The Impact of Diet on Lifespan: What You Need to Know: Can the food we eat affect longevity? According to Dan Buettner in his book “Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones,” what we eat plays a big role in staying healthy. He discovered that people who live longer often eat lots of plants. (More information on his book on my prior blog post)
How Diet Affects Lifespan
There are a bunch of reasons:
- Plants can help reduce inflammation in our bodies. This means we may get fewer chronic diseases like stroke, heart disease, cancer, obesity, arthritis, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases.
- Plants are good for our gut health. Plants have many different chemicals that help create healthy bacteria in our guts, which is important for staying healthy and living longer.
- Food is Medicine (plant food that is). In March 2024, NBC News talked about programs where doctors are actually giving “prescriptions” for fruits and veggies instead of medicine. Lisa Goldman Rosas from Stanford School of Medicine said this sends a powerful message that food is important for our health. A study from 2023 even estimated that if 6.5 million adults with diabetes and food insecurity got prescriptions for fresh produce in about 25 years, it could prevent 300,000 cases of heart disease and save nearly $40 billion in healthcare costs.
How Much is Enough?
Experts say we should be eating between 7 to 13 servings of fruits and veggies daily. Most people don’t eat enough fruits and veggies each day. Only 1 in 10 people get the recommended numbers on a daily basis. Even though we might have days when we don’t eat so healthy (hey, it happens to all of us…even dietitians!!), there are ways to help fill in the gaps in our nutrition. I’ve been using something called Juice Plus for about five years, and I’ve noticed more energy and overall better health. If you want to learn more, you can visit my Juice Plus website. Remember, plants are powerful!