Diet & Long Life

Because your body relies on the foods that you eat to maintain equilibrium, your diet can extend or detract from your life expectancy. Getting adequate nutrition keeps you stronger longer, while poor nutrition and weight gain instead lead to diseases that may end your life. By increasing the "good stuff" in your diet that helps you control your weight, you'll avoid health risks and diet-related degeneration of body systems that are vital to a long life.

Metabolic Support

Your metabolism requires a complex interaction among the cells of your body's organs and tissues, which all require energy and other nutrients from foods. A balanced diet distributes the right amount of protein, fatty acids, carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins to cells via digestion and blood circulation. An excess of fats and carbohydrates or a deficiency of vitamins and minerals can upset this mechanism and harm your health through weight gain or tissue damage. Eating more vegetables, fruits and whole grains helps you avoid excess and strike a nutritional balance.

Heart-Healthy Nutrients

As you limit the more detrimental nutrients, you make way for those that establish sound cardiovascular health. The soluble fiber in whole oats, for instance, and the omega-3 polyunsaturated fats in salmon are associated with improved blood cholesterol. To enjoy long life, the American Heart Association suggests eating whole instead of refined grains and putting fish on your menu several times per week.

Calorie Control

Cutting back on detrimental nutrients such as the saturated fat and cholesterol in meats can help you trim calories and control your weight for greater longevity. The Office of the Surgeon General reports that overweight people carry greater surgical and birth delivery risks. A weight gain of 10 pounds increases your chance of premature death, while 11 to 18 pounds gained make the development of Type 2 diabetes twice as likely. Carrying 20 extra pounds increases women's breast cancer risk. Overweight conditions are also associated with higher incidence of high blood pressure, arrhythmia, heart attack, stroke and several forms of organ cancer.

Healthy Aging

Increasing beneficial nutrients can improve the quality of a longer life by slowing the body's rate of decline over the years. For example, adequate dietary calcium may help prevent hip fractures caused by reduced bone density, or osteoporosis, while consistent vitamin B-12 intake may prevent dementia symptoms down the road. Eating a balanced diet over the course of your lifetime, then, is your best bet for a long and productive life.