The Effects of Diet on Life Expectancy

It is somewhat interesting to see a careful analysis of diet and life expectancy, using the sizable UK Biobank population, that does not contain any of the words "calorie", "weight", or "obesity". The effects of calorie intake on health over the long-term are sizable, even if we focus only on mechanisms associated with the gain of weight. Visceral fat is metabolically active, generates an increased burden of senescent cells, and contributes to the chronic inflammation of aging via a range of different mechanisms. Thus one would assume that buried underneath this set of data on what it is that people eat is a more relevant and useful set of data that incorporates both dietary components and calorie intake, and which is only mentioned in passing in this paper. Certainly, it is the case that people who eat more processed and less healthy foods are usually consuming significantly more calories than the few who put in an effort to garden their diet, and are usually going to carry a greater burden of visceral fat. Life expectancy can increase by up to 10 years following sustained shifts towards healthier diets in the United Kingdom In this paper, we present a method for estimating changes in life expectancy following changes in food choices, considering correlation between mortality and food group intakes, and effect delay. Such estimates may be useful particularly for policy purposes and for underpinning both guidance and interventions for improving public...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs