Can two people of the same age have bodies that are ageing at different rates? Yes. And what they eat could be one of the factors influencing that difference.
A new study published in Nature Communications has looked at 10 established dietary patterns to understand how they relate to biological ageing. Researchers found that people who followed healthier eating patterns tended to show signs of slower ageing at a molecular level.
The interesting part is that no single diet emerged as the answer. The Mediterranean, DASH, Nordic and several plant-based eating patterns all showed beneficial associations. Researchers also found that diets with different food recommendations appeared to influence some of the same biological processes.
Here is what the study found and what these 10 diets involve.
Biological Ageing Is Different From Your Age In Years
Your age in years does not necessarily tell the whole story about your health. Biological ageing looks at what is happening inside your body, including changes at the cellular and molecular levels.
For this study, researchers examined DNA methylation. These are chemical modifications to DNA that help regulate how genes function. Diet and other environmental factors can be associated with changes in these patterns.
Scientists can use DNA methylation data to estimate biological age and how quickly someone is ageing. These measurements allowed researchers to compare the biological ageing patterns of people with different eating habits.
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The 10 Diets Included In The Study
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Researchers first analysed data from 6,470 participants in the Rhineland Study in Germany. Participants were between 30 and 95 years old, with an average age of 56.3 years. The researchers examined 10 dietary scores. Some are designed around specific health goals, while others measure the quality of plant-based eating or the inflammatory potential of a person's diet.
The first one is a Mediterranean diet filled with vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts and olive oil. Fish is a regular part of it, while red and processed meat are limited. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, and it was developed to help manage blood pressure.
MIND Diet combines elements of the Mediterranean and DASH diets, with a focus on promoting brain health. Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI-2010), on the other hand, measures overall diet quality using food groups and nutrients associated with chronic disease prevention.
Based on traditional eating habits in Nordic countries, a Nordic diet comes next, which commonly includes grains like rye, oats, root vegetables, legumes and fish.
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EAT-Lancet diet considers both human health and environmental sustainability by prioritising vegetables, fruits, whole grains, with limited meat consumption. The Plant-Based Diet Index measures how much of a person's diet comes from plant foods. It includes both nutritious and less nutritious plant-based foods.
The Healthful Plant-Based Diet Index gives higher scores to nutritious plant foods, including whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes, while the Unhealthful Plant-Based Diet Index measures a plant-based diet built around less nutritious choices, like refined grains, sweets, and sugary drinks.
It implies that plant-based does not automatically mean healthy.
Lastly, the Dietary Inflammatory Index measures the inflammatory potential of an overall diet. A higher score indicates a more pro-inflammatory eating pattern, while a lower score indicates a more anti-inflammatory one.
The Major Findings
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The researchers found that people with higher scores on healthier dietary patterns generally had lower biological age acceleration and a slower pace of ageing. The associations were seen across the Mediterranean, DASH, MIND, AHEI, Nordic and healthful plant-based diets.
The reverse was generally true for the unhealthful plant-based diet and the Dietary Inflammatory Index. Higher scores on these patterns were associated with less favourable ageing markers. There were some differences in the strength of these associations.
DASH and Nordic diets showed particularly consistent results. Both were associated with lower values across all three biological ageing measures in the Rhineland Study.
The study also shows that eating plant-based and eating healthily are two completely different things. Researchers separately examined overall plant-based eating, healthful plant-based eating and unhealthful plant-based eating. And the results were not the same.
Different Diets, Similar Effects On The Body
Researchers also wanted to understand what was happening at the molecular level. They examined approximately 850,000 DNA methylation sites and found that the different dietary patterns were associated with largely different sets of DNA methylation markers.
However, the biological pathways associated with these markers overlapped by more than 70%. These included processes involved in cell structure, cell signalling, metabolism and neurogenesis, which is the formation of new neurons.
The DASH diet was also linked to pathways involved in heart valve development, while the MIND diet showed associations with cognition, learning, memory and the development of nerve connections.
It shows that different diets may influence different molecular markers while still being associated with some of the same processes in the body.
Yes, following a generally healthy dietary pattern was associated with slower epigenetic ageing, but no single diet was essential to see this relationship. The Mediterranean, DASH, Nordic and healthful plant-based diets all showed beneficial associations. Their food recommendations differ, but they share an emphasis on nutritious foods.
While the study doesn't promise that a particular meal plan will reverse ageing, it definitely shows that there's a relationship between overall diet quality and biological ageing markers.