A Reminder To Eat More Plants To Reduce Your Biological Age

Aging is more than just the number of candles on your cake. When it comes to aging gracefully, the real number that researchers look at is your biological (epigenetic age), as this reflects how well your cells are aging. Now, while you can’t reverse your chronological age, you can reverse and slow down your biological age through various methods. With that, we’re revisiting a 2025 study that suggested adding more plants and less meat to your plate is the best way to do so.

Healthy Biological Aging and Your Diet

While chronological aging can help you appreciate life, accelerated biological aging can influence how your genes behave and increase the risk for infections, chronic diseases, and early death.

To understand how different diets can influence your epigenetic age, and inspired by the Methylation Diet and Lifestyle study, whereby participants followed an eight-week program using epigenetic age as its primary outcome, researchers sought to understand why some participants had experienced greater reductions in epigenetic age than others.

With that, the research team, led by Hyunju Kim at the University of Washington, analyzed data from two datasets: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study, which included 2 810 participants, and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which included 2 056 participants.

The ARIC Study had enrolled middle-aged adults from four U.S. communities starting in the late 1980s, while the NHANES remains a recurring nationwide survey aimed at capturing American health.

Regarding dietary habits, the researchers used four different scoring systems to rate how plant-heavy each person’s diet was, with higher scores being given for eating more plant foods and lower scores for eating more animal products. Additionally, a diet with less nutritious plant foods like refined grains, sugary drinks, and sweets scored higher on the unhealthy plant-based diet index.

Reverse Biological Age with Plant Diet

According to the study’s findings, published in Aging, people who enjoy a plant-based diet are more likely to also enjoy greater reductions in epigenetic aging.

After adjusting for weight loss and other factors like age, the researchers found that the intake of methyl adaptogen foods (plant-based, nutrient-dense foods) was significantly associated with a reduced epigenetic age by around a year. These foods include turmeric, garlic, rosemary, berries, green tea, and oolong tea.

In fact, in terms of the plant-based scores, an increase in the overall plant-based diet score translated to between 0.16 and 0.28 years of slower biological aging.

As for which foods are the best for healthier aging, whole grains stood out by being consistently tied to slower aging across both datasets, with fruits and vegetables having similar benefits in the NHANES study. As for the less beneficial foods, a higher intake of animal fat was linked to faster aging in the ARIC Study.

Can Exercise Help?

As for those hoping that their active lifestyle may combat their questionable dietary choices, the researchers revealed in a post-hoc exploratory analysis that in people with higher physical activity levels, an unhealthy plant-based diet was still tied to faster aging on two of the three measures, suggesting that exercise may not always offset the risks of an unhealthy diet.

What’s more, despite the benefits associated with weight loss, in this case, the study did not find an association between losing weight and reductions in epigenetic age, suggesting that what you eat, not how much, may matter more when it comes to biological aging.

Why Do Plant Foods Help You Age Healthier?

The foods highlighted in the study – turmeric, garlic, rosemary, berries, green tea, and oolong tea – are packed with antioxidants, fiber, polyphenols, and other nutrients that help to combat both inflammation and cell damage, and preserve telomere length and function, ensuring that we age well.

Plant-Based Recipes

While the past study does align with other findings about the benefits of plant-based diets, it’s not recent, and it does have its limitations, which include a small sample size and the lack of diversity (the majority of the male participants were white and middle-aged).

Nonetheless, while we await future studies that can replicate the findings in larger studies, there’s nothing wrong with adding more plants to your plate. After all, the participants were not strict vegetarians or vegans, which suggests that even small dietary changes can make a meaningful impact on your biological age and health.

With that, enjoy some of the recipes below that will help your shift towards plant-based eating be an easier one.

Recipe 1: Quinoa Salad with Roasted Veg & Spinach

• Serves 6 | Ready in 1 hour
• The recipes were made possible with the support of Pharma Dynamics

Ingredients

• finely grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp (15 ml) dried thyme or dried
• mixed herbs
• 1⁄2 cup (80 ml) olive oil
• 1⁄2 tsp (2,5 ml) salt
• black pepper to taste
• 4-5 medium carrots, thickly sliced
• 6 baby marrows, thickly sliced
• 2 onions, cut into wedges
• 1 red pepper, cut into chunks
• 200 g broccoli, cut into florets
• 1⁄4 cup (60 ml) coarsely chopped
• unsalted almonds
• 1 cup (250 ml) uncooked white quinoa
• 1⁄2 tsp (2,5 ml) salt
• 2 medium spinach leaves, shredded
• 2 tbsp (30 ml) chopped fresh
• Italian parsley
• 1⁄4 cup (60 ml) pumpkin seeds, toasted
• lemon wedges to serve

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 200 °C.
• Mix lemon rind and juice, dried herbs, and half of the oil in a large glass bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
• Add carrots, baby marrow, onions, and pepper, and toss well to coat evenly. Spoon veggies in a single layer into a large oven dish. Roast for 20 minutes. Toss in broccoli and almonds. Roast for another 10 minutes – veggies should be cooked but not mushy.
• Meanwhile, place quinoa with salt and 21⁄2 cups (625 ml) water in a pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat, reduce the temperature, and simmer with the lid for 20-25 minutes or until just cooked. Drain well. The quinoa is cooked when its ‘white tail’ is visible.
• Add the remaining oil to the quinoa and toss through.
• Mix spinach with roasted veggies and nuts in a large bowl and toss in cooked quinoa, Italian parsley, and pumpkin seeds. Serve warm or at room temperature with lemon wedges.

Tips

• Substitute white quinoa for brown lentils or red quinoa and cook for 25-30 minutes.
• Roast pumpkin seeds in a frying pan, over medium heat, without any oil, for a few minutes until aromatic. Take care as these can easily burn.

Recipe 2: Aubergine & Pomegranate Salad Recipe

• Serves 2 | Under 1 hour
• This recipe was taken from Lucy Watson’s cookbook Feed Me Vegan.

Ingredients

• a pinch of saffron thread
• 2 large aubergines, cut into slices 2.5 cm thick
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp ras el hanout
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• Seeds from 1 pomegranate
• A small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, leaves roughly chopped
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 20g toasted pistachio nuts, roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp tahini
• 4 tbsp plain soya yoghurt
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• 2 tbsp pomegranate molasses

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200º C  (180º C, gas 6). Put the saffron in a small bowl and add 2 tsp hot water. Leave it to one side.
2. Using a sharp knife, lightly score a cross-hatch over one side of each aubergine slice to allow the marinade to permeate. In a small bowl, mix the oil, the ras el hanout, and garlic. Brush this mixture on both sides of the aubergine slices, then season generously with salt and pepper. Put on a baking tray and cool in the oven for 35-40 minutes until the aubergines are golden brown and have started to collapse a little.
3. In a small bowl, mix the pomegranate seeds with the parsley, half the lemon juice, and the pistachio nuts.
4. Put the tahini into the bowl with the saffron water and add the yoghurt, the remaining lemon juice, and the maple syrup. Stir to combine well.
5. Stack the aubergine rounds up on a plate, sprinkle over the pomegranate and pistachio mixture, and drizzle with the saffron yoghurt. Top with a drizzle of pomegranate molasses to serve.

References

Villanueva, J.L., Vita, A.A., Zwickey, H., Fitzgerald, K., Hodges, R., Zimmerman, B., and Bradley, R. (2025). Dietary associations with reduced epigenetic age: a secondary data analysis of the methylation diet and lifestyle study. Aging. [online] doi:https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.206240.

MAIN IMAGE CREDIT:Photo by VD Photography on Unsplash