The Role of Diet on Life and Health Span-Lessons Learned Over the Past 75 Years

Houston explores the role of diet on life and health span, highlighting the lessons learned from 1945 to 2020. In 1946, Clive McCay and colleagues published a study in the Journal of Gerontology describing the effect of diet and coffee on lifespan in rats. At the time, nutrition research was largely focused on the role of vitamins and minerals to treat diseases of deficiency. However, little was known as to how improving the human diet based on these discoveries would affect lifespan. The understanding of nutrition has advanced considerably since the 1946 study showing that improving a diet commonly consumed in the northeastern part of the US with either foods richer in vitamins and calcium or specific synthetic vitamins did not result in a longer lifespan in rats. More recent research on diet patterns in humans has identified foods/food groups that are associated with decreased morbidity and mortality and increased quality of life.