Researchers have developed an online calculator that can be used to calculate how a change in diet would affect life expectancy. But is it really that simple?
from
Werner Bartens
Health scientists at the University of Bergen in Norway have developed an algorithm that can be used to calculate the impact of a healthier diet on life expectancy. in the trade journal Plos Medicine the researchers led by Lars Fadnes show their calculations. The results are impressive: If a woman who has previously followed a typical Western lifestyle, i.e. tended to eat too much meat and fat, changes her diet permanently to a healthier diet at the age of 20, she can allegedly switch to a new diet 10.7 years higher life expectancy. According to calculations, the theoretical increase in lifetime for men is even 13 years. The biggest gains come from eating more vegetables, more whole grains and more nuts, and less red and processed meat, in that order. Because there would then be less vascular calcification, rarer diabetes, heart attacks and strokes, a older age could be reached, according to the specialist article.