Dallas Chiropractor Best Practices
Research Commentary;
Eat Healthier for a Longer Life
A review of
Fadnes et al. (2022) Estimating impact of food choices on life expectancy: A Modeling Study. PLS Med 19(2) e1003889
Research Reviewed by Dr. Anthony Vasile
Summarized Review of Conclusion:
This research showed that dietary changes in the intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, refined grains, nuts, legumes, fish, eggs, milk/dairy, red meat, processed meat, and sugar-sweetened beverages can lead us to living longer lives. The earlier these changes occur the longer potential life can be lived, even up to a decade of extra healthy years. Sustaining a dietary change can give substantial health improvements for all ages of all people to live a better-quality longer life.
Below I have referenced key quotes from this research to help summarize the results.
Quotes from the Article:
“Food is fundamental for health, and globally dietary risk factors are estimated to cause 11 million deaths and 255 million disability-adjusted life years annually.”
“Changing from a typical diet to the optimized diet at age 60 years would increase LE by 8.0 years for women and 8.8 years for men, and 80-year-olds would gain 3.4 years.”
“Our modeling methodology using meta-analyses, data from the Global Burden of Disease study and life table methodology showed that life expectancy (LE) gains for prolonged changes from typical Western to optimizing diets could translate into more than a decade for young adults.”
““A sustained dietary change may give substantial health gains for people of all ages both for optimized and feasible changes. Gains are predicted to be larger the earlier the dietary changes are initiated in life.”
Introduction to the Research
The purpose of this research was to investigate the health impacts of dietary changes to the human population of all ages. Food is one of the three main factors involved for health. Exercising daily and managing stress are the other two. Globally, dietary risk factors are estimated to cause 11 million deaths and 255 million disability-adjusted life years annually [1]. Still, navigating within the nutritional research field can be overwhelming to clinicians, policy makers, and even researchers.
Research Methodology
Based on meta-analyses and data from the Global Burden of Disease study (2019), we used life table methodology to estimate how LE changes with sustained changes in the intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, refined grains, nuts, legumes, fish, eggs, milk/dairy, red meat, processed meat, and sugar-sweetened beverages.
Research Findings
The important thing to note it is not just the quantity of life that is being extended, but it is the quality of life too. What you eat has a huge impact on your immune system, baseline health, risk of developing chronic diseases, risk of digestive disorders, anxiety, depression, obesity, cancer, and amount of energy you have. There is no drug that can supplement a bad diet, only eating well can do this. It’s not hard either. Eat whole foods, good quality meat, and supplement with essential nutrients like a high-quality omega-3 and probiotics because we cannot get those in sufficient amounts the way food is currently processed. It is crucial to also exercise daily, manage stress and receive regular chiropractic adjustments to live a happy longer life.
Research References
As always with these reviews, these are my takeaways from the article and I encourage you to read the article in its entirety. The references used in this article by the authors of this article are listed here.
Our Message
We know how important it is to find a Chiropractor near you that you can trust. The Chiropractic Care team in McKinney, near the corner of Eldorado Pkwy. and Stonebridge Rd., not only relieve back pain, neck pain and headaches, but also teach how reducing stress has been shown to support good health in the research literature. We want to help you know how to be healthy by making good choices on diet, movement and mental health.