The diet that could help you live another 10 years l Expert Opinion

If there were a treatment that could add as much as 10 years to your life, didn’t cost a lot, and had no unpleasant side effects, would you want to hear more about it? A recent trial published in February in the journal PLOS Medicine suggests that a sustained change from a typical Western diet, started at age 20, would increase life expectancy by 10.7 years for women, and 13 years for men.

Perhaps more stunning still, adopting the change at age 60 would increase life expectancy more than eight years, and even changing at age 80 would add three to four years of life.

It’s not even that exotic. The biggest changes would come from eating more legumes (beans such as peas, lentils, and chickpeas), whole grains and nuts, and eating less red meat and processed food.

Globally, making poor dietary choices is estimated to cause 11 million deaths a year. The evidence has become overwhelming that diet makes a difference. Since 2017, there have been thousands of scientific articles written on nutritional topics such as this.

To better understand the impact of dietary choices on health, the authors of the PLOS article developed new methodology that allowed them to estimate how different diets affect a person’s age- and sex-specific life expectancy. They looked at the individual intake of whole grains, vegetables, fruit, nuts, legumes, fish, eggs, dairy, refined grains, red meat, sugar sweetened beverages, and plant oils. They then performed complex statistical analysis.

Prolonged dietary changes at age 20 were calculated to give an almost 50% higher gain in life expectancy than waiting until age 60 and three times the gains when changes start at age 80. Similar changes were seen in American, European, and Chinese populations.

The conclusion: Switching from a typical Western diet to a Mediterranean diet and making sustained dietary changes at any age can lead to a significantly longer life with the biggest benefits occurring when the changes are made in earlier life. But the message is also that it is never too late as even older people benefited.

Other articles have looked at specific foods to see which have the most positive benefits. Most recently, “Avocado Consumption and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in US Adults,” published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, examined this nutrient-dense fruit containing fiber, potassium, magnesium, mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids.

In a large study of U.S. men and women, higher intake of avocados (half an avocado a day) was associated with a significantly lower risk of developing heart disease, especially when avocados replaced margarine, butter, cheese, and processed meats. Prior to this, the PREDIMED trial (which stands for Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet) demonstrated the benefit of consuming nuts (specifically, 30 grams, or about one ounce of mixed walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds), and of adding extra-virgin olive oil to a Mediterranean diet.

The evidence that following a diet rich in legumes, nuts, olive oil, vegetables and fruits such as avocados, and limiting consumption of meats, especially red meat, and sugar is becoming overwhelming.

A diet like this will help you feel better, and, according to this most recent study, may add 10 years to your life.

David Becker is a board-certified cardiologist with Chestnut Hill Temple Cardiology in Flourtown. He has been in practice for more than 25 years.