Switching to a healthy diet could add 10 years to your life.

. Changing an unhealthy diet to a healthy diet in middle age could add 10 years to a person's life.

. A study found that eating lots of whole grains, nuts, and fruits could make the biggest difference.

. The bigger the change to the diet, the bigger the expected life expectancy gains in the study.

"According to a recent study, making the switch from an unhealthy to a healthy diet during middle age could potentially increase a person's lifespan by nearly ten years. This finding highlights the significant impact that dietary choices can have on our overall health and longevity."

"The study, which was published on Monday in the prestigious journal Nature Food, utilized a sophisticated model to estimate the potential impact of lifestyle changes on an individual's life expectancy. To gather data, the researchers turned to the UK Biobank, a comprehensive and extensive biomedical database and research resource. This database contains invaluable genetic and health information from a staggering 467,354 participants hailing from the United Kingdom. By analyzing this vast dataset, the researchers were able to shed light on the intricate relationship between dietary choices and longevity, providing valuable insights for improving our overall health and well-being.

"The study's model revealed fascinating findings: individuals in their 40s who made the switch from an unhealthy diet to a longevity-associated diet could potentially enhance their life expectancy by approximately 10 years. This change was particularly significant for women, who saw an average increase of 10.8 years, while men experienced an average increase of 10.4 years. These results highlight the transformative power of adopting a healthier eating pattern, emphasizing the importance of making positive choices for our long-term well-being."

"The study also found that transitioning from an average diet, rather than an explicitly unhealthy one, to the longevity-associated diet had its own benefits. For women in their 40s, this dietary change was linked to a gain in life expectancy of approximately 3.1 years, which slightly increased to 3.4 years for men. Interestingly, even making these dietary changes later in life, such as in their 70s, was associated with a significant gain in life expectancy of around five years. These findings highlight the potential positive impact of adopting a longevity-associated diet at different stages of life."

Gains in life expectancy are lower the longer the delay in the initiation of dietary improvements, but even for those initiating dietary change at age 70 years, the gain in life expectancy is about half of that achieved by 40-year-old adults," the authors wrote.

But overall, they found that the bigger the changes towards a healthy diet, the bigger the expected gains in life expectancy were.

Whole grains, nuts, and fruit were associated with the biggest life expectancy gains

The researchers at the University of Bergen, Norway, and the University of Glasgow, Scotland, found that whole grains, nuts, and fruits appeared to make the biggest positive difference to life expectancy. Those that were most closely linked to mortality were sugar-sweetened beverages and processed meat, the study said.

This has parallels with the Mediterranean diet, which is widely considered one of the healthiest ways to eat and emphasizes whole grains, lean proteins, fruits and vegetables, and healthy fats, while limiting processed foods, as well as sugary and fried foods.

The unhealthy dietary pattern, which was most closely associated with dying sooner, contained no or limited amounts of whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, fish, milk and dairy, and white meat and substantial amounts of processed meat, eggs, refined grains, and sugar-sweetened beverages.

An additional limitation was that the UK Biobank does not measure participants' consumption of rice, which is particularly important for many migrant groups, the study said.

Professor Gunter Kunhle, a nutritional scientist at the University of Reading, UK, who was not involved in the research, told Business Insider: "The findings are in keeping with the known evidence about the types of diets that lead to longer, healthier lives in individuals.

It's important to acknowledge that transitioning from an unhealthy diet to a healthier one can be challenging, especially when it has been a long-standing habit. While the study's findings provide valuable evidence for the benefits of adopting a healthy, balanced diet at any age, it's crucial to remember that real-life situations may differ from the modeled population in the study. Encouraging and promoting a healthy diet throughout all stages of life can have a positive impact on overall well-being. It's all about making small, sustainable changes that work for each individual.