This Is The Best Diet For Healthy Aging, According To A New Study

At mbg, we wholeheartedly believe in the power of food to enhance your health and longevity. In fact, it's something we've written about time and time again. Of course, there are a wealth of opinions in terms of which pantry staples to reach for, but a recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition identified a diet that might be able to promote healthy aging via epigenetics1 (don't worry; we'll explain what that means below). 

To put it simply, epigenetics is the concept stating there are ways to influence which of our genes are expressed and which are not. We all experience epigenetic changes to our DNA throughout our life, but "optimizing our epigenetics has the potential to affect society's most problematic health issues," writes naturopathic doctor Kara Fitzgerald, N.D. Issues like cardiometabolic health, weight management, immunity, and more. "It may even help turn back the hands of our biological aging clocks," Fitzgerald adds.

One of the most well-studied mechanisms that affects gene expression is DNA methylation, a biochemical process that happens in the body all day, every day, and helps your body produce adequate levels of powerful antioxidants, like glutathione (read all about it here). 

Lo and behold, participants who had a higher diet score (meaning, lots of fruits, veggies, grains, and legumes and fewer processed, sugar-laden items) had less of those epigenetic age acceleration markers. Not to mention, they also generally had lower BMIs, higher HDL cholesterol (or the "good" cholesterol), and were less likely to take blood pressure medication. 

Even individuals with a history of smoking (either current or former smokers) had less of those age acceleration markers—that's certainly not to say a healthy diet will cancel out the negative impacts of smoking, but it's interesting how the effect is still that prominent.