Add 10 years to your Lifespan with a Healthy Diet

In this Article (Index)

• Follow the 2020-25 Dietary Guidelines for Americans to live longer
• Dietary Guidelines for Americans Overview
• An "Optimal Diet" can add 10 years to your life
• UK diet and life expectancy study
• Conclusions: Diet, Lifestyle, and Longevity

Follow the 2020-25 Dietary Guidelines for Americans to live longer

The latest edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2020-2025) or DGA(2) sets down a set of simple rules that scientific evidence has shown can be effective in promoting good health, fitness, and a longer life. Below we mention one of these studies and an outline of the DGA.

A 2022 study (1) analyzed data from over 119,000 Americans followed for over 35 years and found that "greater adherence to several healthy eating patterns was associated with a lower risk of death."

Eating healthy diets reduced the risk of death from cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases between 14 and 20%. Two healthy diets (AMED and AHEI) were also linked with lower mortality from neurodegenerative disease.

Our findings support the recommendations of DGAs for multiple healthy eating patterns... supporting the protective association of various healthy eating patterns with mortality among individuals with diverse cultural food traditions Shan Z, Wang F, Li Y, et al., (2022) (1)

Dietary Guidelines for Americans Overview

The guidelines provide dietary suggestions on a healthy dietary pattern that covers the nutrient needs, helps reach and maintain a healthy weight, and lowers the risk of chronic diseases. They can be adapted to individual preferences.

A healthy dietary pattern is composed of nutrient-dense foods that provide vitamins, minerals and health-promoting compounds, with few added sugars, saturated fats, and salt, and within calorie intake limits.

DGA's No-Nos

• Added sugars, should not exceed 10% of the daily calorie intake.
• Saturated fats should also be below 10% of the daily calories.
• Sodium, daily intake should be less than 2,300 mg.
• Alcohol, ideally none, but not more than 2 drinks per day for men, and 1 for women.

DGA's Core Elements

• Vegetables, of all colors red, orange, dark green, pulses (lentils, peas, and beans), starchy and other vegetables.
• Fruits, any, eat whole fruits.
• Grains, of which half shouldn't be refined. Use Whole grain.
• Dairy, low-fat or fat-free milk, cheese, and yogurt (lactose-free or fortified vegan vegan versions are also good options).
• Protein-rich foods, poultry, eggs, seafood, lean meat, pulses, nuts, seeds, and soy-based products.
• Oils. Includes the added vegetable oils and the natural oils found in oily fish, seafood, and nuts.

Use a variety of options from each food group, and consume moderate-sized portions.

An "Optimal Diet" can add 10 years to your life

Another 2022 study (3) investigated how life expectancy (LE) was modified by changing from a "typical Western diet" to an "optimal diet" with "substantially higher intake than a typical diet of whole grains, legumes, fish, fruits, vegetables, and included a handful of nuts, while reducing red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages, and refined grains."

Such a change could increase life expectancy by 10.7 years for American women, and 13 years for men.

The largest gains in years added to life (values in added years for women and men, respectively) are provided by eating: more legumes (2.2 /2.5), whole grains (2.0/2.3), and nuts (1.7 /2.0).
And by eating less red meat (1.6 /1.9), and processed meat (1.6 /1.9).

It is never too late to change your diet: doing so at the age of 60 adds 8.0 years for women and 8.8 for men. A switch at age 80 adds 3.4 years.

The earlier the change, the larger its life-extending effect.

The authors provide an online calculator at https://food4healthylife.org/ to calculate the impact on your lifespan.

Adding "Fruits and vegetables as well as fish had substantial positive impact, but the intake in a typical diet is closer to an optimal intake than for legumes, whole grains, and nuts." Regarding added oils, olive oil has beneficial effects, but since most added oils are a blend of different fatty acids, the health impact of oils is neutral.

Are you seeing a pattern here? Did you notice the common factors in all of these healthy diets? And the foods that increase the risk of dying younger?

