WHEN faced with a steaming plate of bacon or a cold glass of fizzy pop, it can be hard to turn it down.
But scientists say that making healthier eating choices like ditching fizzy drinks and processed meat – and sticking to them – could add up to a decade to your life expectancy.
Getty Images – GettyDitching processed meat like bacon and sausages could add years to your life, researchers say[/caption]
A team of scientists from the University of Bergen in Norway used information from nearly half a million Brits whose eating habits were documented for the UK Biobank study – a bank of data researchers across the world can use.
“Unhealthy diets are estimated to cause more than 75,000 premature deaths each year” in the UK, they researchers wrote in the study published to Nature Food.
Participants were group into four different categories:
average eaters
unhealthy eaters
eaters whose matched the NHS’s Eatwell Guide
those who followed the so-called “longevity diet”
According to the team lead by public health researcher Lars Fadnes, unhealthy eaters ate few whole grains, veggies, fruit and nuts but had “substantial intakes of processed meat, eggs, refined grains and sugar-sweetened beverages“.
As for the the longevity diet, this involved eating moderate amounts of whole grains, fruit, fish and white meat, lots of milk and dairy, veggies nuts and legumes, and small amounts of eggs, red meat and fizzy pop.
This group also ate very few refined grains and processed meat.
Nowadays, the average Brit lives to about 81 years old.
But researchers found that ditching unhealthy eating patterns in middle age for a diet that follows the Eatwell Guide could add up to 10 to your life.
Men and women who made this change at 40 added 8.9 and 8.6 years gain to their life expectancy respectively, researchers said.
They defined life expectancy as an estimate of the amount of years someone has left to live.
Meanwhile, switching to a longevity diet at 40 was associated with a 10.8 year gain in life expectancy for men and a 10.4 year gain for women.
The biggest gains in life expectancy were observed in people cutting out fizzy drinks, sausages and bacon.
“Consuming less sugar-sweetened beverages and processed meats and eating more whole grains and nuts were estimated to result in the biggest improvements in life expectancy,” researchers said.
They added: “The strongest positive associations with mortality were for sugar-sweetened beverages and processed meat.”
Making healthy diet changes later in life can means less year added to your life expectancy, but it can still have a positive effect on your life.
As the study authors put it: “Gains in life expectancy are lower the longer the delay in the initiation of dietary improvements, but even for those initiating dietary change at age 70 years, the gain in life expectancy is about half of that achieved by 40-year-old adults.”
That’s about four or five years.
The team acknowledged that “maintaining lifestyle changes over time with dietary improvements can be challenging, and for many, dietary patterns fluctuate over time”.
But they said their findings could point to government actions that could help Brits eat better, like health-oriented food taxes, improving food environments in school and working places, and subsidies to reduce the cost of healthy foods.
What is the longevity diet?
The ‘longevity diet’ was coined by Dr Valter Longo, who published a guide of eating rules and recipes in 2018.
It’d focus is on plant-based foods like:
Leafy green vegetables – such as spinach and kale
Fibre-rich vegetables – such as sweet potato and carrot
Fruits – all kinds allowed, and fresh where possible
Beans and legumes – such as chickpeas and lentils
Nuts and seeds – such as cashews and chia seeds
Whole grains – such as wholemeal bread and brown rice
Olive oil – more nutritious than vegetable oils and butter
Multivitamin supplements – once every three days
But small amounts of fish are allowed, about two to three meals a week. This includes:
Salmon
Sardines
Cod
Trout
Anchovies
Sea bream
Prawns
Cockles (clams)
According to Patient.info, the aim of the diet is also to avoid processed sugar, saturated fats found in butter, baked treats and processed meats, as well as refined starches like white bread.
Dairy and meat should also be avoided or limited.
What is is the Eatwell Guide?
The Eatwell Guide divides food and drink into five categories:
fruit and veg – these should make up a third of what we eat in a day so aim for five portions
starchy food – wholewheat pasta, brown bread and rice, skin-on potatoes and porridge should make up another third of our daily diet
protein, including fish and meat, as well as beans, peas and lentils – cut down on red and processed cuts like bacon, ham and sausages and opt for leaner pieces of meat and one or two portions of fish weekly
dairy – milk, cheese, yoghurt and fromage frais are good sources of protein and calcium but the guide advises you opt for lower fat versions
fats – opt for small amounts of healthier unsaturated fats like vegetable, rapeseed, olive and sunflower oils
The guide advises you have a variety of foods from each group daily and weekly.
While it’s important to incorporate some fat into your diet, the guide says most of us should cut down on foods high in fat, salt and sugar as they aren’t a necessary of a healthy, balanced diet.