By Julie E 
Photo Credit (Pixabay)
A Harvard study shows a strong link between what you eat in middle age and staying healthy as you age.
It’s July 2, 2024, in Chicago. Even though everyone wants to age well, a new study shows that less than 10% of people can stay disease-free and in good physical, mental, and cognitive health past age 70. According to the study, eating well in middle age might make it more likely that you will age in a healthy way.
Based on information from over 100,000 people over 30 years, the study found that people who started eating healthily in their 40s were 43–84% more likely to be physically and mentally healthy at age 70 than those who didn’t
Anne-Julie Tessier, PhD, postdoctoral fellow at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, said, “People who stuck to healthy eating patterns in middle age, especially those that were high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats, were much more likely to age in a healthy way.” “This shows that what you eat is very important for how well you age.”
Tessier will talk about the results at NUTRITION 2024, which is the main meeting of the American Society for Nutrition every year and takes place in Chicago from June 29–July 2.
The researchers found that eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, unsaturated fats, nuts, legumes, and low-fat dairy was linked to a higher chance of healthy aging. On the other hand, eating more trans fats, sodium, total meats, red and processed meats, and nuts was linked to a lower chance of healthy aging.
A healthy diet has been linked to a lower risk of chronic diseases in many previous studies. However, this new study is the first to focus on healthy aging, which means being able to live on your own and have a good quality of life as you get older.
Tessier said, “In the past, research and dietary guidelines have been mainly focused on preventing long-term diseases like heart disease.” “The results of our study show that dietary guidelines should aim for both disease prevention and healthy aging in the long term.”
Researchers looked at information from more than 106,000 people from 1986 to the present. People who took part in the study were at least 39 years old and didn’t have any long-term illnesses at the start. Every four years, they filled out surveys about their diet. As of 2016, almost half of the people who took part in the study had died, and only 9.2% had lived to be 70 or older without getting any chronic diseases and in good physical, mental, and cognitive health.
The researchers looked at the rates of healthy aging in people who followed eight different healthy eating patterns that have been defined by other scientific studies. They compared the rates of healthy aging in people who followed the best and lowest quintiles. The alternative healthy eating score showed the strongest correlation. This pattern shows that people are following the Dietary Guidelines for Americans very closely. People in the top quintile of this eating pattern were 84% more likely to age in a healthy way than people in the bottom quintile.
Along with the planetary health diet (68%), the alternative Mediterranean diet (67%), the dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) diet (66%), the Mediterranean-DASH intervention for neurodegenerative delay (MIND) diet (59%), and the empirical dietary inflammatory pattern (58%), strong links were also found for the empirical dietary index for hyperinsulinemia. There was a slightly weaker link found for the healthy plant-based diet (43%).
Tessier said, “The link between the planetary health diet and healthy aging stood out as a finding that stood out.” EAT Lancet Commission’s report, which this diet is based on, says that people should eat lots of fruits and veggies, whole grains, plant-based proteins, and healthy fats from natural sources. It’s interesting that this diet became one of the most important ones linked to healthy age. This shows that we can eat in a way that is good for both our health and the environment.
Even after researchers took into account exercise and other known health-related factors, the links between diet and healthy aging stayed solid. Tessier found that each of the healthy eating patterns was connected with healthy aging as a whole as well as with the different parts of healthy aging, such as mental health, cognitive skills, and physical health.
Since the study only looked at eating habits in middle age, Tessier suggested that more research be done in the future to find out what might happen if someone changes their eating habits later in life.
Tessier will talk about this study at the President’s Oral Session: Abstracts of Distinction in McCormick Place on Tuesday, July 2, from 10:24 to 10:36 a.m. CDT (abstract; presentation details).
Please keep in mind that the abstracts you see at NUTRITION 2024 were looked over and chosen by a group of experts, but they haven’t been through the same peer review process that a scientific magazine would. So, the results shown should only be thought of as preliminary until a publication that has been reviewed by experts in the field is ready.