We're living longer than generations before us - but importantly, we're living healthier too, with interest in the best diet for longevity growing among adults.
Longevity is not a 'one-size fits all' approach. Our way to better long-term health and wellbeing - whether that's the best exercise for longevity, our sleep schedule, or our diet - needs to be personalised to our lifestyle and preferences. That way, we're more likely to keep doing it.
A balanced diet low in ultra-processed foods (UPFs), not smoking, and staying active are all key to preventing serious health problems, but now experts have broken down the exact food groups we should be eating in our 40s and 50s to help us age healthily. Researchers, led by a team from Harvard University, tracked the diets of more than 100,000 people over 30 years to see if there was a link between what they ate in mid-life and chronic illness after the age of 70.
The experts looked at eight different dietary patterns of people aged 39 to 69 to see which one resulted in the best health outcomes as they got older. They defined ‘healthy aging’ as reaching 70 without a major chronic condition and maintaining good cognitive, physical and mental health. The chronic conditions include cancer, diabetes, heart failure, stroke, kidney failure, and Parkinson’s disease.
What they found in their study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, was that the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI), which prioritises fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, legumes, and healthy fats, came out on top. This diet is also low in red and processed meats, sugary drinks, and salty foods. So, overall, it was the best diet for longevity.
Participants who followed the AHEI diet had an 86% higher chance of healthy aging at age 70 and a 2.2 times higher likelihood of healhy ageing at 75, compared with those who didn’t follow that specific dietary pattern closely.
However, Anne-Julie Tessier, a professor of nutrition from the University of Montreal in Canada and a lead author of the study, was quick to point out this isn't the only diet recommended for a longer, healthier life.
The Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) isn't so much a diet but rather a scoring system. Developed as an alternative to the US Department of Agriculture's Healthy Eating Index (HEI), it aimed to look at the quality of someone's diet and its association with the risk of chronic disease. The higher you score on the scale, the better your diet and the lower your risk of disease.
However, as the system is "probably not practical" for scoring your own diet, experts suggest adding recommended foods to your diet instead.
“Having a high Alternative Healthy Eating Index score would translate into eating five servings per day of vegetables, and having an extra serving of green leafy vegetables, four servings per day of fruits, five to six servings per day of whole grains, a serving per day of plant protein such as nuts or legumes, a serving of fish weekly, and using plant oils as the main culinary fat," she said.
But these are also components of some other diets studied, all of which had proven links to longevity. She noted: "Higher adherence to all healthy dietary patterns that we examined were associated with healthy aging", which means that following any of the diets could lead to a longer, healthier life.
The best diets for longevity
- Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI)
- Alternative Mediterranean Index (aMED)
- Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH)
- Empirical Dietary Index for Hyperinsulinemia (EDIH)
- Empirically Inflammatory Dietary Pattern (EDIP)
- Healthful Plant-Based Diet (hPDI)
- Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND)
- Planetary Health Diet Index (PHDI)
"Our findings show that there's no one-size-fits-all diet," she said. "Healthy diets can be adapted to fit individual needs and preferences."
Of course, many factors can lead to or prevent health problems later in life. Diet is just one of them. Our genetics, lifestyle, and social and environmental factors can all cause chronic disease. However, there’s plenty we can all be doing in midlife to help lower our biological age by supporting our gut health, protecting our brain function, maintaining muscle and bone strength and lowering cholesterol, including exercising, getting good sleep, and lowering our stress levels.
