A new study shows that – regardless of socioeconomic factors – mental well-being is one of the most important aspects of healthy aging… and eating cheese is one way to boost it.
- Mental well-being is associated with healthy aging, regardless of socioeconomic status.
- Eating more cheese and fruit is one way to boost mental well-being.
- For the study’s researchers, greater attention to maintaining wellness could help people stay healthy as they age.
To age healthily and happily, eat cheese! That’s the advice of a research team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine who conducted a study on the elements that contribute to ageing well. In reality, this recommendation is a very quick summary of their work that examined the genetic data of 2.3 million Europeans. The details were presented in an article published in the journal Nature Human Behavior.
Aging: Cheese promotes well-being and health
To determine what makes for healthy aging, Chinese scientists used a technique called “Mendelian randomization”. This method uses the properties of genetics to try to establish causal links between two elements. To determine whether an elderly person was healthy, they relied on different factors such as resilience, self-rated health, age, parental lifespan and longevity.
By analyzing the full range of genetic and medical data, the researchers found that people with better mental well-being tended to be healthier as they aged. Income, education, and occupation were all associated with mental well-being. And, increasing income was the most strongly linked. But, those weren’t the only factors at play…
After selecting and monitoring 106 volunteers, the team determined that reducing sedentary behaviors (e.g., time spent in front of the television) and smoking improved well-being. Which then boosted the chances of aging in better health. In addition, increasing cheese and fruit consumption promoted mental health and reduced the effects of aging. According to the scientists’ calculations, eating more cheese had a positive impact of 3.67% on the self-rated health and lifespan of the people surveyed. Incorporating fruit into the diet had a positive impact of 1.96%.
Aging well: mental health must be taken into account
These results offer “encouraging evidence that improving mental well-being is a viable pathway to healthy ageing, regardless of the [statut socio-économique] of somebody”according to the authors.
They add in a communicated that their work highlights”the importance of integrating mental health support into public health policies and research on aging”. For them, measures and actions aimed at improving psychological well-being could “constitute a viable strategy to promote healthy aging in populations”.
