Younger with a vegan diet. Or so suggests a small study conducted on 21 pairs of identical adult twins, published in BMC Medicine, during which the volunteers, divided into two groups, followed two different diets for 8 weeks: one without foods of animal origin and one omnivorous. The research group designed the study in such a way as to avoid the impact of other environmental factors to evaluate only the effects of nutrition. It was thus observed that a vegan diet is associated with a reduction in estimates of biological age. A calculation that, on a technical level, is based on the levels of DNA methylation, a chemical variation known as epigenetic modification, which alters genetic expression but not the DNA itself.
In previous research, in fact, it was highlighted that the increase in DNA methylation levels is associated with aging. In detail, the researchers who signed the study – Varun Dwaraka, Christopher Gardner and colleagues – analyzed the molecular effects of a short-term vegan diet by asking a group of twins (one for each of the 21 couples) to follow an omnivorous diet for eight weeks, with the consumption of 170 to 225 grams of meat, an egg and half a portion of dairy products every day. The other group followed a vegan diet for the same period of time. The sample was composed of 77% women (32) and the participants were on average 40 years old.
At the end of the study, the authors observed, in addition to a decrease in biological age estimates in those who followed the vegan diet, a decrease in the age of the heart, hormones, liver, and inflammatory and metabolic systems. The researchers highlight that those who had not consumed animal-based foods had lost an average of two kilograms more than those who had followed an omnivorous diet during the first four weeks of the study. These weight changes – the scientists indicate – could have contributed to the differences observed in the epigenetic age of both groups. “Therefore, further research is needed to investigate the relationship between diet composition, weight, and aging, as well as the long-term effects of vegan diets,” they emphasize.
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