If you eat well today, you’ll live better later. A diet rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grains and unsaturated fats in your 50s can improve your chances of maintaining good mental, physical and cognitive health decades later, according to a new report.
A study presented Tuesday at a major nutrition conference builds on years of research that suggests a daily diet of highly nutritious foods can reduce the risk of developing common chronic diseases and help maintain cognitive functioning in old age.
Harvard researchers analyzed 30 years of data on more than 106,000 participants in the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. The study included 70,467 women and 36,464 men. At the start of the study in 1986, participants were at least 39 years old and free of chronic diseases.
As part of the long-term study, participants completed an in-depth food frequency questionnaire every four years, from 1986 to 2010, said registered dietitian Anne-Julie Tessier, lead author and research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Harvard researchers tracked each participant’s personal diet over time to see how well they matched eight highly nutritious eating patterns.
The diets they compared the food questionnaires to included:
- The DASH diet is a dietary program designed to prevent or reduce high blood pressure by emphasizing vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. This diet, developed by the National Institutes of Health, is considered a flexible diet because it does not eliminate any food groups and also aids in weight loss.
- The Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) — which closely adheres to U.S. dietary guidelines by encouraging consumption of legumes, nuts and vegetables and reduced amounts of red and processed meats. Research has found the strongest correlation between the AHEI diet and healthier aging, Tessier said.
- The Planetary Diet is an eating plan that minimizes animal products and emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats. It allows modest amounts of meat and dairy.
Overall, they found that higher intakes of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, unsaturated fats, nuts, legumes, and low-fat dairy products increased the odds of aging well. People whose diets included more trans fats, sodium, red meat, and processed meat were less likely to age healthily.
What is “healthy aging”?
Based on self-reports from women and men in the database, the researchers interpreted “healthy aging” as surviving to at least age 70 and having good cognitive function, good mental health, good physical function – and being free of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, kidney failure and most cancers.
After analyzing the data over 30 years, the researchers found that about half of the participants had died, and only 9% had survived to age 70 or older without disease and with intact physical and cognitive health.
However, participants who adhered most closely to a healthy diet were associated with a 43 to 84 percent greater chance of aging well compared to those who did not.
What we eat now affects how we feel later
The new study has limitations. Like most nutrition research, it is based on observation and self-reports. It does not prove that following a strict nutritious diet will lead to a longer life or healthier aging. It has not yet been published in a journal, but it is currently undergoing peer review, Tessier said.
Yet numerous studies have already shown that diet and physical activity reduce the risk of all of these diseases and can therefore increase the likelihood of “healthy aging,” said Dr. R. Sean Morrison, chairman of Brookdale’s department of geriatrics and palliative medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital.
“It’s important to consider that those who eat healthy diets are more likely to exercise, more likely to live in socially advantaged neighborhoods, have access to support that others don’t have and are likely to have better access to health care,” said Morrison, who was not associated with the new study.
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In fact, the researchers analyzed variables that could potentially influence the results, including BMI, ancestry, smoking status, alcohol consumption, physical activity, medical and family history, socioeconomic status, marital status and whether participants lived alone, Tessier noted.
“We were surprised by the strength of the association between healthy eating habits in midlife and healthy living later, even after taking into account several other factors, such as physical activity, which are also known to impact health,” she added.
Dr. Lawrence Appel, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who was not involved in the study, said the study’s results support previous findings. Appel’s research focuses on preventing chronic disease through nutritional approaches, and he was the lead author of the study that spawned the DASH diet.
“This study joins a chorus of other studies that link healthy eating behaviors earlier in life to better health decades later,” he said.
For Mount Sinai’s Morrison, “the key to healthy aging — something we’ve known for a long time — is to eat healthy, exercise, avoid tobacco products, use sunscreen, get enough sleep and participate in social activities.
