Life expectancy, an indicator of the overall health of a population, has increased by three decades since 1950. This change has caused a demographic redistribution where population age 70 and older has significantly increased and has contributed to the appearance of chronic, debilitating diseases, which are usually accentuated at the end of life. Although living longer is a fundamental human goal, living well and healthy is even more important.
A study performed by the University of Bergen, Norway, and recently published in the journal PLOS MEDICINE, describes a model that shows how the implementation of healthy eating habits affects longevity. In this research, the investigators proposed the use of the free interactive online calculator Food4HealthyLife (available at https://food4healthylife.org/) to estimate the impact of diet on life expectancy by age and gender.
Among the most important findings we highlight the following:
- Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables could increase longevity regardless of age.
- When young adults improve their eating habits, they can increase their lifespan up to 10 years.
- There is no time limit to start changing the type of diet you eat. It is never too early or too late to obtain its benefits.
- Choose foods rich in color, unsaturated fats and replace animal-based products with plant-based sources.
- Among the habits that were most related to the increase in life expectancy are: The consumption of abundant vegetables, whole grains and nuts; eating less red and processed meats.
- By changing the type of diet, the greatest increase in life expectancy was observed in people in their 20s: Up to 13 years in men and up to 11 years in women.
- By changing the type of diet, people in their 60s had an average increase of 8 years in life expectancy.
