14 DAY TRIAL // A team of researchers writing in the May issue of The American Journal of Medicine maintain that, according to their investigations, people who follow a Western style diet are more likely to die at a young age.
Apart from their having an increased premature death risk, these people are bound to experience more health problems as they get older, the scientists claim.
A typical Western diet includes significant amounts of fried and sweet foods. Red meat, high-fat dairy products, refined grains are also consumed on a regular basis by those who follow this diet.
In order to determine how a Western style diet affects an individual's life expectancy and their health condition, the researchers looked into the medical record of 3,775 men and 1,575 women whose average age was 51.
Between 1985 – 2009, these people were asked to drop by for a medical consult once every five years.
The information gathered in this manner allowed the scientists to draw conclusions concerning mortality rates and the occurrence of various chronic diseases amongst the participants to this study.
It was thus discovered that those who followed a Western diet were prone to passing away at an earlier age than those who seldom consumed said dishes.
Furthermore, they were likely to experience a decline in their overall functionality as they got older.
“The impact of diet on specific age-related diseases has been studied extensively, but few investigations have adopted a more holistic approach to determine the association of diet with overall health at older ages,” lead investigator Tasnime Akbaraly, Ph.D., reportedly said.
“We showed that following specific dietary recommendations such as the one provided by the AHEI [Alternative Healthy Eating Index] may be useful in reducing the risk of unhealthy aging, while avoidance of the ‘Western-type foods’ might actually improve the possibility of achieving older ages free of chronic diseases and remaining highly functional,” Tasnime Akbaraly further explained.