The study found that cutting out sugar and processed meats helped people live longer

Years ago, an ageless cher made an ad for a sports club. There she looked very fit and attractive and said, “If it came in a bottle, everyone would look like this.”

He promoted gym memberships, but the message was that to get fit, you have to work your body. That is, actual physical change requires work. So is health and longevity.

There have always been companies that sell supplements for better health. They market their products as all natural ingredients and that they are made from real foods and plants.

But the bottom line is that you still need to eat delicious, nutritious foods for optimal health and longevity. This has been confirmed once again in a study published this month Nature’s food.

Data and analysis for this study are from the UK. The researchers wanted to quantify how changes in food consumption increased life expectancy for different age groups.

They hypothesize that following the Eatwell Guide, the UK version of our Dietary Guidelines, will lead to increased life expectancy at different stages of life. In fact, they call it longevity-related eating patterns.

They developed a tool to estimate changes in life expectancy with changes in food choices. Their results were that 40-year-olds with moderate adherence to a lifespan-related dietary pattern could add three years to their life expectancy by improving their diet. People with the unhealthiest eating patterns can be overweight for 10 years with changes in eating patterns associated with longevity.

For men and women in their 70s, switching from an unhealthy diet to a long-term diet can add about 3 to 4 years to life. The message here is that it is never too late.

You know what’s coming next: Consuming less sugar-sweetened beverages and processed meats and eating more whole grains and nuts is estimated to lead to the biggest improvements in life expectancy.

Miami Herald 2023.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.