All 4 dietary metrics were significantly associated with biological age acceleration or deceleration.
Higher scores on the (DII) were linked to increased odds of accelerated biological age measures, including (HD) and (AL).
For participants in the highest DII category, the odds ratios for accelerated biological aging were 1.61 for phenotypic age (PA) compared to those in the lowest category.
In contrast, higher scores on the DASH, Alternate Mediterranean Diet score (aMED), and Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015) were associated with reduced odds of biological age acceleration.
Specifically, the highest quartile of these healthier dietary patterns showed lower odds ratios for HD, AL, KDM, and PA compared to the lowest quartile.
Participants taking dietary supplements exhibited enhanced benefits of a healthy diet on biological aging.
The systemic immune inflammation index (SII) and atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) were identified as mediators in the associations between diet quality and biological aging.
Simplified
BACKGROUND: Healthy dietary patterns have been negatively associated with methylation-based measures of biological age, yet previous investigations have been unable to establish the relationship between them and biological aging assessed through blood chemistry-based clinical biomarkers. We sought to assess the associations of 4 dietary metrics with 4 measures of biological age.
METHODS: Among 16,666 participants in NHANES 1999-2018, 4 dietary metrics [ (DII), Dietary approaches to stop hypertension index (DASH), Alternate mediterranean diet score (aMED), and Healthy eating index-2015 (HEI-2015)] were calculated through the 'dietaryindex' R package. Twelve blood chemistry parameters were utilized to compute 4 indicators of biological age [ (HD), (AL), Klemera-Doubal method (KDM), and phenotypic age (PA)]. Binomial logistic regression models and restricted cubic spline (RCS) regression were employed to evaluate the associations.
RESULTS: All 4 dietary metrics were significantly associated with biological age acceleration or deceleration. In comparison to the lowest DII, the odds ratios (ORs) for accelerated HD, AL, KDM, and PA were 1.25 (1.08,1.45), 1.29 (1.11,1.50), 1.34 (1.08,1.65), and 1.61 (1.39,1.87) for the highest. The multivariable-adjusted ORs of the highest quartile of DASH, aMED, and HEI-2015 were 0.85 (0.73,0.97), 0.88 (0.74,1.04), and 0.84 (0.74,0.96) for HD, 0.64 (0.54,0.75), 0.61 (0.52,0.72), and 0.70 (0.59,0.82) for AL, 0.68 (0.54,0.85), 0.62 (0.50,0.76), and 0.71 (0.58,0.87) for KDM, and 0.50 (0.42,0.59), 0.64 (0.54,0.76), and 0.51 (0.44,0.58) for PA when compared with the lowest level. The findings were validated by the best-fitting dose-response curves for the associations. Among participants consuming dietary supplements (P< 0.05), the positive effects of a healthy dietary pattern on biological aging were more pronounced. Systemic immune inflammation index (SII) and atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) were identified as being involved in and mediating the associations. interaction
CONCLUSIONS: Biological aging assessed through blood chemistry-based clinical biomarkers is negatively associated with diet quality. The anti-aging benefits of improving the diet may be due to its ability to reduce inflammation and lower blood lipids.
Key numbers
1.61
Increase in Odds of Biological Age Acceleration
Odds ratio for PA in the highest quartile vs. lowest quartile.
0.50
Decrease in Odds of Biological Age Acceleration
Odds ratio for PA in the highest DASH quartile vs. lowest quartile.
0.85
Decrease in Odds of Biological Age Acceleration
Odds ratio for in the highest HEI-2015 quartile vs. lowest quartile.
Full Text
We can’t show the full text here under this license.
