4-12.3) and men by about 13 years (95% UI, 9.4-14.3), according to the researchers. For sustained changes in diet among those aged 80 years, life expectancy would increase by 3.4 years for both women (95% UI, 2.6-3.8) and men (95% UI, 2.7-3.9). Meanwhile, adopting an optimized diet for those aged 60 years would increase LE by an estimated 8 years (95% UI, 6.2-9.3) for women and 8.8 years (95% UI, 6.8-10) for men, according to Fandes and colleagues.
Sustained changes from a typical diet to a feasible diet would increase LE by 6.2 years (95% UI, 3.5-8.1) among women aged 20 years and 7.3 years (95% UI, 4.7-9.5) among men aged 20 years.
While changes from a typical Western diet would provide “substantial gains” in LE for all age groups, improvements were 48% higher when sustained changes began at age 20 years compared with age 60 years and three times higher compared with age 80 years, the researchers reported.
“Research until now have shown health benefits associated with separate food group or specific diet patterns but given limited information on the health impact of other diet changes,” Fadnes and colleagues wrote. “Our modeling methodology has bridged this gap.”
The model, known as the Food4HealthyLife Calculator, is now available online.
“For clinical practice, Food4HealthyLife could be a useful tool to understand the impact of various food choices and guide how to prioritize changes in food patterns,” Fadnes said.
References:
Changing your diet could add up to a decade to life expectancy, study finds. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/941971. Published Feb 8, 2022. Accessed Feb. 8, 2022.
Fadnes LT, et al. PLoS Med. 2022;doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1003889.
Food for healthy life. https://priorityapp.shinyapps.io/Food/. Accessed Feb. 9, 2022.