You Can Add 10 Years to Your Life Simply by Changing Your Diet, Massive Study Finds

 You can add 10 years to your life just by changing your diet - huge research results   With every  hunger or craving, we have a choice:  eat foods that  are said to be good for us, or seek out comfort food. These choices aren't easy or always possible, but research shows that eating healthier foods can have significant health benefits, especially in the long term.  New research analyzing the diet and health  of nearly half a million British residents has found that changing and sticking to a healthy diet  can add up to 10 years to your life. Good news! If you can afford it.   The team, led by Lars Fadnes,  a public health researcher at the University of Bergen in Norway, modeled the lifespan of some 467,354 people who documented their eating habits as part of a long-term UK Biobank study that began in 2006.  The researchers grouped the participants according to their eating habits and noted how they changed over time. They identified average and unhealthy eaters, as well as people whose food met the UK's Eatwell Guide and others who ate what the researchers called a longevity diet.   After adjusting for smoking, alcohol and physical activity, the researchers found that men and women in their 40s who made a permanent change from unhealthy eating  to following the recommendations of the Eatwell Guide increased their life expectancy by about 9 years.  Those who gave up sugary drinks and cut out processed meat in favor of a diet rich in whole grains, nuts, fruit, vegetables and moderate  fish (the so-called longevity diet) extended their lives by 10 years.  Life expectancy increased to a lesser extent in people who initially followed an average diet  and in those who improved their eating habits later in life.  andquot; The greater the changes to healthier eating habits, the longer the life expectancy, andquot; explains the team in their published article.  andquot; Unsurprisingly, the increase in life expectancy is smaller when  dietary change is initiated at an older age, but it is still significant. andquot;   Researchers have found that people in their 70s could still increase their life expectancy by around 4-5 years if they made a permanent change in healthy eating according to  either  the Eatwell Guide or the Longevity Diet and#039;.  andquot; It is exciting, but not surprising, to see the enormous health benefits of  dietary changes, andquot; nutritionist and study author Katherine Livingstone of Deakin University told  ScienceAlert.    andquot; This work is important because it shows that it is never too late to make small, lasting changes to a healthier diet. andquot;   Other previous studies  have shown how  healthy eating habits, which reflect various dietary recommendations, are associated with a lower risk of early death in US citizens.  Although this new analysis looks at the UK and expands the geographical scope of such studies, the same caveats apply as with any population-level data.  For example, the UK Biobank does not measure rice consumption, which is particularly important for many immigrant groups, so the results are not generalizable to everyone.   The  UK Biobank database also describes predominantly white people from European, middle and upper class socio-economic backgrounds.  The researchers also acknowledge that while their analysis looked at sustained dietary changes, maintaining lifestyle changes over time with dietary improvements can be difficult, and for many, diets change over time.   For others, the challenge is not motivation, but access. Health officials can advise people to eat a healthy diet, but access to affordable, nutritious food is a systemic  and public health problem that government policy can help address.  The researchers emphasize the role of food taxes and subsidies, which aim to make healthy foods more affordable than unhealthy alternatives. A 2017 study estimated that such taxing of unhealthy products like sugary drinks and subsidizing healthy alternatives could save 60,000 lives in the United States each year.   Improving the food environment in schools and workplaces by removing vending machines and offering healthier options can also impact people and health – not to mention the planet.   The study is published in the journal Nature Food.