A long term study by Penn State and the Geisinger Healthcare System on the effect of diet on 449 older people (average 76.5) over the last five years has come to a controversial conclusion about health and diet.
They grouped people into 3 dietary patterns:
- Sweets and dairy – high baked goods and dairy desserts, with low intake of poultry
- Health conscious – pasta, noodles, rice, fruit, poultry, nuts, fish and vegetables, with low fried and processed foods and soft drinks
- Western pattern – bread, eggs fats fried vegetables, alcohol and soft drinks, with low milk and fruit.
The study identified whether the following health related problems developed:
- cardiovascular disease
- diabetes
- high blood pressure (hypertension)
- metabolic syndrome
The conclusion – no relationship between dietary pattern and prevalence of these diseases, other than an increased risk of hypertension in the sweets and dairy pattern. Which suggested older people had little to gain by implementing overly restrictive dietary prescriptions.
My take on this study
- since when did pasta, rice and noodles constitute a healthy antiaging diet?
- how many people develop these diseases after 75, if they don’t already have them?
- if you are not developing metabolic syndrome or diabetes late in life eating baked good, sweets, fruit and dairy, you must have some seriously good genes expressing themselves.
- the fact that these foods can be grouped like this (absolutely not what the antiaging researchers have found) shows how confused we are about what is damaging and what is sustaining. For example eggs, low milk and low fruit is BAD and high pasta, rice and noodles is GOOD.
- this is like saying “we had 3 groups of people, we fed them non lethal doses of strychnine, arsenic and mercury – and wow they were all as unhealthy as each other.
Reference:
In Seniors Over 75, Diet May Not Impact Certain Health Outcomes
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