Could the Mediterranean Diet Slow Aging?
Women who follow the Mediterranean diet have longer telomeres, which can help slow the aging process, according to a new study.
Telomeres are DNA sequences considered to be a marker of health and longevity. They are designed to protect the physical integrity of chromosomes and naturally shorten with age.
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In order to examine whether adherence to a Mediterranean style diet—previously determined to be associated with better health outcomes and longevity—affected telomere length, researchers conducted a study of 4676 women from the Nurses’ Health Study who had completed food frequency questionnaires and had their telomere length measured. The women were rated on a scale of 0-9 based on how closely their diet resembled the Mediterranean diet.
Researchers found that the more closely the women followed the Mediterranean diet, the longer their telomeres were, and that, on average, a 1-point increase on the rating scale corresponded with a change of 1.5 years of telomere aging.
“A three point change in the Alternate Mediterranean Diet score would correspond to on average 4.5 years of aging, which is comparable to the difference observed when comparing smokers with non-smokers (4.6 years), highly active women with less active women (4.4 years), and women with high phobic anxiety scores with women with low phobic anxiety (6 years),” researchers said.
No single component of the Mediterranean diet was shown to correspond to telomere length—which emphasizes the importance of looking at the effect of whole diets rather than individual foods on the health of patients.
—Michael Potts
Reference:
Crous-Bou M, Fung TT, Prescott J, et al. Mediterranean diet and telomere length in Nurses’ Health Study: population based cohort study. BMJ. 2014 December 2 [epub ahead of print]. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g6674