What if there was a comprehensive list of specific foods to eat, and another list of ones to reduce, that can help you live to a ripe old age with your physical function, mental health, and cognitive function (your ability to learn, remember, reason, solve problems) intact?
What if these foods can help you reach those goals, while also reducing your risk of most cancers, diabetes, heart attack, bypass surgery, heart failure, stroke, kidney failure, lung disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)?
Researchers from Canada, Denmark, and the US recently studied the health of 105,015 participants over 30 years. Of those participants, 9,771 achieved healthy aging (all of the health benefits listed above). That’s only 9.3% of participants. Their diets were compared to others in the study who did not achieve healthy aging.
While this study found dozens of different foods associated with healthy aging (and not-so-healthy aging), these are five of the top foods in both of those categories.
Top foods that promote healthy aging
1 – Fruits and berries
Fruits like citrus and stone fruit and berries like raspberries and blueberries are delicious and make salads, smoothies, and snacks colourful to look at. This means that they also contain an abundance of fibre, vitamin C, potassium, and other nutrients, as well as compounds with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
An easy way to add extra fruits and berries to your day is to buy them frozen and put them into your smoothie, cereal, yogurt, or even glass of water. Fresh fruits and berries can become quick and easy snacks or desserts.
2 – Whole grains
Whole grains are from wheat, oats, and rye (and others) that still contain the nutrient-rich bran and germ. These whole grains naturally contain the fibre, protein, carbohydrates, and many vitamins and minerals that are often stripped out of grains as they’re processed.
Next time you’re grocery shopping, check the labels of your breads, pastas, or other baked goods to make sure they’re “whole grains.”If you’re a baker or cook yourself, choose whole grain flours whenever you can.
3 – Colourful vegetables including leafy greens
This is essentially the “eat the rainbow” advice. Darker greens (spinach, chard, kale) and colourful vegetables (orange, yellow, dark green) contain vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants for health and wellness.
Some easy substitutions or additions you can make to get more colour on your plate is to consider an orange (or purple) sweet potato instead of a white one, enjoy spinach in place of some iceberg lettuce in your salad, or add diced or shredded carrots to your stir fry, soup, or sauce.
4 – Nuts and legumes
Nuts and legumes include peanuts, walnuts, almonds, kidney beans, soybeans, chickpeas, and lentils (plus more). They are protein foods from plants and are often less pricey than protein foods from animals. In addition to protein, they contain fibre, unsaturated (healthy) fats, vitamins, and minerals.
Nuts can easily be incorporated into your day by having a small amount as a portable, filling snack, or sprinkling them on cereal, oatmeal, yogurt, or salad. They can also be enjoyed as nut butters on whole grain breads or crackers, or even as a dip for fruits or vegetables. Soybeans can be added to stir fries, soups, or salads as edamame or tofu. Other beans and lentils can also be used as toppers or be ground into dips like hummus. Many nuts and legumes (almond, soy) can be blended with water to make plant-based milks.
5 – Yogurt and low-fat dairy
Yogurt and low-fat dairy provide essential nutrients like protein, minerals like calcium, vitamins A and D, as well as some B-vitamins. Yogurts that contain “live active cultures” also provide healthful probiotics to the gut.
The idea of low-fat dairy is to reduce some of the naturally occurring saturated fats that are found in higher-fat dairy products like whole milk and cream.
Yogurt is one of the perfect foundations for combining several of these top foods for a long, healthy life. Chopped fruit, berries, nuts, and even whole grains can be added to yogurt to double or triple up these nutritious foods.
Foods to reduce for healthy aging
There are a few key foods that this study found were linked with less healthy aging. These include trans fats, processed meats, high sodium foods, butter and margarine, as well as added sugars, sugar-sweetened beverages, and sweets.
These are often found as ultraprocessed foods and a quick look at the food labels should tell you if which foods are higher in these not-so-healthy options.
Those who ate more trans fats, sodium, sugary drinks, and red or processed meats didn’t do as well when it comes to healthy aging.
What the researchers concluded
From the study: Figure 4 is a great visual to quickly see which specific foods (rows) are associated with healthy aging, intact cognitive function, intact physical function, intact mental health, free from chronic disease, and survived to 70 (columns).
See the difference between the very green rows of unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats vs the very red row of trans fats? I’m so glad that partially hydrogenated oils (it’s the partial hydrogenation that creates artificial trans fats) were banned here in Canada back in 2018 (the USA followed suit in 2021).
In other words, according to this 30-year study of over 100,000 adults, eating mostly plants and some healthy animal-based foods helped people live to be 70, free of 11 chronic diseases, and keep their cognitive, physical, and mental health intact.
My Invitation
How are you going to start incorporating more of the top foods that promote healthy aging into your diet? While this study did not specifically mention cognitive decline, we know that the same recommendations apply. So if we know what to do, why is it so hard?
Because knowledge is just the first step.
Join me for Love Your Brain! ~ a group coaching program that applies the Science of Habit Change as we practice the Six Principles of Health and Longevity.
Reference
Tessier, A. J., Wang, F., Korat, A. A., Eliassen, A. H., Chavarro, J., Grodstein, F., Li, J., Liang, L., Willett, W. C., Sun, Q., Stampfer, M. J., Hu, F. B., & Guasch-Ferré, M. (2025). Optimal dietary patterns for healthy aging. Nature medicine, 31(5), 1644–1652. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-025-03570-5