You can reduce the risk of an early death by nearly 20%, just by eating more foods from four healthy eating patterns, according to researchers who analyzed decades of data collected on more than 119,000 adults.
The study, published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, found that people who ate the “highest-quality diets” had 20% lower risk of dying early from cancer, cardiovascular illness, and respiratory and neurodegenerative diseases during the study.
Notably, the researchers found the link between the healthy eaters and lower risk of death held up across different racial and ethnic groups, including Hispanic, non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White individuals.
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The “highest-quality diets” included the four dietary pattern indexes (Healthy Eating Index 2015, Alternate Mediterranean Diet, Healthful Plant-based Diet Index, and Alternate Healthy Eating Index).
The new study, published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, found that people who ate the “highest-quality diets” had 20% lower risk of dying early from certain illnesses. (iStock)
All share key components including whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes, although other components differ across different eating patterns.
“Our findings support the recommendations of DGAs [Dietary Guidelines for Americans] for multiple healthy eating patterns for all US individuals with diverse cultural and personal food traditions and preferences,” concluded corresponding author Frank B. Hu, M.D., of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts.
Various legumes and colorful beans — top view. All participants were free of cardiovascular disease or cancer at the beginning of the study. (iStock)
The researchers used health data collected over 36 years from two long term studies. The first examined 75,230 women from the Nurses’ Health Study (1984-2020) and the second examined 44,085 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (1986-2020).
All participants were free of cardiovascular disease or cancer at the beginning of the study.
