You can’t slow down time, but you might be able to slow down the effect of time on your body. The clock won’t stop, but what you eat might slow down aging.
Chronological aging isn’t real: it just measures the passage of time since you were born. It may not reflect the rate at which your body is actually aging. So, your biological age is much more important than your chronological age.
Science strongly suggests that only a small part of biological aging is attributed to genetic factors. A much more significant contribution is made by lifestyle, including, importantly, diet (BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine. 2024;29:255-263). Healthy diets have been shown to have a positive effect on aging, while inflammatory diets have been shown to accelerate biological aging.
Ultra-processed foods, like processed meat, soft drinks and sweet and salty packaged snacks, are made to taste better at the price of being higher in calories and chemical additives. They are loaded in saturated fats, sugar and salt and deficient in fiber, vitamins and minerals, and they are associated with an increased risk of death and disease.
This study set out to determine the effect of ultra-processed food and biological aging.
The large study included 24,325 people. It found that people who ate the most ultra-processed food had a biological age that was 1.6 years older than their chronological age, while people who ate the least ultra-processed foods had a biological age that was 4.1 years younger than their chronological age.
This study shows that a diet rich in ultra-processed foods accelerates biological aging. The good news is that, while the clock ticks on, a healthy diet can slow down your biological aging.
Am J Clin Nutr. December 2024;120(6):1432-40.