We can't do without food every day, diet brings us energy supply and various nutrients needed by the body, and also allows us to experience the joy of food, and perhaps hides the secret of health and longevity.
A scientific and reasonable diet can bring health benefits to the body is known to many friends, but how big is this benefit? In a recently published scientific study, researchers have summarized the effects of individual eating healthy diets and unhealthy diets, analyzed the impact of different patterns of typical diets and healthier diets on life expectancy, and evaluated the impact of different ages and genders changing diets on life expectancy, and found that changing bad eating habits and continuously optimizing dietary structure from a young age can be translated into an increase in life expectancy of more than 10 years.
The effects of unhealthy diets on the body
Before we go into more detail about this new study, let's talk about the effects of unhealthy eating on physical health.
We all know that long-term unhealthy diet can lead to physical health problems, and over the years there have been many studies that show that an unhealthy diet structure will have a negative impact on health, and the specific effects include the following 4 aspects.
01 Obesity
The causes of obesity, in addition to lack of exercise and related diseases, drug effects, unhealthy diet is also an important influencing factor. A high-calorie diet combined with a lack of exercise can lead to excessive weight gain, especially foods that contain a lot of trans fatty acids, saturated fatty acids, and high sugar, which will increase the chance of obesity.
Obesity is an important risk factor for related health problems, and the three high problems, metabolic syndrome, the increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease and the increase in the risk of certain cancers are all closely related to obesity.
02 Cardiovascular health
The health of the diet has a significant impact on cardiovascular health. High-salt, high-fat diet will bring harm to vascular health, high-salt diet is an important factor leading to increased blood pressure, and high-fat diet will bring about blood lipid metabolism pressure, increase the risk of abnormal blood lipid metabolism and blood viscosity, some pickled foods, high-salt processed foods, sauces and animal offal, butter, high-fat meat, soda, etc. are unhealthy diets that may affect cardiovascular health.
03 Increased susceptibility to disease
An unhealthy diet increases the incidence of related diseases as well as chronic diseases. A long-term unhealthy diet increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, and even certain cancers.
In addition, unhealthy diets can also bring about nutritional deficiencies, especially in those whose daily intake is not enough to meet their daily needs, and the World Health Organization points out that iron deficiency anemia, vitamin A deficiency and iodine deficiency have become the most threatening nutritional deficiencies. The problem of these nutrient deficiencies will not only lead to diseases, but also affect the body's immunity, resulting in a further increase in the risk of infectious diseases in the body.
04 Affects mental health
What many friends may not expect is that an unhealthy diet can also affect people's psychological and mental health. The well-known mental health website HelpGuide points out that dietary health plays a vital role in mental health. Eating too much junk food may aggravate the symptoms of mental illness such as depression and anxiety, especially high-sugar diets and refined carbohydrates such as refined rice and white noodles, which will quickly raise blood sugar and affect people's mental and psychological state. In a study by the Mayo Clinic, it was noted that unhealthy dietary choices and eating habits may increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
Healthy eating can prolong life, and the earlier you start, the better, but the older people can also benefit
In these newly published studies, the researchers compared dose response data from typical diets and quality meals and compromised the two into a viable diet, and analyzed the quality of the evidence for each group of foods in combination with relevant assessment tools, as well as their absolute contribution to life expectancy.
The results show that whether in the United States, Europe or China, the life expectancy of 20-year-old men can increase by an average of about 13 years through continuous dietary changes, while women correspond to about 11 years, and this number will gradually decrease with age, that is, the sooner they change their diet and adhere to a healthy diet, the greater the benefits for health and life expectancy.
But don't think that the elderly are too late, these studies of different ages of stratification analysis also pointed out that even after the age of 60 to make changes, the optimized healthy diet can still increase the life expectancy of women by 8 years, while the life expectancy of men is increased by 9 years, and women after the age of 80 can still increase the average life expectancy by about 3.7 years.
Therefore, although the sooner the benefits, the more you benefit, but for a healthy diet, how old to change, eat less unhealthy diet, eat more healthy food, is not too late, can bring health and longevity benefits.
How should a healthy diet be done?
Having said all that, what exactly should a healthy diet do? In these new studies, an accurate assessment and analysis of a variety of food intakes, even accurate to the level of grams, in fact, in daily life, of course, it is difficult for us to make healthy eating so precise, but in general, compared with a variety of unhealthy eating habits, the researchers pointed out that the following aspects of healthy eating precautions are important aspects that can help prolong life -
Increase intake of plant foods, especially legumes, whole grains, and nuts.
Eating more fresh fruits and vegetables also has a positive impact on health, especially some elderly friends, we must pay attention to eating more fresh fruits and vegetables.
Red meat such as pork, beef, and mutton should be eaten less, and processed meat products should be eaten less or as far as possible.
Meat can choose fish, peeled poultry, etc., which is more beneficial to good health.
Sugary drinks, high-sugar foods are not conducive to health, such as cakes, sodas, etc. should be drunk as little as possible or not.
Foods based on refined grains, such as refined rice noodles, should be replaced by whole grains as much as possible.
In terms of specific daily intake, I also share the results of the study for your reference (one or two per 50g) -
Whole Grains - Optimal Diet: 225 g, Feasible Diet: 137.5 g;
Vegetables - optimal diet: 400 g, feasible diet: 325 g;
Fruit - optimal diet: 400g, feasible diet: 300g;
Pulses – optimal diet: 200 g, feasible diet: 100 g;
Nuts – optimal diet: 25 g, feasible diet: 12.5 g;
Fish – optimal diet: 200 g, feasible diet: 100 g;
Milk - optimal diet: 200 g, feasible diet: 250 g;
Eggs - the best diet: 25 g, the feasible diet: 37.5 g;
Fine grains - the best diet: 50 g, feasible diet: 100 g;
Red meat - the best diet: 0 g, the feasible diet: 50 g;
Processed meat – optimal diet: 0 g, feasible diet: 25 g;
Sweetened beverages - optimal diet: 0 g, feasible diet: 250 g;
Vegetable oil - optimal diet: 25 g, feasible diet: 25 g.
Sharing the above healthy diet analysis research results and data, is not to let us live cautiously, according to the grams to arrange the diet, in fact, this is also unrealistic, only hope to let everyone understand the importance of healthy diet for physical health, as well as understand the relevant knowledge of healthy diet structure, if we can make changes in daily life, the original diet structure, can become more healthy, will bring more health benefits. If you have gained something from reading this article, you are also welcome to share and forward more, so that more people in need can see it and spread health science knowledge.