Changing your diet could add up to a decade to life expectancy

Dietary changes that include more legumes, whole grains, nuts, and less red and processed meat could add over a decade to a young adult's life expectancy in the United States, according to a new study in PLOS Medicine.

The expected gains in life expectancy would be smaller but still significant for older people. Dietary risk factors are estimated to cause 11 million deaths and 255 million disability-adjusted life-years annually.

The study estimates that starting at age 20, switching from a typical Western diet to an optimal diet would increase life expectancy (LE) by over a decade for both women (10.7 years) and men (13 years). Eating more legumes, whole grains, nuts, less red meat, and processed meat would result in the greatest gains in LE years (females: 1.6; males: 1.9).

Changing from a typical diet to an optimised diet at age 60 could increase LE by 8.0 years for women and 8.8 years for men, and 80-year-olds could gain 3.4 years from such dietary changes.

According to the authors, knowing the relative health benefits of various food groups can help people improve their health.