Anyone looking into how to increase life expectancy should place a strong emphasis on eating for longevity—that is, regularly consuming healthy, nutrient-dense foods that have been proven to help you live longer.
After all, diet and longevity are integrally linked, with a 2023 study on the topic showing that eating a healthier diet can extend one’s lifespan by as much as a decade.
In this post, we’ll explain how to improve life expectancy by describing the best diet for longevity and providing a roadmap for dietary changes that could help you gain many more years of health and happiness. We’ll also provide some fascinating statistics that highlight the strong correlation between diet and lifespan.
Positive Changes to Your Diet Can Increase Life Expectancy
Rather than following one specific diet and severely limiting your food intake and options, focus on the following core dietary principles, which have evidence to support their health benefits:
Avoid Processed Foods with Unnatural Additives and Chemicals
Consuming large amounts of highly processed foods—which often contain unnatural flavorings, preservatives, and other chemicals with potentially negative health effects—is one of the worst things you can do for your longevity. This review of numerous studies on the subject (totaling almost 10 million study participants) found that those whose diets were high in ultra-processed foods had a 21 percent higher all-cause mortality rate than those who consumed few ultra-processed foods.
Prioritize Whole Foods
Consuming a healthy diet isn’t just about removing the “bad” stuff. It’s equally important to eat nutrient-dense food that effectively fuels your body. Some of the best foods for longevity to add into your diet include vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, and whole grains. These food categories are healthy because they’re high in vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, healthy fats, protein, and fiber—all of which can help to improve your health.
Eat Until You’re 80% Full
Okinawa, Japan is credited with the Japanese term “Hara hachi bu,” which advises that you should eat only until you are 80 percent full. Okinawans may be onto something, considering that they have some of the longest lifespans of any culture on Earth—they have a 40 percent greater chance of living to 100 than those living in the rest of Japan. If you struggle with eating more than you’d like, follow their dietary advice by refraining from eating until you’re “full” and instead aiming to satiate your hunger and feel satisfied.
Reduce Consumption of Alcohol and Artificial Sugars
Although you’re probably aware that alcohol abuse can significantly reduce life expectancy, you may not realize that all alcohol consumption creates some degree of negative health impact. As the WHO puts it: “When it comes to alcohol consumption, there is no safe amount that does not affect health.” The less alcohol you consume, the better it is for your health.
Artificial sugars may seem like a convenient way to reduce your sugar consumption without sacrificing sweet treats, but they have their downsides. The WHO recommends against using artificial sweeteners to try to maintain a healthy body weight, noting that in the long run, these substances can increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and mortality.
Find Healthy Foods You Actually Enjoy
Making long-term, sustainable, sustainable long-term diet changes means finding a way to eat that doesn’t make you utterly miserable. It doesn’t matter how healthy your planned diet is if you can only keep it up for a few days before caving and ordering a cheeseburger and fries.
To ensure your change in diet has staying power, make sure that your longevity diet includes foods that are not only healthy but that you enjoy eating. This might involve learning new ways to prepare healthy foods that make them more palatable, such as roasting or grilling vegetables instead of steaming them to add depth of flavor. Foods that contain healthy fats, like avocados, nuts and seeds, and wild-caught fish, are especially flavorful and good for you.
Don’t Forget About Variety
Variety is an essential ingredient in any diet for longevity. It ensures that you get a range of different vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients, reducing your chances of developing deficiencies. Variety also makes your diet more enjoyable, which means it’s easier to stick to. One study even found that eating a more varied diet significantly lowered all-cause mortality, meaning it can help you live longer.
Life Expectancy Statistics Related to Healthy Diets
Not quite convinced yet? Here are a few more fascinating statistics that illustrate the staggering importance of nutrition for longevity:
- Compared to those who drink fewer than seven drinks per week, those who drink more than 25 drinks weekly could be reducing their life expectancy by an estimated four to five years. (The Lancet)
- One study found that those who ate healthy diets were 14 percent less likely to die of any cause during the study period than those with unhealthy diets. (National Library of Medicine)
- A study of 120,000 people over 30 years found that healthy eating patterns reduced their risk of early death by 20 percent. (JAMA Internal Medicine)
- At age 20, switching from a standard Western diet to an optimal diet (i.e., one that emphasizes foods for longevity) could increase men’s life expectancy by about 13 years and women’s life expectancy by about 10.7 years. (PLOS Medicine)
- In the United States, living in low-income areas and food deserts (which are areas that lack access to healthy, whole foods) reduces your life expectancy at birth by an average of more than two years. (Springer Link)
What’s Your Own Life Expectancy?
Wondering how your diet and other lifestyle choices are impacting your life expectancy? Try out the Life Expectancy Calculator for a highly accurate estimate that’s based on cutting-edge research and data.
For more posts diving into the many factors that impact life expectancy, be sure to check our Life Lessons section on a regular basis.
