We could all eat healthier regardless of age, but middle age may be a critical time to do so.
Results of a new long-term study suggest improving your diet in your 40s through 60s can affect mental and physical health at age 70.
Sam Baker talked with Denice Taylor, a registered dietitian/nutritionist with Texas Health Arlington.
Taylor: As they looked at these long-range studies of over 100,000 people, they found that those that had the healthiest eating, and followed plant-based meals, foods, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy foods that aren't processed, did end up having a healthier quality of life.
Baker: The suggestion seems to be, though, that as you get to middle age, if you make a conscious decision to eat better, you can bring about this healthy aging. The diet seems to be enough to bring that turnaround.
Taylor: It's true, in midlife, those eating patterns can really help protect for later in life. What we eat during that midlife eating pattern can be tied, decades later, to how healthy we feel.
Baker: The dietary habits that we had before middle age: Some eat well throughout life, others not so much. If you're a part of that latter group, are you saying better choices starting in midlife can counter bad choices you made before?
Taylor: True, and that's the good news. Our body is regenerative. And as we make some of these changes to healthier nutrition and a healthier lifestyle, that can help our overall health.
Baker: It's not too late then, the damage isn't done already?
Taylor: It's not too late.
Baker: So what exactly should we be eating? What kind of choices should we make?
Taylor: Well, interesting, they looked at many of the healthy diets these people in the studies followed. And these eating patterns, we've been learning about them for the last couple of years, and how important they are.
Many are based around the Mediterranean style of eating, which promotes fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and olive oil.
We also look at how we protect ourselves cognitively. There's the MIND diet, a combination of the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet, which helps lower blood pressure. But the MND diet is an approach to protect us from that decline in brain health that can happen as we age. And so it's an intervention for neurodegenerative delay.
And all that, with fancy words and such, it boils down to plant-based foods: Unsaturated fats, beans, peas, and lentils, and then reducing the amount of red meats, processed foods, and added sugars.
We can change our beverages to drink more water. We can also change our habits to avoid the ultra-processed foods.
Baker: It takes more, though, than diet to reach healthy aging, doesn't it?
Taylor: It does. We really should look at the whole picture. How well are we managing stress levels that can affect our health and affect our decision-making on what we are going to do? Are we having good nutrition? And then also being active, having exercise, every day, moving, so adding activity in. So it's a full picture.
It's also our relationships, keeping positive relationships. The full picture of our health is about nutrition, managing stress, being active, having good relationships.
RESOURCES:
Optimal dietary patterns for healthy aging
Healthy eating, nutrition, and diet
