New findings just revealed the healthiest foods that can help you reduce your risk of early death from causes such as cancer, heart disease, respiratory diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Increased consumption of eco-friendly foods could enhance your lifespan and health status, as suggested by recent research. The study found that individuals adhering to a more ecologically sustainable diet experienced a 25% reduced chance of death during a subsequent 30-year period compared to those with less green diets.
This research extends previous investigations that pinpointed foods that are advantageous for both personal health and ecological health, such as whole grains, fruits, non-starchy vegetables, nuts, and unsaturated oils. Conversely, certain foods, like eggs and red and processed meats, may pose risks to both the environment and human health. These new discoveries propose that greater consumption of earth-friendly foods could lessen one’s mortality risk from diseases like cancer, heart ailments, respiratory conditions, and neurodegenerative diseases.
“We proposed a new diet score that incorporates the best current scientific evidence of food effects on both health and the environment,” stated Linh Bui, MD, a PhD aspirant in the Nutrition Department at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “The results confirmed our hypothesis that a higher Planetary Health Diet score was associated with a lower risk of mortality.”
Current evidence suggests that plant-based foods are associated with lower risks of chronic illnesses like heart disease, colorectal cancer, diabetes, and stroke, and also have less environmental impact in terms of elements such as water and land usage, nutrient pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions.
With this recent study, the researchers aimed to develop a straightforward tool that policymakers and health professionals could utilize to devise strategies to enhance public health and tackle climate change.
“As a millennial, I have always been concerned about mitigating human impacts on the environment,” expressed Bui. “A sustainable dietary pattern should not only be healthy but also consistent within planetary boundaries for greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental parameters.”
To form their Planetary Health Diet Index (PHDI), the researchers examined existing research on the connections between various food groups and health outcomes, based on the EAT-Lancet reference diet, which considers the environmental effects of food production methods. They then used the index to assess outcomes among over 100,000 participants in two extensive cohort studies carried out in the United States. The dataset involved over 47,000 deaths over a follow-up period that extended for more than three decades from 1986-2018.
They found that participants in the highest quintile (the top 20% of participants) for the PHDI experienced a 25% lower risk of death from any cause compared to those in the lowest quintile. Higher PHDI scores correlated with a 15% lower risk of death from cancer or cardiovascular diseases, a 20% lower risk of death from neurodegenerative disease, and a 50% lower risk of death from respiratory diseases.
Bui warns that the PHDI doesn’t necessarily encompass all food items and their connections with all major diseases in every country. Individuals with specific health concerns, religious constraints, or different food access due to socioeconomic status or food availability might encounter difficulties in adhering to a more sustainable diet. More in-depth research could clarify and tackle such challenges.
“We hope that researchers can adapt this index to specific food cultures and validate how it is associated with chronic diseases and environmental impacts such as carbon footprint, water footprint, and land use in other populations,” added Bui.
Bui is set to present the findings at NUTRITION 2023, the annual key meeting of the American Society for Nutrition held in Boston from July 22-25.
Image Credit: Shutterstock