Healthy Living Tips

Low-Carb Diets Could Sabotage Healthy Aging

Low-Carb Diets Could Sabotage Healthy Aging

If you’re avoiding carbs in an effort to improve your diet, you may want to reconsider. A new study found that women who ate more carbohydrates — especially the unrefined kind in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and beans — significantly improved their odds of making it to age 70 without chronic diseases, memory loss, physical decline, or depression.

However, when the researchers looked specifically at women with higher intakes of refined carbohydrates — the kind in white bread, pastries, and processed snacks — they saw that benefit disappear.

“We’ve all heard that different carbohydrates can affect health differently, whether for weight, energy, or blood sugar levels. But rather than just look at the immediate effects of these macronutrients, we wanted to understand what they might mean for good health 30 years later,” says lead author Andres Ardisson Korat, DSc, a scientist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston.

The study defined healthy aging as:

  • Living to at least 70 years old
  • Not having one of 11 major chronic illnesses like heart disease, diabetes, or cancer
  • Staying mentally sharp with no memory issues
  • Maintaining physical ability, including the ability to engage in moderate activities like walking a few blocks
  • Having good mental health as measured by standardized depression scale for older adults

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