Eat smart in your 40s to be healthier in your 70s: study

A recent study by Harvard researchers found that if you eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grains and unsaturated fats in middle age, you may live better later.

The study, which was presented at a major nutrition conference earlier this week, suggested that eating well in your 40s can improve your chances of good mental, physical and cognitive health decades later. NBC News mentionted.

That’s because incorporating a healthy diet early in life potentially lowers your risk of chronic disease and helps maintain cognitive function in older age, according to the study.

Harvard researchers analyzed 30 years of data on more than 106,000 participants from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.

The study, which began in 1986, included 70,467 women and 36,464 men who were at least 39 years old and free of chronic disease at the start of the study.

Dietitian Anne-Julie Tessier, who is the lead author and a research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health, said the study required participants to fill out an extensive food frequency questionnaire every four years, from 1986 to 2010.

Each participant’s personal diet was tracked over time to see how well they matched eight highly nutritious eating patterns.

The diets they compared the food questionnaires to included:

The DASH diet

A meal plan, developed by the National Institutes of Health, to prevent or reduce blood pressure by focusing on vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.

Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI)

This diet encourages more legumes, nuts and vegetables and lower amounts of red meat and processed meats.

Nutrition for the health of the planet

A diet plan that minimizes animal products and emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats.

Overall, the researchers found that a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, unsaturated fats, nuts, legumes and low-fat dairy was associated with healthy aging, compared to people whose diets included more trans fat, sodium , red and processed meats.