Healthy Dietary Patterns Linked to Better Life Expectancy

A large-scale study involving 103,649 UK Biobank participants has revealed that adhering to healthy dietary patterns is significantly associated with lower mortality rates and a longer lifespan. Over a median follow-up of 10.6 years, researchers found that five specific diets—the Alternate Healthy Eating Index-2010, Alternate Mediterranean Diet (AMED), healthful Plant-based Diet Index (hPDI), Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), and Diabetes Risk Reduction Diet (DRRD)—were all linked to reduced all-cause mortality. Notably, individuals in the top quintile of these dietary scores gained between 1.5 to 3.0 years of life at age 45, with the Diabetes Risk Reduction Diet showing the strongest benefit for men and the Mediterranean diet for women. Crucially, these protective effects persisted regardless of genetic susceptibility to other diseases, underscoring that healthy eating can prolong life even without the advantage of longevity genes. Source: https://www.science.org/