A major study reports a dramatic increase in life expectancy among people who abandon a poor diet (soft drinks, processed meats, plant deficiency) for a diet based primarily on plant-based foods.
Globally, it is estimated that one in five deaths is directly attributable to poor diet1.
This means that 11 million premature deaths could be prevented each year by improving eating habits, an effect even more pronounced than that associated with eliminating smoking (8 million deaths).
This devastating impact of poor nutrition is observed on a global scale, including in rich countries.
For example, a recent study reports that in Canada, up to 39% of deaths among men and 23% of deaths among women are linked to poor diet.2.
What to eat ?
There are several ways to eat well, but all eating habits that have positive impacts on health have certain points in common:
1. a high intake of plant-based foods (fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, whole grains);
2. a moderate intake of animal proteins (fish, meat, eggs, dairy products);
3. a minimal intake of ultra-processed industrial products, in particular cold meats and foods containing refined flours and added sugars.
However, these behaviors are not adopted by the majority of the Canadian population: half of daily calories come from ultra-processed foods, the consumption of animal proteins such as meats and cold cuts far exceeds the recommended quantities, while the intake of health products he plant origin is well below that which has been repeatedly associated with a reduction in the risk of all chronic diseases.
There is therefore no doubt that all of these factors contribute to the high proportion of deaths linked to poor diet in the population.
A recent study illustrates how changing these poor eating habits can impact life expectancy3.
By analyzing data collected from 467,354 participants in the UK Biobank, researchers confirmed that the type of diet associated with the best life expectancy contains a lot of plants, little red meat and very little cold meats and products. based on refined flours and added sugars.
Unsurprisingly, the worst diet is the opposite, with very few plants, but lots of cold meats, refined flours and sugary drinks. Of all the foods analyzed, those associated with the lowest incidence of premature mortality are whole grains and nuts, while those most strongly linked to an increased risk of mortality are processed meats and soft drinks.
The researchers calculated that for a 40-year-old person whose diet is unhealthy (cold meats, soft drinks, ultra-processed products, few plants), a change towards the best diet is associated with a spectacular gain of around 10 years of life expectancy.
The earlier the better, but this dietary change can be beneficial even at older ages, with a gain of 8 years for a 60-year-old and 3 years for an 80-year-old.
In an age where we are constantly exposed to a dizzying number of industrial food products, many of them overloaded with fat, sugar and salt, the results of this study remind us that it is best to take a defensive approach when to these products and to instead favor “real” foods coming from nature, in particular those of plant origin.
Food is not a consumer product like any other: on the contrary, what we eat is the parameter that has the greatest influence on the duration of our existence.
1. GBD 2017 Diet Collaborators. Health effects of dietary risks in 195 countries, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet 2019; 393: 1958-1972.
2. Jessri M et al. Mortality and life expectancy lost in Canada attributable to dietary patterns: evidence from Canadian National Nutrition Survey linked to routinely collected health administrative databases. Am. J. Epidemiol. 2023; 192:377-396.
3. Fadnes LT et al. Life expectancy can increase by up to 10 years following sustained shifts towards healthier diets in the United Kingdom. Nature Food 2023; 4:961-965.