Health News Update: What to Eat and Longevity
Health News Update: What to Eat and Longevity 4.20.26
Hello again: It is important to note that in our society we are living longer but sicker. The current lifestyle our country offers is not creating a healthy population, but it is supporting medically managed sick people. It seems to me that the optimal strategy would be to combine our traditional medical care with a lifestyle that supports health promotion and longevity. To that end, food is a powerful tool…more powerful than we are told. Here is what this study looked at:
“As the global population ages, it is critical to identify diets that, beyond preventing noncommunicable diseases, optimally promote healthy aging. Here, using longitudinal questionnaire data from the Nurses’ Health Study (1986–2016) and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (1986–2016), we examined the association of long-term adherence to eight dietary patterns and ultraprocessed food consumption with healthy aging, as assessed according to measures of cognitive, physical and mental health, as well as living to 70 years of age free of chronic diseases.”
And here is what they found:
“Higher intakes of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, unsaturated fats, nuts, legumes and low-fat dairy products were linked to greater odds of healthy aging, whereas higher intakes of trans fats, sodium, sugary beverages and red or processed meats (or both) were inversely associated. Our findings suggest that dietary patterns rich in plant-based foods, with moderate inclusion of healthy animal-based foods, may enhance overall healthy aging, guiding future dietary guidelines.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-025-03570-5 Optimal dietary patterns for longevity.
Bottom Line: What this means is switching to the Green Mediterranean dietary food plan is the way to go to optimize your health span and life span while avoiding or minimizing chronic disease risk. If you simply consume unprocessed to minimally processed whole foods, eat predominantly vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains, beans and avoid processed foods, added sugars, and refined grains. Just avoiding the Standard American Diet (SAD) would result in tremendous improvement in the health of our nation and the world.
I offer this information for several reasons:
· I have not seen anyone recover their health eating a poor diet.
· Research has shown that food is the leading cause of death and disability.
· No one else can do this for you.
· You can literally save your own life with your fork and spoon.
· Everything I just said is true and applies to everyone.
· There is literally no good reason not to eat as good as you can.




