Legumes and less meat: a study links healthy eating to longevity

Norwegian researchers have revealed in a study that a diet rich in whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and low in meat can extend life expectancy.

If you adopt good eating habits from the age of 20, you gain at least 10 years of life expectancy. This is revealed by a study published in the journal PLOS Medicine on Tuesday, February 8 and conducted by Norwegian scientists. For their research, scientists have defined three types of diet.

• The first is the Western diet. It is very present in Europe, the United States and China. It mainly consists of a significant intake of refined cereals, meat and sugar.
• The second is the intermediate diet, which aims to focus more on vegetables and fruits, whole grains, nuts such as walnuts and almonds, reduce the consumption of red meat, processed meat and sugary drinks.
• Finally, the “optimal” diet, which is characterized by giving pride of place to plants, vegetables and fruits, without red meat or processed meat.
  

10 years of life expectancy gained by avoiding red meat in particular
Scientists then made projections for populations that lived in the United States, China and Europe. They presented a methodology for estimating how different diets affect life expectancy. Conclusion: a European person who adopts the optimal menu can gain 13 years of life expectancy if it is a man and 10 years if it is a woman. The gain in longevity goes down to 7 years for men and 5 years for women with the intermediate diet which does not completely eliminate red meat.

These gains would be made by eating more legumes, less red meat and processed meat, say the study authors.

If you decide to change your diet and you are over 20, you can also have beneficial effects on your health. The optimal diet allows a 60-year-old European to live 9 years longer than if he continued the classic Western diet, and 8 years for a European woman. People aged 80 would have a gain of 3 years, both men and women.