A nutritionist revealed that making simple lifestyle changes could help increase life expectancy, explaining that adhering to six key factors could be linked to adding about 14 years to life expectancy.
Dr. Federica Amati, head of nutrition at Imperial College London and chief nutritionist at Zoe, said that so-called “lifestyle medicine” can play an important role in preventing and treating chronic diseases, alongside drugs and surgery, but not as a replacement for them.
She explained that this approach is based on 6 main pillars: nutrition, physical activity, good sleep, stress management, avoiding harmful substances, and maintaining social contact.
Amati referred to a study conducted by researchers from Harvard University, in which they followed approximately 123,000 people for up to 34 years, and found that people who adopted five low-risk lifestyle factors had, at age 50, a life expectancy that was about 14 years longer for women and 12.2 years longer for men, compared to those who did not adopt any of these factors.
She also cited the EPIC-Norfolk study, which included more than 20,000 adults in Britain, showing that four simple health behaviors were associated with significant differences in mortality rates.
She said the six factors influence a range of processes associated with chronic diseases, including vascular health, blood sugar levels, inflammation, hormones, and gut microbiota. She added that changing daily habits can alter the environment in which these diseases develop.
Amati stressed that diet is one of the most important elements of a healthy lifestyle, noting the high percentage of calories people get from ultra-processed foods.
Amati believes the problem is not just about individual choices, but about prevailing dietary systems that make eating unhealthy foods common and easy.
Amati has previously spoken about the possibility of increasing life expectancy by about 10 years by improving diet, especially when starting at age 40.
This was based on a study by Professor John Mathers, which examined the impact of common dietary patterns in the UK. According to Amati, the study found that improving one's diet to align with dietary guidelines could add approximately six years to life expectancy.
However, switching to a healthier dietary pattern, such as the Mediterranean diet, may be associated with a greater increase in life expectancy.
The Mediterranean diet is based primarily on consuming plenty of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds, along with a variety of other food sources.
The models cited by Amati indicate that following this dietary pattern starting at age 40 may be associated with an increase in life expectancy of up to 10 or 11 years, while the increase may be around six years when starting at age 70.
She emphasized that age 40 is not a watershed point, and that improving one's diet can be beneficial at different stages of life, even if the amount of expected increase in lifespan varies with age.
Amati explained that the body's ability to utilize certain nutrients changes with age, and insulin resistance may increase, making it even more important to obtain the necessary nutrients.
She pointed out the importance of protein for the elderly, explaining that the daily requirement may range between 0.83 grams per kilogram of body weight, and may reach one gram per kilogram for the elderly.
She stressed the need to pay special attention to nutrition and hydration for the elderly, because malnutrition or dehydration can have more severe effects at this age.
She advised that meals should include good sources of protein, especially plant-based protein, along with occasional eggs and fatty fish.
She also called for relying on nutrient-rich foods, such as soups and stews containing beans, lentils, and whole grains, for the nutritional value and fluids they provide, stressing that improving food quality can have a clear impact on health and quality of life as we age.
