A researcher who studies 100-year-olds has revealed the two foods that could add years to your life.
Dan Buettner has spent decades analyzing the diets of the world’s longest-living people residing in the fabled ‘Blue Zones’ to reveal their secrets.
His work has found two grocery store-available items costing as little as $1 each are staples in centenarians’ diets: black beans and walnuts.
He recommended trying to eat a can of black beans a day to help boost lifespan, while for walnuts — a handful a day could help.
Dan Buettner has spent decades analyzing the world’s longest-lived people for their diet secrets. He has revealed the two tweaks that can add years to your life
Both of Buettner’s recommendations are easily purchased in a grocery store for amounts that won’t break the bank
Revealing the list at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference in Los Angeles, he said: ‘I have two revolutionary supplements to tell you all about.’
The crowd immediately chuckled, reports Business Insider, likely recognizing that he was about to tell them about foods that weren’t supplements at all.
Both beans and walnuts contain a lot of fiber, which can slash inflammation in the gut reducing the risk of deadly diseases like cancers.
They are also high in protein, which can slash cravings reducing the risk of someone overeating — which can lead to obesity already linked to a myriad of life-shortening conditions including heart disease and diabetes.
For walnuts, these are a top source of linoleic and Omega-3 fatty acids — which are also linked to a lower risk of heart disease and a longer life. Other nuts do not contain these nutrients in such high quantities.
Revealing the list, the expert added that overall eating any nuts or beans regularly was good for someone’s health. He said previously: ‘But at the end of the day, when it comes to longevity, there is no short-term fix.
‘You have to think about things you are going to do for years or decades… to stack the deck in favor of living to 100.’
In favor of beans, he pointed to a 2004 study that surveyed hundreds of elderly bean fans living in Blue Zones across Japan, Sweden and Greece.
Overall, this found that people who ate more beans lived longer — with a seven percent reduction in mortality risk for every 0.7oz of beans consumed.
And a 2016 review showed that eating a cup of beans a day led to weight loss — linked to a lower risk of numerous life-shortening conditions such as heart disease.
Buettner’s own research in Blue Zones has also revealed that people in these areas consistently eat about a cup of beans a day — suggesting a tie to longevity.
In Sardinia, where locals routinely live to 100 years old, people routinely enjoy a cup of chickpeas or fava beans daily, while in Nicoya, Costa Rica, where people often live to 90, diets are focused on black beans.
For walnuts, Buettner pointed to his own work in longevity zones.
His team has found that Seventh-Day Adventists in Loma Linda, California — who live a decade longer than the average American — eat walnuts five times a week.
Their work is also backed up by research including a study published in 2021 which found that those who consumed walnuts more than five times a week lived about 1.3 years longer on average than those who did not.
And a separate paper from 2022 found that those who ate walnuts early in life were more likely to be physically active and have healthier hearts than those who did not — which can also confer life-lengthening advantages.
It comes after scientists revealed they had discovered the secret to living to 100 in a new study.
The researchers found that people who ran a mile in less than four minutes lived five years longer than their peers.
But they say this time is highly unique, with only a few thousand people in the world having ever recorded being able to run that fast.
‘The beauty of exercises is that it’s a stress, but it’s a stress that our body is really designed to deal with and adapt and grow stronger from,’ said the researchers.