Good diet foods for aging healthfully is not just about wise and healthy aging: it’s about a healthy foods list and good diet foods. Because a heathy food plan can be simple, or it can be complex. I vote for simple and for healthy aging.
One healthy aging study that has had little attention but deserves a lot is a 30 year study in Wales of 2235 men–men–entitled “Healthy Lifestyles Reduce the Incidence of Chronic Diseases and Dementia“.
The longest study to identify the how environmental factors can stop and change chronic disease, it is unusual because it shows how dementia is like other chronic diseases: not inevitable, and for many people, preventable. My new book REFUEL, for men, can’t even claim that…because it’s new!
Dr. Michael Roizen, now of the Cleveland Clinic, and I outline a similar approach in both The RealAge Diet: Make Yourself Younger with What You Eat and Cooking the RealAge Way: Turn Back Your Biological Clock: these books have held up even 15 and 12 years later, because the science was sound, and based in what we know about how people age.
We know what ages–arteries, immune system, balance. But we are not further along about why we age. We are further along about the habits that can help us age slower, and keep our bodies and minds fit and younger.
The five habits studied in Wales: taking regular exercise (walking 2 miles or cycling 10 miles daily), not smoking, not being overweight, eating a healthy, balanced diet–meaning just 3 servings of fruits and veggies daily–, and a regular, modest alcohol intake: less than 3 drinks per day.
The good news: you don’t need all 5. In fact, following just one would drop the chance of dementia by 13 percent
If you did hit even four of these— your risk of dementia and cognitive decline drop by 60 per cent decline; diabetes by 50%; and heart disease and stroke by 70 percent, compared to those who did none. And these men lived healthfully longer: 6 years longer.
Good diet foods could be a list of healthy foods. Or you could just start with brightly colored fruits and vegetables: the more color, the better for you: and this is advice that whole populations could use, implement, grow, enjoy. Why not?