Better diet quality is associated with decreased risks of cardiometabolic disease, cancer, and death. The development of healthy eating food indexes is becoming more and more important in a world overpopulated were food is vital for everyone.
The biological mechanisms that link diet quality and disease risks are complex and may involve epigenetic modifications.
This hypothesis is supported by recent studies [1] showing that DNA methylation at individual cytosine-phosphate-guanine sites in candidate gene regions can mediate the relationship between diet quality and the prevalence of metabolic diseases and cancer.
Several epigenetic clocks have been developed; some were designed as predictors of chronological age, whereas others were designed as predictors of mortality. It is already known the associations between diet and age acceleration metrics, that have predominately focused on individual dietary components, such as food items or specific nutrients.
This hypothesis is supported by recent studies [1] showing that DNA methylation at individual cytosine-phosphate-guanine sites in candidate gene regions can mediate the relationship between diet quality and the prevalence of metabolic diseases and cancer.
Several epigenetic clocks have been developed; some were designed as predictors of chronological age, whereas others were designed as predictors of mortality. It is already known the associations between diet and age acceleration metrics, that have predominately focused on individual dietary components, such as food items or specific nutrients.
A recent study [1], based on a sample of women between ages 35 and 74 and had a biological sister previously diagnosed with breast cancer but were themselves free of breast cancer, analyses the diet of sample and physical habits.
In this study scores are given on four recommendation-based dietary indexes, that are based on specific healthy eating.
It shows that diet quality is related to the subset of epigenetic clocks designed to reflect mortality risks, and suggests that improving diet quality may have the most benefits in lowering the biological age for women with lower levels of physical activity.
It shows that diet quality is related to the subset of epigenetic clocks designed to reflect mortality risks, and suggests that improving diet quality may have the most benefits in lowering the biological age for women with lower levels of physical activity.
The findings introduce the hypothesis that the health benefits of physical activity and diet quality may operate on the same epigenetic pathways that are captured by the specific PhenoAge clock.
Future studies can further investigate associations among other races and/or ethnicities.
[1] Healthy eating patterns and epigenetic measures of biological age – Jacob K Kresovich, Yong-Moon Mark Park, Jean A Keller, Dale P Sandler, and Jack A Taylor; The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 115, Issue 1, January 2022, Pages 171–179
