A study in England shows that if you want to live longer and healthier than your next door neighbor, there’s one key activity you must embrace. Otherwise, both of you will go into your senior years hobbled by chronic disease and facing an early demise.
You have to stop eating the typical American diet.
According to research published in The American Journal of Medicine, constantly stuffing yourself with fried foods, sweets, processed meat, refined grains and high fat dairy foods shrinks your chances of reaching a ripe old age in good health. Instead, switch to more fruits and vegetables and meat that is unprocessed.
“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 researcher Tasnime Akbaraly. “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 AHEI, available here, is an alternative diet that de-emphasizes some of the more deleterious elements of the typical meals eaten in the U.S.
“We showed that following specific dietary recommendations such as the one provided by the AHEI may be useful in reducing the risk of unhealthy aging, while avoidance of the ‘Western-type foods’ might actually improve the possibility of achieving older ages free of chronic diseases and remaining highly functional,” notes Dr. Akbaraly. “A better understanding of the distinction between specific health behaviors that offer protection against diseases and those that move individuals towards ideal aging may facilitate improvements in public health prevention packages.”
http://easyhealthoptions.com/alternative-medicine/nutrition/make-one-change-to-live-longer/
