A new study published in the American Journal of Medicine, suggests adhering to a "Western-styled" diet may shorten your life expectancy.
A "Western-style" diet consists of "fried and sweet food, processed and red meat, refined grains and high-fat dairy products" according to Alphagalileo.org. Eating these types of foods on a regular basis reduces the likelihood of reaching old age, the study suggests.
"The impact of diet on specific age-related diseases has been studied extensively, but few investigations have adopted a more holistic approach to determine the association of diet with overall health at older ages," said lead investigator Tasnime Akbaraly, PhD, from Montpellier, France. "We examined whether diet, assessed in midlife, using dietary patterns and adherence to the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI), is associated with aging phenotypes, identified after a mean 16-year follow-up."
The Alternative Healthy Eating Index is meant to design dietary guidelines with the intention to combat "major chronic conditions such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes," according to Alphagalileo.
In order to test out their theory, the researchers based their investigation on the "British Whitehall II cohort" study, which suggested that adhering to the AHEI can "double the odds of reversing metabolic syndrome," Alphagalileo said. This is a strong indicator of heart disease.
The researchers focused on 3,775 men and 1,575 women from 1985-2009 with a mean age of 51.
They used information from hospital data, screenings and registry data. With this knowledge, they looked into which patients suffered from chronic diseases and have died.
They broke down their information into five different categories:
* Ideal aging, defined as free of chronic conditions and high performance in physical, mental, and cognitive functioning tests - 4.0 percent
* Nonfatal cardiovascular event - 12.7 percent
* Cardiovascular death - 2.8 percent
* Noncardiovascular death - 7.3 percent
* Normal aging -- 73.2 percent
The investigation also showed that people who didn't adhere to an AHEI diet, increased their risk of heart and other diseases.
"We showed that following specific dietary recommendations such as the one provided by the AHEI may be useful in reducing the risk of unhealthy aging, while avoidance of the 'Western-type foods' might actually improve the possibility of achieving older ages free of chronic diseases and remaining highly functional," Dr. Akbaraly said. "A better understanding of the distinction between specific health behaviors that offer protection against diseases and those that move individuals towards ideal aging may facilitate improvements in public health prevention packages."
