
Keep fit and trim in midlife to age well – how diet that avoids weight gain pays dividends
Curbing or preventing middle-aged spread – the tendency to gain weight in midlife – could be key to avoiding serious medical problems in later life, doctors say.
Advertisement
The type and quality of carbohydrates a person consumes in their forties and fifties is likely to be a determining factor in how healthily they age, research shows.
'Sustained weight loss from overweight to healthy weight in midlife was associated with decreased risk of chronic diseases,' according to a team of doctors and scientists at the University of Helsinki and the University of Turku in Finland, and University College London in the United Kingdom.
Achieving this weight loss without having surgery or taking drugs means 'long-term health benefits beyond its associations with decreased
diabetes risk ', said the researchers, whose study covering around 23,100 people was published by the American Medical Association (AMA).
Keeping trim in your forties and fifties, including by eating well, reduces the risk of developing chronic conditions such as diabetes, according to doctors and scientists from Finland and the UK. Photo: Shutterstock
The AMA also recently published a study of around 47,000 women carried out by a team from Tufts University and Harvard University, both in the US state of Massachusetts, in which the researchers say
fibre and carbohydrates are 'favourably linked to
healthy ageing and other positive health outcomes in older women.'
Advertisement
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


South China Morning Post
11 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Keep fit and trim in midlife to age well – how diet that avoids weight gain pays dividends
Curbing or preventing middle-aged spread – the tendency to gain weight in midlife – could be key to avoiding serious medical problems in later life, doctors say. Advertisement The type and quality of carbohydrates a person consumes in their forties and fifties is likely to be a determining factor in how healthily they age, research shows. 'Sustained weight loss from overweight to healthy weight in midlife was associated with decreased risk of chronic diseases,' according to a team of doctors and scientists at the University of Helsinki and the University of Turku in Finland, and University College London in the United Kingdom. Achieving this weight loss without having surgery or taking drugs means 'long-term health benefits beyond its associations with decreased diabetes risk ', said the researchers, whose study covering around 23,100 people was published by the American Medical Association (AMA). Keeping trim in your forties and fifties, including by eating well, reduces the risk of developing chronic conditions such as diabetes, according to doctors and scientists from Finland and the UK. Photo: Shutterstock The AMA also recently published a study of around 47,000 women carried out by a team from Tufts University and Harvard University, both in the US state of Massachusetts, in which the researchers say fibre and carbohydrates are 'favourably linked to healthy ageing and other positive health outcomes in older women.' Advertisement


South China Morning Post
a day ago
- South China Morning Post
Ancient China was home to earliest known matrilineal society, Neolithic burials reveal
Sometime around 4,500 years ago, a matrilineal community lived in what is now Shandong in eastern China. They farmed millet near the coast, raised animals and possibly engaged in fishing. This was the world's earliest known matrilineal society and it lasted 250 years, maintaining a stable lineage through at least 10 generations, a Chinese-led team has discovered. To decipher their family history, the team analysed ancient DNA from 60 individuals dating to between 2750 and 2500 BC. Their findings confirmed the existence of a Neolithic society that traced its descent through the female line. 'These findings lend support to the hypothesis that early matrilineal systems could emerge and persist in communities without strong mechanisms for wealth accumulation,' the team wrote in an article published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature on Wednesday. Scientists from Chinese institutions including Peking University, Shandong Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Minzu University of China and Sichuan University took part in the research, alongside peers from University College London. They set out to explore what they called 'a key but debated question' of whether early human societies were organised by paternal or maternal descent.


South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- South China Morning Post
How a pet dog could prevent eczema in children genetically at risk of the condition
Having a pet dog at home could potentially help prevent eczema in children who are genetically predisposed to the condition, according to a new study. Advertisement Academics said that having a pet dog in 'early life' could have a 'protective effect'. But they stressed that the study did not look at the effect dog exposure could have on existing eczema, and cautioned that introducing a dog could make symptoms worse among some children. Atopic eczema is a common skin condition that causes itchy skin. Children with a change in their DNA that increases their chance of developing eczema were less likely to have the condition if they were exposed to a dog in early life. Photo: Shutterstock Researchers said that the condition is caused by a combination of both genetic and environmental factors , but little is known about how the two interact.