Want to reduce your risk of an early death by nearly 20%? It's simple! Just choose to eat more foods from four healthy eating patterns recommended by researchers.
Choose Wisely, Live Longer
A recent study found that eating more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes can significantly lower your risk of dying from cancer, cardiovascular illness, respiratory diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Dr. Frank Hu, one of the study's coauthors, noted that people often get bored with one way of eating. The good news? There's a lot of flexibility in creating healthy dietary patterns tailored to individual preferences, health conditions, and cultural backgrounds.
Change Up Your Menu, Change Your Life
Dr. Hu suggests that if you start with the Mediterranean diet but want to switch things up after a few months, you can try the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet or a semi-vegetarian diet. Or, you can follow US dietary guidelines to create your own healthy eating plan.
A Long-Term, Large-Scale Study
This study tracked the eating habits of 75,000 women in the Nurses’ Health Study and over 44,000 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study for 36 years. None of the participants had cardiovascular disease at the start, and few were smokers.
Dr. Hu and his team scored participants based on how closely they followed four healthy eating styles:
Mediterranean Diet: Focuses on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, legumes, fish, and olive oil.
Healthy Plant-Based Diet: Emphasizes plant-based foods and discourages animal products and alcohol.
Healthy Eating Index: Follows US nutritional guidelines that prioritize plant-based foods and reduce red and processed meats, added sugars, and unhealthy fats.
Alternate Healthy Eating Index: Developed at Harvard, this includes foods and nutrients linked to a lower risk of chronic diseases, like nuts, seeds, whole grains, and moderate alcohol consumption.
Study Findings
Participants with the highest adherence to these healthy eating patterns had a roughly 20% lower risk of all-cause mortality. Improving diet quality over time also reduced the risk of death from cardiovascular disease by 6% to 13%, cancer by 7% to 18%, and neurodegenerative diseases by up to 7%. The reduction in respiratory disease mortality was even more significant, at 35% to 46%.
Key Takeaways
It's never too late to adopt healthy eating habits, and the benefits can be substantial in reducing premature deaths. The common principles to follow are eating more plant-based foods and fewer servings of red meat, processed meats, added sugar, and sodium. You have the flexibility to create a diet that suits your preferences and lifestyle.
Discover our range of nutritious and delicious ready-to-eat meals designed to support a long and healthy life!
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