Longevity diet found! Eating this way can extend Chinese lifespan by 6 years

Food is the primary need of the people. Diet directly affects human health. Maintaining a healthy diet plays an important role in prolonging life. According to the Global Burden of Disease Study, 11 million deaths worldwide each year can be attributed to poor diet.

Recently, researchers from the University of Bergen in Norway published a research paper titled "Life expectancy gains from dietary modifications: a comparative modeling study in 7 countries" in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The study showed that switching from a typical eating pattern to a longevity diet at the age of 40 was associated with an extension of life expectancy of 6.2-6.3 years in Chinese men and women. Among them, eating more beans, whole grains and nuts and less red meat, processed meat and sugary drinks had the greatest benefit on extending life.

A longevity diet includes: moderate amounts of whole grains, fruits, fish, and white meat; large amounts of milk and dairy products, vegetables, nuts, and beans; less eggs, red meat, and sugary drinks; and small amounts of refined grains and processed meats.

In this study, researchers used national food intake data to analyze the dose-response relationship between 15 food intakes and mortality, and evaluated the impact of switching from typical dietary patterns to three healthier diets: a macrobiotic diet (OD), a viable diet (FD), and a macrobiotic vegan diet (VD) on life expectancy in China, France, Germany, Iran, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The 15 foods include: whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, fish, eggs, milk/dairy products, refined grains, red meat, processed meat, white meat, sugary drinks, sugar and oil.

In general, the typical dietary pattern (TD) in most countries is: low whole grain intake, moderate to high vegetable intake, moderate fruit intake, low nut intake, low legume intake, and low fish intake, while the intake of refined grains is generally high, red meat consumption is moderate to high, and processed meat intake is relatively high.

The analysis found that at age 20, across the seven countries, life expectancy for people with typical eating habits ranged from 59.1 to 62.4 years for women and from 55.5 to 59.6 years for men.

At age 40, switching from a typical dietary pattern to a longevity diet was associated with an increase in life expectancy of 6.2–6.3 years for men and women in China and 9.3–9.7 years for men and women in the United States across the seven countries.

Dietary shift linked to life expectancy In addition, the researchers found that eating more beans, whole grains and nuts and less red meat, processed meat and sugary drinks had the greatest benefit in extending life.

For example, for 40-year-old Chinese women, increasing whole grain intake was associated with an additional 1.5 years of life expectancy, increasing legumes was associated with an additional 1.1 years, and limiting red meat was associated with an additional 0.8 years.

Effects of Specific Foods on Increased Life Expectancy Similarly, at age 40, switching from a typical diet to a macrobiotic vegan diet was associated with an increase in life expectancy of 5-7 years, while switching to a macrobiotic diet was associated with an increase in life expectancy of 2-4 years.

Importantly, dietary changes helped extend lifespan across all ages and countries, but the gains in life expectancy were greater for men than for women.

It is worth mentioning that in November 2023, researchers from the University of Bergen in Norway published a research paper titled "Life expectancy can increase by up to 10 years following sustained shifts towards healthier diets in the United Kingdom" in Nature 's subsidiary journal " Nature Food".

The study showed that switching from an unhealthy eating pattern to a longevity diet at age 40 was associated with an increase in life expectancy of 10.8 and 10.4 years in men and women, respectively.

In summary, the results show that switching from a typical dietary pattern to a longevity diet can help extend life expectancy. The greater the change to a healthy dietary pattern, the greater the expected increase in life expectancy. Eating more beans, whole grains, and nuts and less red meat, processed meat, and sugary drinks has the greatest increase in life expectancy.