Suche
Mein Konto
Healthy into old age: Turn 70 happily with these foods!
International nutrition study shows how eating habits influence healthy aging up to 75 years.
Healthy into old age: Turn 70 happily with these foods!
An international study led by Anne-Julie Tessier of the University of Montreal has found that dietary habits have a significant impact on the likelihood of being healthy at age 70 or 75. The research is based on data from two US collection studies that began in 1976 and 1986 and included a total of 105,000 participants. The test subjects, two thirds of them women, regularly filled out questionnaires about their diet and health. At the start, the participants had an average age of 53 years.
The study defines healthy aging as reaching the age of 70 without major physical or mental impairments or chronic illnesses. Only 9.3 percent of participants met these criteria at age 70, with 11 percent being women and 6 percent being men. Diet-related diseases studied include obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia and cancer.
Focus on eating habits
The study identified healthy foods including fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, low-fat dairy products and vegetable oils containing unsaturated fatty acids. Unhealthy foods that researchers say should be avoided include salt, sugary drinks, processed foods and red meat. Trans fats, which are found in margarine and deep-frying fat, are particularly harmful.
A comparison of eating habits across eight specific diets, including the Mediterranean diet and the vegan diet, found that participants who followed the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI), developed by Harvard in 2002, had the best health scores. People who met the AHEI were 86 percent more likely to be healthy at age 70 and more than twice as likely to be fit at age 75. However, the study indicates that 80 percent of older adults have at least one chronic condition.
In addition, it is noted that the results of the study are supported by international research results. A comprehensive study published in Nature Medicine highlights the importance of healthy diets in the aging process of the body and mind. This study confirms the influence of nutrition on quality of life and health in old age and provides a broad base of data and analysis to consider healthy aging as a global priority GEO reported.