This is how you eat to live longer, says new study

CNN
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A new study shows that just eating more foods from a selection of four healthy eating patterns can reduce your risk of dying prematurely from any cause by nearly 20%.

People who carefully followed any of the healthy dietary patterns that emphasized eating more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes were more likely to have cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory and neurodegenerative diseases. were less likely to die from

As a result of research, Published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine“There are multiple ways to eat well and reap the health benefits that come with it,” says David Katz, Ph.D., a lifestyle medicine expert who was not involved in the study.

Study co-author Dr. Frank Hu said people often get bored with one way of eating. This means we have a lot of flexibility when it comes to creating our own healthy eating patterns. Tailored to individual dietary preferences, health conditions and cultures.

“For example, if you’re eating a healthy Mediterranean diet and want to try something different in a few months, you can switch to a DASH (diet to prevent high blood pressure) diet or switch to a semi-vegetarian diet. “Alternatively, you can create your own healthy eating plate according to U.S. dietary guidelines.” .”

The study tracked the diets of 75,000 participating women. nurse health survey and over 44,000 men Healthcare worker follow-up Over 36 years. None of the men or women had cardiovascular disease at the start of the study, and few were smokers. All completed dietary questionnaires every 4 years.

“This is one of the largest and longest-running cohort studies to examine recommended dietary patterns and long-term risk of premature and major disease mortality,” Hu said. increase.

Hu and his team scored participants on how well they adhered to four healthy eating styles. Current U.S. Dietary Guidelines.

One is the Mediterranean diet. It emphasizes eating fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, legumes, fish, and plenty of olive oil. We are particularly focused on monounsaturated fats,” he said.

Next is called a healthy plant-based diet, It also focuses on eating more plant foods, but gives minus points to all animal foods and alcohol.

“It can even discourage relatively healthy options such as fish and some dairy products,” Hu said, adding that the diet frowns on unhealthy plant-based foods such as potato products. rice field.

“Thus, we can imagine that vegetarians are probably on the high end of this dietary score, and people who eat a lot of animal products or highly processed carbohydrate foods are on the low end of this score.

of healthy eating index Hu is tracking whether the United States is following basic nutrition guidelines, which emphasize healthy, plant-based foods, frown on red and processed meats, and avoid added sugars, unhealthy fats, It discourages the consumption of alcohol.

of Alternative Healthy Eating Index was developed at Harvard University and uses “the best available evidence” to include the foods and nutrients most strongly associated with reduced risk of chronic disease, Fu said.

“We have explicitly included nuts, seeds and whole grains, and reduced consumption of red and processed meats and sugary drinks,” he added. “Moderate consumption of alcohol is permitted.”

After each person’s eating pattern was scored, participants were divided into five groups (quintiles), ranging from highest to lowest adherence to one or more eating patterns.

Katz, chairman and founder of the nonprofit, said: Commitment to true healtha global coalition of professionals dedicated to evidence-based lifestyle medicine.

The study also found that when people improved their diet over time, their risk of dying from certain chronic diseases decreased, Hu said.

Participants who improved their dietary health by 25% may have a 6% to 13% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a 7% to 18% lower risk of dying from cancer, he said. .went up A 7% reduction in the risk of dying from neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia.

“The reduction in respiratory disease mortality is actually much greater, reducing risk by 35% to 46%.” Fu said.

Because this study relied on participants’ self-reports of their food preferences, it showed only associations, rather than direct causal relationships between dietary habits and health outcomes. Still, the fact that the study asked about diet every four years over such a long period of time added weight to the findings.

What is the takeaway from this large, long-term study?

“It’s never too late to adopt a healthy eating pattern. The benefits of eating a healthy diet are substantial in terms of reducing the total number of premature deaths and the various causes of premature death.” It’s possible,” Hu said.

“People also have a lot of flexibility in terms of creating their own healthy eating patterns. , the common principle of reducing red meat, processed meat, added sugar and sodium should be there.