When it comes to healthy ageing, the overall quality of a person’s diet matters more than eating any one “superfood” or nutrient. From the Mediterranean diet to the Nordic diet, specific eating patterns have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, physical frailty and cognitive decline.

But while we know diet affects our health, we haven’t really been clear until now on the changes it causes inside the body which lead to these benefits.

This is exactly what our latest study set out to explore. We found that older adults who ate high-quality diets exhibited biological signs of healthier ageing that could be detected in their blood. These findings offer a clearer picture of the connection between healthy eating and healthy ageing.

We looked at data from 1,769 adults aged 60 and older living in Stockholm, Sweden. Participants completed detailed questionnaires about what they typically ate over the previous year.

Rather than focusing on single nutrients, diet quality was measured using three well-established eating patterns.

The first eating pattern was based on Mediterranean-style eating, which involves consuming foods typical of Mediterranean countries – such as plant foods, wholegrains and fish. The second eating pattern was based on guidelines for reducing chronic disease risk, which also place an emphasis on fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes and avoiding processed and red meats, sugary drinks and trans fats (such as fried........

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