Diet and aging: Gaining a nutritional edge

Can the food you eat help extend your life and improve your health? Plenty of research suggests that it can. Studies reveal that a healthy diet can help you sidestep ailments that plague people more as they age, including heart disease, hypertension, cancer, and cataracts.

But information gleaned from news flashes, best-selling diet books, and even government sources is often contradictory. And occasionally scientific studies blown out of proportion in the news or in popular diet books make dietary divas or pariahs of certain foods. Will tripling your intake of olive oil or banishing carbohydrate-laden breads from your menu ward off illness? Taken alone, these steps simply can’t do enough to help. To reap dietary benefits, you gradually must work in more sweeping changes, such as cutting down on red meat; eating more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains; and striking a healthy balance between calories in and calories out.

Perhaps the easiest way to understand what changes you should be making in your diet is to review the healthy eating recommendations made by Professor Walter C. Willett in Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating (see Figure). As you may notice, these recommendations share a good deal with new government dietary guidelines for Americans issued in January 2005, a vast improvement on the seriously outdated USDA food pyramid that had held sway since 1992. There are, however, key differences, such as Willett’s recommendations for choosing healthy fats and his more marked emphasis on a diet built largely around plants and whole grains. In addition, the healthy eating guidelines encourage a more limited intake of dairy products, as well as a combination of poultry, fish, beans, or nuts rather than red meat.

Figure: Healthy eating recommendations

Fats and sweets	Use olive, soy, corn, sunflower, peanut oils Limit saturated fats and trans fats, substituting healthier fats instead Limit sweets
Dairy products	One to two servings of low-fat dairy products or a daily calcium and vitamin D supplement
Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, nuts, and legumes	One to three servings of nuts and legumes Up to two servings of fish, poultry, or eggs Choose vegetable sources of protein, such as nuts and beans, more often than animal sources, such as red meat and dairy products
Vegetables and fruits	Two to three servings of fruit Vegetables in abundance Aim for nine servings a day of fruit and vegetables; seek variety
Bread, cereal, pasta, and rice	Eat whole grains and whole-grain products liberally Limit intake of potatoes and refined carbohydrates such as white bread, white rice, and refined-grain pasta
Alcohol	Use in moderation if enjoyed, as long as you have no health problems or conditions that would dictate otherwise
Vitamins	Multivitamin daily
What’s a serving?
One serving of dairy products equals 1 cup milk or yogurt 11/2 ounces natural cheese 2 ounces processed cheese		One serving of vegetables or fruits equals 1 cup raw, leafy vegetables 1/2 cup other vegetables or fruit, cooked or chopped 1 medium apple, banana, or orange 3/4 cup fruit or vegetable juice
One serving of meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, or nuts equals 2–3 ounces of cooked lean meat, poultry, or fish 1/2 cup cooked dry beans 2–3 eggs 4–6 tablespoons of peanut butter		One serving of bread, cereal, rice, or pasta equals 1 slice of bread 1 ounce (about 1 cup) ready-to-eat cereal 1/2 cup cooked cereal, rice, or pasta
Adapted from Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating by Walter C. Willett, M.D., Dr. P.H. (Simon & Schuster, 2001).

Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy
Millions of Americans concerned about healthy eating take their cues from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Guide Pyramid. But according to renowned Harvard nutrition researcher Dr. Walter C. Willett, "That's a shame, because the USDA Pyramid is wrong…Indeed, it actually steers you away from foods that can improve your long-term health."

Dr. Willett’s national bestseller Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy serves as an alternative—and antidote—to the flawed new USDA Pyramid. The book explains how proper nutrition contributes to better health and longer life, and features a full range of recipes to help get you started.

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Comments: 8

Vivian P. Sep 11, 2007, 3:38pm EDT

I for one am sick of the diet books and their claims

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John M. Sep 11, 2007, 4:20pm EDT

Do you have any thoughts on the work by folks who claim calorie restriction (with optimal nutrition) is highly beneficial? Not that you folk really answer questions.

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Eve H. Sep 11, 2007, 10:13pm EDT

Well, I bought the book! Let's see. However, Vivian expresses my feeling grandly.

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Mary S. Sep 13, 2007, 7:24pm EDT

I rated this 5 because a discussion of omega 3's and the ratio to 6's is missing here. The implications for mood and health from too many 6's are too serious not to be mentioned. Where are flax-seeds and walnuts?

If people eat a diet that helps to keep them free of chronic inflammation, they will feel better and function better. This is one of the reasons wealthy people are eating more whole foods they know the origins of. Sophisticated people tend to research on their own, beyond what is reported in the popular press.

When smart celebrities report what they do to stay healthy, it eventually gets to ordinary people. It is just frustrating that it takes a pretty long time.

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Nick Smith Dec 29, 2007, 5:12pm EST

I think calories are one of the most important thing to pay attention to when on a diet for longevity. Studies have shown calorie restriction helps to extend life spans.

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