Healthy diets can increase life expectancy by a decade - study

Maintaining a healthy diet can be challenging, but recent findings underscore its profound benefits beyond weight management and mood enhancement—it can potentially add nearly a decade to the lives of middle-aged individuals.

New research, featured in the latest issue of Nature Food, delved into the health data of approximately 467,354 British residents. Their dietary habits, meticulously documented as part of the UK Biobank study, became the focal point of the investigation. The researchers categorized participants based on their eating habits, tracking changes over time.

The study distinguished individuals as either average or unhealthy eaters, adherents to the UK's Eatwell guide, or those following a "longevity diet." Adjusted for variables like smoking, alcohol consumption, and exercise, the results revealed a remarkable impact. 40-year-old men and women who transitioned from an unhealthy diet to a sustained commitment to healthier foods gained an astonishing 8.9 to 10 years of additional life.

"Using prospective population-based cohort data from the UK Biobank, we show that sustained dietary change from unhealthy dietary patterns to healthy dietary recommendations is associated with an 8.9 and 8.6-year increase in life expectancy for 40-year-old men and women, respectively," wrote the researchers. "In the same population, a sustained dietary change from unhealthy dietary patterns to dietary patterns associated with longevity is associated with an increase of 10.8 and 10.4 years in life expectancy in men and women, respectively."

The researchers pinpointed specific dietary adjustments that yielded the longest gains in life expectancy: Incorporating more whole grains, nuts, and fruits while reducing the consumption of sugary drinks and processed meats. Notably, individuals initially adhering to an average diet who subsequently transitioned to healthier eating experienced a more modest increase in life expectancy.

"The more changes made towards healthier dietary patterns, the greater the expected gains in life expectancy," the researchers elucidated.

Even if the shift in diet commenced at older ages, the increase in life expectancy remained noteworthy. The scientists emphasized that individuals in their 70 could extend their life expectancy by four or five years with a sustained change in diet.