Healthy food can extend life by many years
If you radically change your diet at a young age, you can add up to ten years to your life. Even for 80-year-olds, it can still be worthwhile. One simple and effective measure: replace red meat with beans and lentils.
Avoid meat, eat more legumes and whole grains: These are the main conclusions from a study that a team from the University of Bergen in Norway has now presented in "PLOS Medicine." The group, led by health researcher Lars Fadnes, based its findings on data from the Global Burden of Disease Study, which has been recording deaths and diseases and their risk factors worldwide for more than 30 years. On this basis, the Norwegian team calculated how a change in diet would statistically affect life expectancy.
The central finding: with an optimal diet, a person who previously ate a typical Western diet could gain significantly in lifespan: 20-year-olds more than 10 years, 80-year-olds more than 3 years. The Norwegian researchers write that the change is worthwhile even in old age. In young years, men benefit somewhat more: A 20-year-old in the U.S. can gain an average of about 13 years of life, a woman of the same age just under 11 years. In Europe, the results are almost identical.
The number one life-prolonging measure is to eat more pulses, such as lentils, beans and peas. In the Western world, pulses are not usually on the daily menu, if at all. According to estimates, increasing the daily ration of pulses from zero to 200 grams gives young men and women an average of more than two years of life.
Similarly healthy: a daily portion of whole grains and nuts. And a little more fruit, vegetables and fish also prolong life. But here, according to consumption data from the U.S. and Europe, the typical Western diet is not quite as far from the optimum. Accordingly, the change has a smaller effect - provided one already consumes some vegetables, fruit and fish.
Red meat such as beef and pork and processed products such as sausage and ham have a particularly negative impact. 100 and 50 grams a day respectively cost just under two years of life, compared with doing without them completely. Too much egg, poultry, processed cereals and sugary drinks are slightly less life-shortening, but also harmful. Figures on sweets are unfortunately missing, but the direction should be clear.
The researchers also determined the optimal portions. For legumes, the optimal daily ration of 200 grams corresponds to a large cup of soaked beans, lentils or peas; for whole grains, it would be, for example, two slices of rye bread, a bowl of whole grain cereal and some whole grain rice. The optimal amount of vegetables: a tomato, a bell bell pepper, a few lettuce leaves, half an avocado and a cup of vegetable soup. In terms of fruit, you would need to eat an apple, a banana, an orange, a kiwi and a handful of berries. At least only a handful of nuts is needed, and a large piece of herring is sufficient for fish. When it comes to animal products, on the other hand, you have to avoid red meat, salami, sausage and ham. In addition, little poultry, no more than half an egg and a cup of yogurt per day.
Because these optimal amounts seemed somewhat unrealistic when measured against actual consumption, the researchers looked for a compromise: the "feasible" diet. With this, men at the age of 20 could still gain more than 7 years and women more than 6 years. In other words, they gained just over half the benefit that an optimal diet would.
The authors explain the effects via the known anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of healthy foods: These counteracted cell damage and thus age-related ailments such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes. The team did not control for other possible influences such as pre-existing conditions or calorie intake; the available data therefore do not permit a causal conclusion. In principle, this is considered to be certain. But in the current study, confounding factors could have contributed to the effects: People who eat vegetarian food may also pay more attention to their health in other respects and do more sports, for example. According to another recent study, this in turn reduces mortality even more than a healthy diet.
The effects are also average values, so some people benefit more, some less. The authors also warn that any change in diet must be adapted to individual conditions, for example in the case of allergies to nuts or soy. This also means that not everyone is able to consume the optimal amount of a food. The research group has published an online calculator that, based on the current individual diet, calculates which changes - statistically speaking - could add how many more years: Food4HealthyLife.
Spectrum of Science
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