Food For Life

New research suggests foods including nuts, whole grains and legumes, can help you live longer, as can cutting out red meat.

Research has identified the specific foods that can add years to your life. A study by researchers from the University of Bergen, Norway, found life expectancy could be increased by up to 13 years for 20-year-olds who made sustained diet changes. Meanwhile a 60-year-old could lengthen their life by around eight-and-a-half years and even 80-year-olds could boost their lifespan by an average of 3.4 years if they changed their eating habits and stuck to it.

The foods that researchers say can help you live longer aren’t weird, hard-to-find superfoods either – they’re just nuts, legumes like beans and lentils, and wholegrains like porridge. And cutting out red and processed meat can further increase your lifespan, according to the study.

The authors say fruit and vegetables also have a positive health impact, but point out that a typical Western diet already includes a reasonable amount of fruit and veg anyway. They’ve created a Food4HealthyLife calculator (food4healthylife.org) to help people understand the impact of their food choices on their life expectancy.

The study isn’t saying go vegan, it’s not even saying go vegetarian. It’s saying use less meat, and eat more veggies, nuts, whole grains and legumes. Start by perhaps having one or two plant-based family meals every week.

HERE’S HOW THE NORWEGIAN RESEARCHERS SAY YOU CAN ADD YEARS TO YOUR LIFE: LEGUMES

They found that if a 20-year-old male who ate no legumes (beans, chickpeas and lentils) started to regularly eat 200g per day (the equivalent of one large bowl of lentil soup), their life expectancy could increase by nearly two-and-half years.

WHOLEGRAINS

Eating 225g of wholegrain products per day such as porridge, wholemeal bread, wheat biscuits, couscous and brown rice, could add up to two extra years to your life if you eat them regularly from an early age.

NUTS

Just one handful (25g) of unsalted nuts eaten every day could also help extend your life by up to two years.

NO RED OR PROCESSED MEAT

Completely cutting out both red and processed meats, which are often high in fat and salt, could add up to four years to your life, the study found.

But if you don’t want to cut meat out completely, eat it less often, and only eat good, locally produced or organic meat.

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