UK diet and life expectancy study

A similar study conducted in 2023 (4) reached identical conclusions after it analyzed data from the UK Biobank:

Sustained dietary change from unhealthy dietary patterns to the Eatwell Guide dietary recommendations is associated with 8.9 and 8.6 years gain in life expectancy for 40-year-old males and females, respectively. In the same population, sustained dietary change from unhealthy to longevity-associated dietary patterns is associated with 10.8 and 10.4 years gain in life expectancy in males and females, respectively. The largest gains are obtained from consuming more whole grains, nuts and fruits and less sugar-sweetened beverages and processed meats. Fadnes, L.T., Celis-Morales, C., Økland, JM. et al., (2023) (4)

They estimated that unhealthy diets cause over 75,000 premature deaths each year in the United Kingdom.

The longevity-associated dietary pattern mentioned further up has "moderate intakes of whole grains, fruit, fish and white meat; a high intake of milk and dairy, vegetables, nuts and legumes; a relatively low intake of eggs, red meat and sugar-sweetened beverages; and a low intake of refined grains and processed meat."

They also reported a very strong link between mortality and an unhealthy diet (people die younger due to a poor diet), especially for sugar-sweetened beverages and processed meat. At the opposite end of the scale, the strongest link to a longer life (people die at an older age by eating them) is for whole grains and nuts.

A repetitive pattern appears in each of these studies showing how certain foods are life-extending, while others do the opposite. The following section mentions a study that summarizes the findings of previous research in the form of five tips for a longer and healthier lifespan.

Conclusions: Diet, Lifestyle, and Longevity

A 2024 review of studies on how food can help extend lifespan and healthspan (6) picks up the pattern shown by previous research, and provides five specific tips on how to do so:

1. Keep Slim

A healthy body weight as you age is a key element in living a long and healthy life. The study mentions the "80% full" principle of the traditional Okinawan diet known as "hara hachi bu", a healthy dietary practice in Japan consisting of restricting food intake. It is a moderate calorie restriction by which you eat until you feel you are 80% full, and stop.

2. Food type, not quantity is important

The food, the source of your nourishment is more important than the independent nutrients and their quantities. It gives an example: "A low-carbohydrate diet dominated by animal-derived fat or protein was associated with higher mortality, but a low-carbohydrate diet rich in plant-based fat and protein was associated with lower mortality." Both are rich in carbs, but one has animal fat and protein, and the other has plant-based fat and protein. Different life expectancy outcomes.

3. Adopt a Healthy Diet

There are many healthy diets, some may or may not be suitable for you, but they all share similar basic concepts: unprocessed foods, healthy fats, more plant-based foods, less red meats, processed meats, and added sugars.

4. Eat More Plant-Based Foods

Veggies, fruits, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes provide healthy fatty acids, protein, vitamins, minerals, and plant-based bioactive compounds called phytochemicals. They include antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents (polyphenols, carotenes), and fiber. Both act positively upon the gut microbiome which in turn produces certain metabolites like short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) that help boost immunity and modulate the gut-brain axis, improving mental and physical health.

Studies with animals (5) have shown that phytochemicals in plant-based foods have lifespan and healthspan extension properties. These foods include berries, green tea, black tea, cocoa, oranges, and apples, and several phytochemicals such as resveratrol, quercetin, curcumin, EGCG (found in tea), spermidine, caffeine, and caffeic acid).

Think of foods like avocados, oats, arugula, pumpkin seeds, alternative flours, chocolate, coffee, green tea, tomatoes, or berries.

5. A Healthy Lifestyle

Diet can help, but other lifestyle factors are also important: don't smoke, consume alcohol and sodium in moderation, sleep well, get your vaccines, maintain a healthy weight, and stay physically active.

Follow these five tips and you "can potentially add approximately 8 to 10 years of disease-free life expectancy. Beyond physical health and longevity, a healthy diet and lifestyle can help to promote mental well-being and mitigate age-related cognitive decline, reducing the risk of dementia and enhancing the overall quality of life." (6)