3 days ago
Good carbs and weight loss in mid-life help when old, doctors say
Curbing or preventing middle-aged spread could be key to avoiding serious medical problems in later life, with the type and quality of carbohydrates consumed during a person's 40s and 50s likely key to healthy ageing.
"Sustained weight loss from overweight to healthy weight in mid-life was associated with decreased risk of chronic diseases, including and excluding type 2 diabetes," according to a team of doctors and scientists at the University of Helsinki, University of Turku and University College London.
Achieving this weight loss "without surgical or pharmacological interventions" means "long-term health benefits beyond its associations with decreased diabetes risk," said the researchers, whose research covering around 23,100 people was published by the American Medical Association (AMA).
The AMA also recently published a study of around 47,000 women done by a team from Tufts University and Harvard University in which the researchers say fibre and carbohydrates are "favorably linked to healthy ageing and other positive health outcomes in older women."
"Intakes of total carbohydrates, high-quality carbohydrates from whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes, and total dietary fiber in midlife were linked to 6 to 37% greater likelihood of healthy aging and several areas of positive mental and physical health," they reported.
At the same time, intakes of refined carbohydrates from added sugars, refined grain and starchy vegetables are "associated with 13% lower odds of healthy ageing."
'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," said Tufts' Andres Ardisson Korat.
"Our results are consistent with other evidence linking consumption of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and legumes with lower risks of chronic diseases, and now we see the association with physical and cognitive function outcomes," said Qi Sun of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
