We humans have many desire to appear as young as possiblealways seeking eternal youth. This has meant that its search has ceased to be the exclusive terrain of the alchemy to become one of the hottest fields in biotechnology, with many treatments that seek to literally make us younger or even extend our lives. Now, the vegan diet It is at the center of supposed iron health, and science has wanted to verify whether consuming it leads to an increase in the years of life.
The twin experiment. Traditionally, doing research on how a person ages has been a problem because of genetics. And comparing two therapies between two people to see if they age more or less quickly makes us wonder if the result is due to the treatment or diet or because one of the members has very good genetics.
To eliminate this variable from genetics, science has found the best way to work: use identical twins. In this way, their genetics will be exactly the same and the effect of the intervention we perform will be directly related.
The study. They recruited a total of 21 pairs of healthy adult identical twins. One of each pair was assigned a healthy omnivorous diet; on the other, a strict vegan diet. In total, for eight weeks the impact was measured using epigenetic clocks with algorithmic tools that estimate biological age based on in DNA methylation.
Methylation is the process by which small chemical groups called methyls are added to certain parts of DNA with the aim of being able to ‘turn genes on or off’, causing some instructions to be read and others not. Something that is related to agingsince it changes over time.
The results. In this case, what the researchers saw was very interesting, because despite the short time the diet was maintained, it was found that the vegan group showed significant reductions in estimated biological age. This is something that was seen in decreased DNA methylation in pathways related to inflammation and metabolism.
All of this adds up to improvements in fasting insulin and a reduction in LDL cholesterol, leading to better old age. But although everything seems very good, caution was already requested with these results.
Because. It’s okay that the vegan diet seems to offer good results, but the big question is why this happens. And the summary tells us that it was not just because they left meat aside, but because they stopped eating in general. This is the most important point, because the vegan group consumed fewer calories simply because the calorie density, and therefore the calorie restriction in the end It is one of the few methods which has been proven to extend life in animal models.
This also adds up to weight loss, as the vegan participants lost more weight than their omnivorous counterparts. Critics point out that rapid weight loss can alter epigenetic markers on its own, regardless of the food source.
The problem. Although the fact of being on this diet for such a short time and under the study means that longitudinal research is still needed to know if this translates into years of real life gained.
And although the biological clock slowed down in this case, researchers warn about the long-term risks of having a poorly planned vegan diet. One of the consequences is the vitamin B12 deficiencyalthough today the supplementation that is done in foods makes this a minor problem.
Added sugar. The other culprit of aging and to which we pay less attention. A study published in 2024 I was quite clear about the consequences of its consumption, in some cases without knowing it because we did not read the labels of the foods we consumed. In this case, a study with 242 middle-aged women used epigenetic clocks to measure cellular damage to correlate it with their consumption.
The results in this case were quite clear: each extra gram of sugar added was associated with an increase in epigenetic age. However, there is a brake that we find in our Mediterranean diet, which is rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. That is why eliminating up to 10 grams of added sugar per day could reverse the biological clock in approximately 2.4 months.
The lesson. Scientific literature points out in this case that what matters in food is quality, not just the label. This is why a varied diet with fruits, vegetables or legumes is directly associated with lower mortality and a decrease in chronic diseases. On the contrary, a vegan diet that is based on ultra-processed foods (even if it has very little meat) can be really harmful in the end.
Images | Anna Pelzer
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings