Here’s another reason to stick to your New Year’s resolution to make better food choices: Following a healthy eating pattern is linked to a lower risk of death in general and a lower risk of death from heart disease, cancer, lung disease, and neurodegenerative disease specifically, according to a large observational study.
Researchers followed 75,230 women from the Nurses' Health Study and 44,085 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study over a period of 36 years and graded them on their ability to stick to one of four different healthy eating plans recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Those plans were: Healthy Eating Index 2015, Alternate Mediterranean Diet (AMED), Healthful Plant-based Diet Index, and Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI).
The researchers found that people who scored the highest in measures of adherence to these patterns had a 14% to 20% lower risk of death than those who scored lowest. Those who scored highest had a 6% to 15% lower risk of death due to heart disease, a 7% to 18% lower risk of cancer-related death, and a 35% to 46% lower risk of respiratory disease-related death. Those with the highest scores on the AMED and AHEI also saw a modestly lower risk of death due to neurodegenerative disease, the researchers said.
The study, funded in part by the NHLBI, appeared in JAMA Internal Medicine.