There is no doubt that many of us have heard about different diets: the keto diet, Atkins, Paleo, Mediterranean diet, intermittent fasting… etc. and their role in maintaining good health.
But it turns out that following a plant-based diet, even if followed in the short term, could be the key to living healthy and slowing the signs of aging at the molecular level, according to the medical website “WebMD”.
In a new study, researchers followed 21 pairs of identical (true) twins for 8 weeks, feeding one twin a plant-based diet consisting mostly of vegetables, legumes, and fruits, and the other a diet of animal products such as meat and dairy.
At the end of the study, blood tests showed that those who followed the plant-based diet had a shorter biological age, lost weight, and had lower levels of low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, also known as “bad cholesterol.”
With the new study, nutrition experts want to say that we don’t have to adopt an “all or nothing” approach to eating plant-based foods. Simply changing the proportions of foods can help the body fight the signs of aging that appear on the body.
Dr. Matthew Landry, a dietitian and assistant professor of population health and disease prevention at the University of California, Irvine, likes to compare switching to a whole-foods diet to running a marathon.
“Running a marathon is great, but it may not be the right choice for everyone,” he says.
“Getting out and walking a mile is good for your overall health,” adds Landry, who was involved in the twins study. “Just taking small steps in the right direction adds up over time, and then doing the harder things becomes easier.”
Although the group of people in the study was small, with only 41 in total, most studies on diet are not guaranteed results because each person has a unique genetic makeup and family history that shapes the way they eat and how their body responds to food.
Researchers cannot control for biological or environmental factors in the people involved in the studies. For this reason, using identical twins to measure how nutrition affects DNA expression seems so compelling.
The problem with this study is that the twins who followed a vegetarian diet ate fewer calories than their counterparts who ate a diet that included meat and animal products, which increased the weight loss recorded in the study. This makes it difficult for scientists to know how much of the overall health benefits they gained were due to the vegetarian diet, the weight loss, or a combination of the two.
Despite the difficulty, what’s often overlooked is the fact that making these dietary changes can add years to a person’s healthy, functional, and enjoyable life, says Nate Wood, M.D., director of culinary medicine at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.
“It’s not easy, but it’s simple,” Wood adds. “The bottom line is: The more plants you eat, the better.”
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