We know that a diet high in fiber is important for gut health and weight management, but new research from Australia has turned up an unexpected benefit.
A study published in a June 2016 issue of Journals of Gerontology: Medical Sciences reported that eating the right amount of fiber from foods such as breads, cereals, and fruits can help us avoid chronic disease and disability well into old age.
Using data from the Blue Mountains Eye Study that examined more than 1,600 adults aged 50 years and older, the research team investigated the relationship between carbohydrate intake and healthy aging. Out of all of the factors they looked at—total carbohydrate intake, total fiber intake, glycemic index, glycemic load, and sugar intake—it was the dietary fiber intake that had the biggest impact on what the scientists defined as successful aging, which included an absence of depressive symptoms, impaired cognition, respiratory symptoms, disability, as well as common chronic disease conditions such as stroke, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
According to lead study author, Bamini Gopinath, PhD from the Westmead Institute for Medical Research’s Centre for Vision Research in Sydney, this is the first study to examine the relationship between carbohydrate intake and healthy aging.
“Out of all the variables that we looked at, fiber intake, which is a type of carbohydrate that the body can’t digest, had the strongest influence,” she said in a press release. “Essentially, we found that those who had the highest intake of fiber or total fiber actually had an almost 80 percent greater likelihood of living a long and healthy life over a 10-year follow-up. That is, they were less likely to suffer from hypertension, diabetes, dementia, depression and functional disability.”
While it is too early to use results from this study for advising people about diet, Gopinath said she believes this research warrants further investigation. “There are a lot of other large cohort studies that could pursue this further and see if they can find similar associations. And it would also be interesting to tease out the mechanisms that are actually linking these variables,” she stated.
