Cutting down on fat and consuming a mainly vegetarian diet can reverse biological aging by around four years – with results seen in just a month, new research reveals.
Scientists in Australia tracked more than 100 adults aged 65 to 75 for four weeks and monitored 20 different biomarkers, including cholesterol, insulin and blood pressure.
The goal was to measure the participants’ biological age, or the age of their body’s cells, which can differ from chronological age.
The participants were randomly assigned a diet to follow for four weeks, which were either omnivorous, meaning half their food came from animal sources and half came from plants, or semi–vegetarian, meaning most of their food sources were plant-based.
They were then divided into subgroups based on if they consumed more fat or more carbohydrates.
The team found people who stuck to an omnivorous, high-carbohydrate diet, were biologically about four years younger than those who followed omnivorous diets high in fat.
And participants who followed a vegetarian diet were also biologically about three years younger than omnivores with higher–fat diets.
The researchers believe the higher–carb diets, which emphasized whole grains, vegetables and fiber, may have helped lower inflammation and promote improved cholesterol, lowering their risk of chronic conditions like heart disease.
A study found people who limited animal proteins and focused on complex carbohydrates reduced their biological age by up to four years
‘It’s too soon to say definitively that specific changes to diet will extend your life. But this research offers an early indication of the potential benefits of dietary changes later in life,’ Dr Caitlin Andrews, lead study author from the University of Sydney’s School of Life and Environmental Sciences, said.
The study, published in the journal Aging Cell, evaluated 104 adults between ages 65 and 75. They had body mass indexes (BMIs) ranging from 20 to 35 and had no serious health complications like diabetes, cancer or liver disease.
All participants were also non-smokers and were not vegetarians.
Participants were broken into groups based on omnivorous or semi-vegetarian diets.
Omnivorous diets were comprised of 50 percent animal proteins such as lean meat and eggs and 50 percent plant–based sources such as legumes and tofu. A semi–vegetarian diet was comprised of 70 percent plant–based protein and 30 percent animal–based protein.
The participants were further broken up into one of four diets: omnivorous high-fat (OHF), omnivorous high-carbohydrate (OHC), semi-vegetarian high-fat (VHF) or semi-vegetarian high-carbohydrate (VHC).
The researchers noted that the OHF diet was the most similar to the participants’ baseline eating habits.
After four weeks on the respective diets, the researchers used lab tests to measure 20 biomarkers in the participants. These included measures such as insulin, cholesterol, fats called triglycerides, blood pressure, waist circumference and BMI.
The study found that people on the OHF diet had no significant changes in their biological age. However, the OHC group saw a biological age reduction of 4.1 years, followed by 3.2 years for the VHF group and 2.9 years for the VHC group.
The OHC group, which saw the greatest reduction in biological age, followed a diet comprised of 14 percent energy from protein, 28–29 percent from fat and 53 percent from complex carbohydrates, which include whole grains, legumes and starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes and squash.
The experts noted while the findings are promising and show a diet high in complex carbohydrates and plant–based proteins can have short–term benefits, more research is needed on long–term effects.
‘Longer term dietary changes are needed to assess whether dietary changes alter the risk of age–related diseases,’ Dr Alistair Senior, study author and associate professor from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences and the Charles Perkins Centre in Australia, said.
