We are all aware that a healthy diet is good for us in multiple ways, and a new study published in Natural communications highlights 10 diets linked to slower biological aging in people who followed them.
Biological aging is how quickly or slowly our bodies wear out, and it doesn’t necessarily correspond to how many birthdays you’ve had. Aging faster generally means a shorter lifespan and more health problems in later years.
In this latest study, researchers led by a team from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) analyzed data from 6,470 participants aged 30 and older, comparing their scores on 10 sets of dietary guidelines with blood biomarkers indicating biological age.
Overall, and for all diets covered in the study, a healthier diet was associated with slower biological aging.
))>“The effects are not massive, but they are measurable and relevant for prevention,” explains epidemiologist Monique Breteler from the DZNE. “By slowing down the aging process, the risk of age-related diseases such as dementia or cardiovascular disorders can be reduced.”
“According to our data, various dietary patterns are associated with slower aging, some more, some less. This is an encouraging finding, as it leaves room for tailoring a healthy diet to personal and cultural preferences, budget and taste.”
The diets chosen by the researchers were already well established as guidelines. They included the Mediterranean diet, the Nordic diet, the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet to lower blood pressure, and the MIND (Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay) diet to support brain health.
There were also the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI-2010), the Plant-Based Diet Index (PDI), the Healthy Plant-Based Diet Index (hPDI), and the EAT-Lancet Diet.
The last two diets, the Plant-Based Unhealthy Diet Index (uPDI) and the Food Inflammatory Index (DII), actually measure poor diet (think sugary drinks and sweets). With these diets, lower scores (and therefore less adherence to them) were associated with slower aging.
For biomarkers of aging, researchers studied DNA methylation patterns – essentially changes in chemical tags known to change with biological age.
“We applied three different approaches, called epigenetic clocks, to read biological aging from DNA methylation,” explains epidemiologist Juliana Tavares, from DZNE.
“To this end, we exploited cutting-edge technology, which allowed us to cover around 850,000 sites in DNA. This is around twice as many as in most previous studies.”
It should be noted that virtually none of the participants achieved high health scores for each set of dietary guidelines. It seems that just choosing one can reduce the risk of your biological age exceeding your chronological age.
While there are some differences in which diets affect aspects of biological aging – the heart for the DASH diet, and cognition and memory for the MIND diet, for example – there is also a lot of overlap.
“More than 70 percent of the biological pathways affected were common across all diets,” says Tavares. “These involve cellular structure, cell signaling and metabolism – processes essential to aging and chronic disease.”
The study results were verified using a separate sample of 1,034 individuals, analyzed in the same way as the first group. The same associations emerged, generally speaking: a healthier diet means slower biological aging.
That said, the research does not show direct cause and effect, only a substantial connection. The data collected represents a snapshot in time, and further studies could examine how changes in diet over an extended period of time affect DNA methylation.
“You don’t need a perfect diet – perhaps that’s the most practical message here. But looking forward, diet-specific pathways point to future research into targeted dietary interventions,” says Tavares.
“This could be useful for designing targeted health recommendations.”
The research was published in Natural communications.
This article was fact-checked by Rachel Garner and edited by Peter Dockrill. Although we are proud of our process, we are only human. If you spot an error, please let us know.
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