What can you eat to live longer?
Recently, scientists did a study that divided the global diet into three types:
1. Typical Western diet (TW)
2. Optimized diet (OD)
3, intermediate state diet (feasibility approach, FA).
The chart below shows the ingredients for various dietary styles.
By looking at the disease death data of people who ate three types of diets, the results were shocking!
First, if you eat 200 g of beans a day starting at age 20, you can extend your life expectancy by 2.2 years for women and 2.5 years for men.
Second, if you eat whole grains (whole grains), you can extend your life expectancy by 2 years for women and 2.3 years for men.
Third, if nuts are eaten, women and men can extend their life expectancy by 1.7 years and 2 years, respectively.
This means that the content of beans and nuts in the diet increases, and the life expectancy is significantly longer. These kinds of foods, which are rich in nutrients that the intestinal flora likes to eat, are all bacteria-friendly foods.
If you follow a Western diet, the fish content is 50 g, and when added to the ideal diet (OD) of 200 g, you can extend your life span for half a year.
Similarly, if the amount of fruit is increased from 200 g to 400 g, the lifespan can be extended by 0.4 years.
The amount of vegetables increased from 250 g to 400 g can extend the life expectancy by 0.3-0.4 years.
However, if milk/dairy products are reduced from 300 g to 200 g, the life expectancy is extended by 0.1 years.
Reducing refined grains from 150 g to 50 g can increase lifespan by 0.3-0.4 years.
If you can't choose these foods, then you can also skip the following foods, the effect is the same.
If you quit sugary drinks, you can extend your life by 1.1-1.3 years.
Quitting red meat can extend the life expectancy by 1.6-1.9 years.
If you quit processed meat, such as sausages and ham, you can extend the life expectancy by 1.6-1.9 years.
If you add up the increased life expectancy of these dietary changes, you can extend your life expectancy by nearly 11 years.
That is, if you start switching diets from the age of 20, you might as well change from a Western diet to an ideal diet, which is a flora-friendly food that can extend your life expectancy by nearly 11 years compared to those with traditional Western diets.
How should I do this?
Of the 14 foods surveyed, 6 need to be increased, 4 need to be reduced, and 3 need to be completely eliminated.
Let's take a look at it specifically:
1. Foods that need to be increased:
Coarse grains can extend the life expectancy by 2.0-2.3 years
Doubling the amount of vegetables can be extended by 0.2 years
The fruit doubled to extend by 0.4 years
Increasing nuts from 0 to 25 g can extend the lifespan by 1.7-2.0 years
The increase in legumes was extended by 2.2-2.5 years
Fish doubling can be extended by 0.5-0.6 years.
2. Foods that need to be reduced:
Egg reduction can be extended by 0.7-0.8 years
Dairy product reduction improved by 0.1 years
Reducing refined grains can also increase by 0.9-1.1 years
Eating less white meat has little impact on our lifespan.
3. Foods that need to be quit:
Quitting red meat and increasing it by 1.6-1.9 years
Quit processed meats and increase by 1.6-1.9 years
Quit sugary drinks and increase by 1.1-1.3 years
Keeping vegetable oil at 25 g is no effect.
See, the effect of changing eating habits on life expectancy is very significant, and now no drug has been shown to prolong life, this simple change of diet, take care of the intestinal flora can live longer.
So, whether you are 20, 40, 60 or 80 years old, it is not too late, implement a healthy diet, change your eating habits, and replace the ingredients of these unhealthy diets with healthy diet ingredients, and the life expectancy is extended to varying degrees.
Moreover, just a partial change in eating habits has a significant effect, even at the age of 80, it still has an effect!
What are you waiting for? Hurry up and eat a healthy diet!
Fadnes LT, Haaland A, Johansson KA, et al. Estimating impact of food choices on life expectancy: A modeling study[J]. PLOS Medicine,2022,19(2):e1003889.