I’m always on the lookout for research about preventative medicine to help me give the best healthy lifestyle advice to my patients (as well as informing my family and myself). This week, I was drawn to a new study published in Nature Medicine looking at diet and healthy ageing.
Researchers from Harvard, Copenhagen University and the University of Montreal undertook a cohort study looking at over 100,000 middle-aged people, linking their diets with health outcomes over 30 years. A cohort study is an observational research method where a group of individuals (the cohort) are followed over a long time to assess how different exposures can influence outcomes. It’s one of the most robust methods of research because it establishes clear relationships between exposures and diseases that can take many years to manifest, with less chance of bias or false correlations compared to other forms of research.
I like the study because it’s about healthy ageing; not just about living longer, but being able to live longer with better health, looking at ‘health span’, not just lifespan. We all want to live longer, but we also need to stay independent in physical function and with all our mental faculties intact. Healthy ageing in this study was defined as reaching the age of 70 without suffering from the diseases that have become the epidemics of modern life: diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and dementia. In the study, only 9.3% of participants reached this age unscathed by any of these illnesses.
The findings of the study are really not too surprising but provide some of the most robust evidence to date. The healthiest diets were those with a high intake of vegetables, wholegrains, nuts, and pulses and at least one serving of oily fish per week, with a low intake of refined sugar, salt, and ultra-processed foods.
The greatest health gains were achieved through at least five servings of vegetables a day, with a focus on green leafy types, and one daily serving of protein-filled fibre-rich pulses or legumes (chickpeas, beans, and lentils).
A study published last year in the European Journal Of Clinical Nutrition showed that eating just a 40g portion of dried pulses (three tablespoons when cooked) once per week reduced the risk of bowel cancer by 21% compared to those who eat no pulses. So, if a daily intake of pulses seems unrealistic for you (or you are concerned it might make you unpopular in the office), even a weekly portion produces big health gains compared to having none at all.
I’m not sure how the ‘healthy ageing’ statistics would compare in Guernsey compared to the 9.3% in this study, but my instinct from my own clinical practice would be that our population is around this level too. However, it made me contemplate that perhaps Guernsey was ahead of the curve with our local specialty of bean jar. And maybe this week we should all dig out Gran’s old recipe and get this traditional Guernsey staple bubbling away in our slow cookers.
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