Shifting to a healthier diet – and sticking to it – can add almost a decade to life for middle-aged people, a new study finds. The research published earlier this week in the journal Nature Food, assessed the health data of nearly half a million British residents whose eating habits have been documented as part of the UK biobank study. Researchers grouped 467,354 participants based on their eating habits and observed how these changed over time. Participants were grouped as either average and unhealthy eaters, or as people with food intake matching the UK’s Eatwell Guide and those whose diet matched what the researchers called the “longevity diet”. Currently, the UK population has a life expectancy at birth of about 84 years for women and 80 years for men. Adjusting for other contributing factors like smoking, alcohol, and physical activity, the study found that 40-year-old men and women who changed from an unhealthy diet to eating healthier food, and adhered to it, gained almost 9 to 10 years in life expectancy. “Here, using a prospective population-based cohort data from the UK Biobank, we show that sustained dietary change from unhealthy dietary patterns to the Eatwell Guide dietary recommendations is associated with 8.9 and 8.6 years gain in life expectancy for 40-year-old males and females, respectively,” scientists, including those from the University of Bergen in Norway, wrote. “In the same population, sustained dietary change from unhealthy to longevity-associated dietary patterns is associated with 10.8 and 10.4 years gain in life expectancy in males and females, respectively,” they added. Researchers say the longest gains in life expectancy were made by those changing their diets to consume more whole grains, nuts and fruits and less sugar-sweetened beverages and processed meats. Those who initially followed an average diet and later changed to healthier eating habits were found to have smaller life expectancy gains. “The bigger the changes made towards healthier dietary patterns, the larger the expected gains in life expectancy are,” researchers explained. The life expectancy gains also seemed to be lower when the diet change was initiated at older ages, but even these are substantial, scientists say. For instance, they say, even 70-year-olds can manage to extend their life expectancy by 4 or 5 years if they make a sustained diet change. The latest findings point to government actions that could contribute to people’s health improvements in the UK, such as health-oriented food taxes, improving food environments in school and working places, as well as subsidies to reduce the cost of healthy foods. “Such policy measures, informed by the up-to-date estimates on potential gains in life expectancy that we provide in this paper, could guide the deployment of resources to improve healthy eating patterns across the population,” researchers added. Read More Smoking causes 150 cancer cases every single day in UK, study finds Binman shoots first Hollywood film after chat with Mark Wahlberg changed his life ‘I could have gone blind if I hadn’t been able to go private’ ‘I could have gone blind if I hadn’t been able to go private’ Paul Rudd says ‘horrible’ Marvel diet left him drinking sparkling water as ‘reward’ How to celebrate Thanksgiving when you’re not close to your family

The Pentagon is beginning a new effort to contact former service members who may have been forced out of the military and deprived of years of benefits due to policies targeting their sexual orientation, starting with those who served under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

A lawyer for former president Donald Trump announced on Wednesday he would be leaving the legal team representing Mr Trump in an investigation by the Justice Department into classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago. The lawyer, Timothy Paraltore, told the Associated Press his departure had nothing to do with Trump nor was a reflection of the investigation which he has long called misguided and overly aggressive. Over the last several months, Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith has been looking into the hundreds of classified documents found at the former president’s Florida home and possible efforts to obstruct the probe. Mr Paraltore’s announcement comes just as Mr Trump has taken credit for the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade. Mr Trump claimed in multiple interviews, as well as on Truth Social, that without his three Supreme Court Justice nominations, abortion bans would not be possible. As he boasted about the landmark Supreme Court case, the former president also implied that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ six-week abortion ban may be ‘too harsh’ as he is losing popularity among female voters. Read More Trump lawyer exits legal team as Mar-a-Lago classified documents probe heats up CNN’s Kaitlan Collins named as new primetime host after Trump town hall debacle Don’t look now, but Ron DeSantis just suffered some big losses Oral sex on Trump calls and pardons for sale: The most disturbing allegations from the Giuliani lawsuit

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