If you enjoy cheese, a recent study suggests that increasing your intake may slow down the ageing process. In other words, increasing your intake of cheese may contribute to better mental health, which influences the process of good ageing. Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine researchers discovered this after examining 2.3 million Europeans’ publicly available DNA data.
Although this was not the primary finding of the study, cheese was a surprising contributor to both improved mental health and good ageing.
According to the study, which was published in Nature Human Behaviour (via New Atlas), mental health may be the most crucial factor in leading a longer, better life. Socioeconomic factors, which also have an impact on healthy ageing, are not relevant here.
Eight datasets totaling 2.3 million genetically varied Europeans were examined by the researchers. The “Mendelian randomization” method of DNA analysis was employed to investigate the causal relationship between the two variables. That’s how they found that a crucial component of healthy ageing is mental health.
The researchers looked at mental health and the aging-GIP, or genetically independent phenotype of ageing. They specifically looked at the resilience, self-rated health, healthspan, parental lifespan, and longevity as the five common aspects of the genetically independent phenotype of ageing (aging-GIP).
Individuals who had higher mental health also performed better on the aging-GIP features. The researchers also discovered that, despite the fact that socioeconomic status has a significant impact on ageing and health, it was irrelevant how wealthy or poor a person was. However, there was a correlation between mental health and things like more schooling, higher pay, and job happiness.
Additionally, 33 out of 106 variables that may have a detrimental effect on wellbeing and the aging-GIP were found by the researchers.
The list consists of lifestyle decisions, medical issues, and behaviour that might drastically lower the score for good ageing. A few things that will affect the score are using medications, smoking, and watching TV. The healthy ageing score is also lowered by conditions including heart failure, ADHD, stroke, and other cardiac problems.
This is where cheese consumption comes in. Cheese has a 3.67% favourable impact on mental well-being and healthy ageing characteristics, making it one of the five major lifestyle mediators discovered by the researchers. Fruit eating has positive effects as well, albeit a lesser one at 1.96%.
If the study’s findings are true, you might begin to reintroduce cheese to yourself if you don’t already enjoy it. If other health conditions don’t interfere, it would be simple to advocate eating fruit and cheese as part of a healthy diet even in the absence of research.
As exciting as it may sound, cheese by itself won’t guarantee improved mental health and a healthy ageing process. It would be even better if you paired cheese with more fruit and made healthy lifestyle changes like cutting back on smoking and TV time.
Future health initiatives targeted at enhancing mental health and promoting healthy ageing may be impacted by the study’s findings. To validate the results, however, more research will be required, as with any new discovery.
