Following a healthy diet at 45 can add two to three years to your life

People who follow a healthy diet, such as the Mediterranean diet, have an 18% to 24% lower risk of mortality from all causes, which can mean two to three more years of life expectancy, according to a study based on 103,649 participants. After analyzing the information on the diet and genetic characteristics of these people for ten and a half years, the researchers confirmed that those who had a healthy diet – defined in five different ways – had a lower risk of dying prematurely. The five healthy diets were the Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010, the Mediterranean Diet, the Plant-Based Healthy Diet Index, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, and the Diet for Reducing the Risk of Diabetes (DRRD). The details of the study – conducted by researchers from the Tongji Medical College 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 Friday in the journal Science Advances.

The analysis observed that following one of the five healthy diets improves life expectancy and reduced mortality rates by between 18% and 24% from all causes in men and women.

Although this conclusion has already been proven by previous research, the novelty of this study is that it offers estimates of the number of life years gained during that decade. Thus, people aged 45 with the highest dietary scores gained between 1.9 and 3 years of life in the case of men and between 1.5 and 2.3 years for women.

Furthermore, this positive relationship was greater in men following the diabetes prevention DRRD diet, and in women following the Mediterranean diet.

Finally, the authors conclude that following a healthy dietary pattern is beneficial for a longer life expectancy, “regardless of whether people carry longevity genes”.

The Experts’ Opinion

Esther López García, professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the Autonomous University of Madrid and member of the Nutrition Group of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology, explains that the study attempts to answer the classic question of whether lifestyles, particularly diet, are capable of modifying our genetic predisposition to be more long-lived. Their results show that, regardless of their genes, a healthy diet is important for achieving “a longer life”, explains in statements to the scientific resources platform SMC Spain.

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In the same vein, Fernando Rodríguez Artalejo, researcher at CIBERESP and IMDEA Food, points out to the SMC that although it is well known that following some types of diets very rich in plant-based foods were associated with less mortality, the contribution of this work is to present the benefits of these diets “in years of life gained”. Furthermore, following a Mediterranean diet (eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains versus refined grains, and consuming proteins mainly of plant origin, and minimizing the consumption of sugary drinks and other products rich in sugar and/or salt) does not increase life expectancy in young people of 45 years old but for almost their entire life, warns the Spanish researcher. The study shows that it’s never too late to improve your diet, as good nutrition at age 80 is associated with a gain of up to two years of life for men and up to one year for women, compared to those who have a very poor diet at that age, points out Rodríguez Artalejo. For Dolores Corella, a researcher at CIBEROBN and professor at the University of Valencia, the most important thing currently is to have a life expectancy “free of disease”, that is, to ensure that older people are healthy and do not have to consume too many drugs. To this – remember – not only the diet contributes, but also physical activity, sleep, not smoking and, in general, practicing a healthy lifestyle.