You should focus on these foods in your diet

How nutrition influences life expectancy

Grow old healthily: You should focus on these three foods

“It is absolutely possible to age healthily and without serious illnesses until you are 90 or 100.”

People dream of being fit even in old age and being able to enjoy life in a healthy and largely pain-free manner for as long as possible. The reality is often different: more and more people are developing diseases of civilization such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, rheumatism or back pain at a young age.

The number of people who are overweight is also continually increasing: around 50 percent of women and 60 percent of men in Germany are now overweight. Around 20 percent suffer from obesity (BMI >30).

The Berlin nutritional doctor Prof. Dr. Andreas Michalsen is convinced that we can turn the tide: “Living longer and living healthily is not an illusory promise of salvation, but a fact that I have been able to observe with my patients after many years as a doctor in the clinic and in my consultation hours,” he says. In his opinion, we largely have it in our own hands whether and how we grow old. “It is absolutely possible to age healthily and without serious illnesses until you are 90 or 100.” Like a car, it depends on proper care.

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How our diet influences life expectancy

For a long time, genes were considered a measure of how we age. Today we know from numerous studies that their influence on lifespan is only around ten to 15 percent.

Lifestyle plays a much larger role. Above all, what we eat influences our life expectancy. “90 percent of people who eat poorly develop pain and other physical complaints by the age of 50 to 60 at the latest,” says Michalsen.

Diet not only has a negative impact on life expectancy: “As part of the Global Burden of Disease study, Norwegian scientists calculated how many healthy years of life you would gain if you had an ideal diet,” explains Michalsen in his book “Nutrition. MyQuintessence”. The researchers calculated three models and six solutions. “If you eat ideally from the age of 20, you gain 13 healthy years of life. “60-year-olds gain a good eight years, 80-year-olds gain another two to three years,” says the expert, summarizing the results.

But what does the ideal diet look like?

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Real nutrient bombs: You should eat these foods every day

According to Michalsen, the intestines are particularly important. The fact is: 80 percent of all immune cells are located in our intestines. The more diverse the intestinal flora is, the better the immune system works and the healthier we are and remain. But that’s not all: intestinal bacteria break down ingested fiber and produce short-chain fatty acids that are healthy for the intestines. The microorganisms also help to eliminate metabolic end products. And our psyche also influences the microbiome via the so-called gut-brain axis.

So there are many good reasons to pay attention to a balanced intestinal flora. You can achieve this by eating as varied a diet as possible and mostly eating unprocessed foods. “Eat 30 different types of plants per week,” recommends Michalsen. What initially sounds like an unbelievable amount is actually not that difficult to implement. “Wheat, rye, oats, linseed, rice, potatoes as a filling base, plus onions, garlic, a few leaves of basil, parsley, cumin, ginger, olive (oil) and vinegar, a fruit spread (not too sweet!), a few Nuts and almonds, coffee, tea and a few pieces of dark chocolate,” advises the expert. You should also eat fresh, low-sugar fruit such as apples, pears and berries, fresh vegetables and salad as often as possible.

The following three foods should end up on your plate every day:

• whole grain products such as whole grain bread, pasta and rice instead of white flour products

• legumes such as beans, lentils and chickpeas

• nuts such as walnuts, almonds and cashews as well as seeds and kernels such as sunflower or pumpkin seeds

They keep blood sugar in check, provide valuable vitamins and minerals and, thanks to their high fiber content, keep you full for a long time.

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Why processed foods make us more susceptible to disease

It is just as important to consume as few of the nutrient-poor, heavily processed foods as possible. From a medical point of view, the expert describes industrially produced food in particular as a “ticking time bomb”. These include, for example, soft drinks such as cola, lemonade or energy drinks or ready meals such as pizza, gyros or lasagna from the freezer. But you should also eat industrially manufactured cakes, cookies and other sweets as rarely as possible.

“It is a food that is changed, processed and added with additives in several production steps and has a high potential for addiction,” explains Michalsen. Since the corresponding foods usually contain a lot of sugar, salt, saturated fats and plenty of calories, their regular consumption promotes the development of overweight and obesity. In addition, the risk of resulting secondary diseases such as type 2 diabetes, lipid metabolism disorders, etc. increases.

Researchers at the University of Navarra in Pamplona (Spain) were able to demonstrate in 2020 why processed foods accelerate aging. In a comprehensive study, they examined DNA samples from 886 people whose average age was 67 years. It showed that people who consume two to three portions of processed food every day have a 29 to 40 percent higher risk of short telomeres. Telomeres are the ends of our chromosomes that act as protective caps and play a key role in the aging process. The following applies: the shorter the telomeres, the more susceptible we become to age-related diseases.

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