Healthy Diet Adds 2-3 Years to Life Expectancy

Analysis shows that following one of five healthy diets improves life expectancy and reduces all-cause mortality rates by 18% to 24% in men and women. The study shows that it's never too late to improve one's diet, as good eating habits at age 80 are associated with a gain of up to two years of life for men and up to one year for women compared to those with a very poor diet at that age, notes Rodríguez Artalejo. His results show that, regardless of genes, a healthy diet is important for achieving 'a longer life,' he explains in statements to the SMC España scientific platform. People who follow a healthy diet, such as the Mediterranean diet, have an 18% to 24% lower risk of all-cause mortality, which can translate to two to three more years of life expectancy, according to a study based on 103,649 participants. Expert Opinion Esther López García, professor of preventive medicine and public health at the Autonomous University of Madrid and a member of the Nutrition Group of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology, explains that the study attempts to answer the classic question of whether lifestyle habits, particularly diet, can modify our genetic predisposition to live longer. Furthermore, following a Mediterranean diet (eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains over refined ones, and consuming protein mainly from plant sources, and minimizing sugary drinks and other products high in sugar and/or salt) does not increase life expectancy in young people aged 45, but throughout almost their entire lives, warns the Spanish researcher. He reminds that this is influenced not only by diet but also by physical activity, sleep, not smoking, and, in general, practicing a healthy lifestyle. In the same vein, Fernando Rodríguez Artalejo, a researcher at CIBERESP and IMDEA Food, points out to SMC that while it is well known that following certain types of diets rich in plant-based foods was associated with lower mortality, the contribution of this work is to present the benefits of these diets 'in years of life gained.' After analyzing ten and a half years of information on the diet and genetic characteristics of these individuals, the researchers confirmed that those with a healthy diet—defined in five different ways—had a lower risk of premature death. Thus, 45-year-old men with the highest dietary scores gained between 1.9 and 3 years of life, while women gained between 1.5 and 2.3 years. Additionally, this positive association was greater in men following the DRRD diet for diabetes prevention and in women following the Mediterranean diet. The five healthy diets were the Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010, the Mediterranean Diet, the Plant-Based Healthy Eating Index, the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, and the Diabetes Risk Reduction Diet (DRRD). For Dolores Corella, a researcher at CIBEROBN and a professor at the University of Valencia, the most important thing currently is to have a disease-free life expectancy, that is, to ensure that older adults are healthy and do not have to consume too many medications. Although this conclusion has already been proven by previous research, the novelty of this study is that it provides estimates of the number of years of life gained during that decade. Finally, the authors conclude that following a healthy dietary pattern is beneficial for greater life expectancy, 'regardless of whether individuals are carriers of longevity genes.' The details of the study—conducted by researchers from the School of Medicine Tongji of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, the School of Medicine of Zhejiang University, Queen Mary University of London, and the University of Sydney (Australia)—were published this week in the journal Science Advances.