A “Western-style” diet – fried and sweet food, processed and red meat, refined grains, and high-fat dairy products – reduces a person’s likelihood of reaching older ages in good health and with higher functionality, according to the findings of a just-released study. The study’s results appear in the May issue of The American Journal of Medicine.
“The impact of diet on specific age-related diseases has been studied extensively, but few investigations have adopted a more holistic approach to determine the association of diet with overall health at older ages,” says lead investigator Tasnime Akbaraly, PhD, Inserm, Montpellier, France. “We examined whether diet, assessed in midlife, using dietary patterns and adherence to the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI), is associated with aging phenotypes, identified after a mean 16-year follow-up.”
The study analyzed findings from the British Whitehall II cohort study, which suggest that following the AHEI can double the odds of reversing metabolic syndrome, a condition known to be a strong predictor of heart disease and mortality. The research team sought to identify dietary factors that can not only prevent premature death, but also promote ideal aging.
Researchers followed 3,775 men and 1,575 women from 1985-2009 with a mean age of 51 years.
Based on the data, the study showed that 7.3 percent of the participants had noncardiovascular death, 12.7 percent had a nonfatal cardiovascular event, 2.8 percent cardiovascular death and 73.2 percent normal aging.
The study determined that participants with low adherence to the AHEI increased their risk of cardiovascular and noncardiovascular death.
Those who followed a “Western-type diet” consisting of fried and sweet food, processed food and red meat, refined grains, and high-fat dairy products lowered their chances for ideal aging, the study found.
