Aging isn’t just about the number of candles on your cake. When it comes to aging, the real number that researchers look at is your biological age (epigenetic age), because it shows how old your cells are. Now, while you can’t change your chronological age, you can reverse and slow down your biological age with a variety of methods. With that, we revisit a 2025 study that suggested adding more plants and less meat to your plate is the best way to do this.
Healthy biological aging and your diet
While chronological aging can help you appreciate life, accelerated biological aging can affect how your genes behave and increase your risk of infections, chronic diseases, and early death.
To understand how different diets can affect your epigenetic age, and inspired by the Methylation Diet and Lifestyle Study, in which participants followed an eight-week program using epigenetic age as the primary outcome, the researchers sought to understand why some participants experienced greater reductions in epigenetic age.
With this, 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 survey has enrolled middle-aged adults from four US communities since the late 1980s, while NHANES remains a nationwide retrospective survey that aims to capture America’s health.
In terms of dietary habits, the researchers used four different scoring systems to measure how plant-heavy each person’s diet was, with higher scores for eating more plant-based foods and lower scores for eating more animal products. In addition, diets with less nutritious foods such as cereals, sugary drinks and sweets were higher on the unhealthy plant-based diet index.
Reversing biological age with a plant-based diet
According to research findingspublished aging, people who enjoy a plant-based diet are more likely to reduce epigenetic aging.
After adjusting for weight loss and other factors, such as age, the researchers found that consumption of methyl adaptogenic foods (plant-based foods) was significantly associated with reduced epigenetic age. These foods include turmeric, garlic, rosemary, berries, green tea, and oolong tea.
In fact, in terms of plant score, an increase in total plant diet score translated into between 0.16 and 0.28 years of slower biological aging.
In terms of which foods are best for healthy aging, whole grains differed by being associated with slower aging in both datasets, and fruits and vegetables had similar benefits in the NHANES study. In the ARIC study of less healthy foods, higher consumption of animal fat was associated with faster aging..
Does exercise help?
As for those hoping that their active lifestyle can combat their questionable food choices, researchers found in a post-hoc analysis that in people with high levels of physical activity, an unhealthy plant-based diet was still associated with faster aging in two out of three measures, suggesting that exercise may not always offset the risks of an unhealthy diet.
What’s more, despite the benefits associated with weight losshowever, research has found no link between weight loss and reduced epigenetic age, suggesting that what you eat is more important than how much you eat when it comes to biological aging.
Why do plant-based foods help you be healthier?
The foods highlighted in the study—turmeric, garlic, rosemary, berries, green tea, and oolong tea—are loaded with antioxidants, fiber, polyphenols, and other nutrients that help fight inflammation and cell damage and maintain telomere length and function.
Plant-based recipes
Although past research is consistent with other findings about the benefits of plant-based diets, it is not recent, and it has its limitations, including small sample sizes and a lack of diversity (most male participants were white and middle-aged).
However, 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 vegetarians and non-vegetarians, which shows that even small dietary changes can have a significant effect on your biological age and health.
With that said, enjoy some of the recipes below that will make your transition to plant-based eating easier.
Recipe 1: Quinoa salad with roasted vegetables and spinach
- 6 | Serves ready in 1 hour
- Recipes made possible with the support of Pharma Dynamics
Components
- rind and juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) dry or dried thyme
- 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 cut
- 6 baby brains, thickly sliced
- 2 onions, cut into wedges
- 1 red pepper, cut into pieces
- 200 g of broccoli, cut into florets
- 1⁄4 cup (60 ml) coarsely chopped
- salted almonds
- 1 cup (250 ml) cooked white quinoa
- 1⁄2 tsp (2.5 ml) salt
- 2 medium spinach leaves, chopped
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) freshly cut
- Peter the Italian
- 1⁄4 cup (60 ml) pumpkin seeds, toasted
- lemon wedges to serve
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 200 °C.
- Combine the lemon zest and juice, dried herbs, and half of the oil in a large glass bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add carrots, baby marrow, onion and pepper and toss well to coat evenly. Place the vegetables in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Fry for 20 minutes. Pour over broccoli and almonds. Fry for another 10 minutes – the vegetables should be cooked, but not soft.
- Meanwhile, place the quinoa in a pot with the salt and 21⁄2 cups (625 mL) water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 20-25 minutes or until tender. Drain well. Quinoa is ready when its “white tail” is visible.
- Add the remaining oil to the quinoa and toss.
- Toss the spinach with the roasted vegetables and nuts in a large bowl and toss in the cooked quinoa, Italian parsley and pumpkin seeds. Serve warm or at room temperature with lemon wedges.
Tips
- Replace the white quinoa with brown lentils or red quinoa and cook for 25-30 minutes.
- Fried pumpkin seeds in a frying pan, on medium heat, without any oil, for a few minutes until fragrant. Be careful as they can burn easily.
Recipe 2: Eggplant and pomegranate salad recipe
- 2 | Serves in less than 1 hour
- This recipe is from Lucy Watson’s cookbook Feed me.
Components
- a pinch of saffron thread
- 2 large eggplants, cut 2.5 cm thick
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp of napkin
- 1 clove of garlic, crushed
- Seeds from 1 pomegranate
- A small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, roughly cut leaves
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 20 g toasted pistachios, roughly chopped
- 2 spoons of tahini
- 4 tbsp plain soy yogurt
- 1 tsp maple syrup
- 2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
Method
- Heat the oven to 200º C (180º C, gas 6). Put the saffron in a small bowl and add 2 tsp of hot water. Put it aside.
- Using a sharp knife, score a cross on one side of each eggplant slice to allow the marinade to pass through. In a small bowl, mix the oil, ras el hanout and garlic. Rub this mixture on both sides of the eggplant slices, then sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet and cool in the oven for 35-40 minutes, until the aubergines are golden brown and slightly crispy.
- In a small bowl, mix the pomegranate seeds with the parsley, half the lemon juice and the pistachios.
- Place the tahini in a bowl with the saffron water and add the yogurt, remaining lemon juice, and maple syrup. Stir to combine well.
- Arrange the eggplant on a plate, spread over the pomegranate and pistachio mixture, and drizzle with the saffron yogurt. Top with a drizzle of pomegranate molasses to serve.
Quotes
Villanueva, J.L., Vita, A.A., Zwicky, 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. old age (online) doi:https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.206240.
