Mediterranean diet linked to slower aging, new study says

Those who consume a Mediterranean diet, consisting mostly of vegetables, olive oil, fresh fish and fruits, may enjoy a longer life expectancy than those who do not, according to a new study from researchers at England’s University of Exeter.

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“To our knowledge, this is the largest population-based study specifically addressing the association between Mediterranean diet adherence and telomere length in healthy, middle-aged women,” researchers wrote in the study. “Our results further support the benefits of adherence to the Mediterranean diet for promoting health and longevity.”

For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 4,600 healthy middle-aged women from the Nurses’ Health Study — an ongoing study tracking the health of more than 120,000 U.S. nurses since 1976. Participants completed detailed food questionnaires and had a blood test to measure telomere length.

After adjusting for other potentially influential factors, the results show that greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet was significantly associated with longer telomeres. Each one point change in diet score corresponded on average to 1.5 years of telomere aging.

However, none of the individual dietary components was associated with telomere length, underlining the importance of examining dietary patterns in relation to health, not just separate dietary factors such as intake of whole grains, say the authors.

Lifestyle factors, such as obesity, cigarette smoking, and consumption of sugar sweetened drinks, have all been linked to people having shorter telomeres than typically occur in people of a similar age. Oxidative stress and inflammation have also been shown to speed up telomere shortening.

Agencies/Canadajournal