It’s never too late to get benefits of healthy eating

It’s never too late to get benefits of healthy eating


Mom was right: Eat your peas and beans. Now, that childhood advice also holds true for adults.

What your mom didn’t know then, scientists now know: It’s never too late to undo the damage caused by a bad diet. While healthy eating habits are best started early in life, recent findings by Harvard University researchers and their colleagues suggest foodborne health benefits can also be derived later in life.

To determine that, the researchers followed about 75,000 people between the ages of 30 and 75 for two decades. A scoring system that gave fewer points for unhealthy foods and more points for heathy foods was used. That system identified the usual suspects: Low-rated foods included processed meats, sweetened beverages and pizza. The higher-rated foods were fruits, nuts, vegetables and whole  grains, among others.

People who had the higher-scoring diets were up to 14% less likely to die during the study period than those who ate poorly. Just as importantly, those who dropped their bad food habits saw definite benefits. Boosting a diet score by 20% resulted in an 8% reduction in overall death risk and a drop of up to 15% in heart disease mortality.

And there is other good news from the study: It was found to be effective among seniors. On average, a young person could add about 12 years to their life expectancy with better eating. For people in their 60s, the average life-expectancy boost was nine years.

It also doesn’t require a radical diet overhaul. Small changes like adding a handful of nuts to your daily diet and cutting back on hot dogs, ham and sausage can be beneficial. So think more about fish, avocadoes and brown rice and less about red meat and white rice.

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