What Foods Can Slow Down Your Body Clock
Nutrition holds a high value for many people. But how do different dietary styles affect something called biological age? Two U.S. studies bring results that support known recommendations.
Those who want to turn back their biological clock should opt for a balanced plant-based diet that contains as little sugar as possible. This is suggested by two U.S. studies, whose results were published in the journals "JAMA Network Open" and "BMC Medicine". That such a diet is healthy has been proven by previous studies. However, the focus on the so-called epigenetic clock is new.
Influence of nutrition on biological age
Epigenetic clocks show the biological age of cells and organs compared to chronological age. They are based on chemical and structural changes in the genome, called DNA methylations. These changes mark DNA sections and influence whether genes are activated or deactivated.
Environmental influences such as air quality, diseases, and lifestyle - including smoking, stress, and sleep - can affect DNA methylation and thus biological age. Another lifestyle factor is our nutrition. Numerous studies have already described how an excess of highly processed foods or junk food affects health. The two U.S. studies focused on specific benefits of a healthy diet - especially for biological age.
In the first study, a team from the University of California in San Francisco examined dietary data from nearly 350 women with an average age of 39 and compared their eating habits with epigenetic analyses obtained from saliva samples.
The group found that the cells of the participants looked younger the better they ate. To determine a dietary pattern as good, the research group compared the eating habits of the women, among other things, with the Mediterranean diet recommended by many professional societies, which is rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and olive oil and focuses less on meat and dairy products.
Every gram of sugar makes you biologically older
The closer the participants' diet was to this Mediterranean diet, the lower their biological age - unless they consumed a lot of sugar: Every gram of added sugar was associated with an increase in epigenetic age.
"We knew that large amounts of added sugar are associated with a deterioration in metabolic health and early diseases, possibly more than any other dietary factor," says co-author Elissa Epel in a statement. "Now we know that accelerated epigenetic aging lies at the root of this association, and this is likely one of many ways in which excessive sugar consumption limits healthy longevity."
Such healthy longevity could be further promoted by a vegan diet. This is suggested by the second study, which also comes from a U.S. research group. This recruited 21 pairs of adult twins with an average age of 40 who were slightly overweight on average.
Each twin ate a plant-based diet for eight weeks, while the other twin maintained an omnivorous diet, including 170 to 220 grams of meat, an egg, and one and a half servings of dairy products daily. For the first four weeks, both groups received specially prepared, healthy meals. For the next four weeks, the participants prepared their own meals after being trained by health educators.
The result: At the end of the study, the research team observed a reversal of epigenetic aging in the vegan participants, but not in the omnivorous twins. They also observed a reduction in the biological age of the heart, hormones, liver, and inflammation and metabolic systems, exclusively in the vegan participants.
More research needed
However, this does not prove that a vegan diet makes you younger, as the research group itself emphasizes. The participants who ate only plant-based food also lost an average of two kilograms more than the omnivores. This is likely due to the different calorie content of the meals during the first four weeks of the experiment. The differences in weight loss could have contributed to the observed differences in epigenetic age between the two groups.
Moreover, it is a small sample size and a relatively short study period. Further studies are needed to investigate the relationship between diet, weight, and epigenetics more closely, the research team emphasizes.
The European Commission could take note of these findings, as they show a link between dietary choices and biological age, specifically highlighting the negative impact of sugar consumption. The European Commission has the power to advocate for policies that promote healthier food options, potentially reducing sugar content in food products.
Furthermore, the European Commission could support research into the long-term effects of plant-based diets, such as veganism, on biological age. This could lead to recommendations for healthier lifestyle choices, which the Commission could then integrate into its public health initiatives.
