{"id":35312,"date":"2025-04-20T10:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T10:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/35312\/"},"modified":"2025-04-20T10:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T10:04:08","slug":"im-a-longevity-expert-most-100-year-olds-have-eaten-one-type-of-carbohydrate-their-entire-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/35312\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I’m a longevity expert – most 100-year-olds have eaten one type of carbohydrate their entire lives’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although carbohydrates have long been vilified for their association with unwanted weight gain and blood sugar spikes, an expert has warned that no longevity diet would be complete without them.<\/p>\n

The difference lies in their structure. While one type is responsible for that mid-afternoon energy crash, the other provides the body with a steady stream of energy to last the day.<\/p>\n

The widely recognised longevity expert Dan Buettner recently broke down why complex carbohydrates are one of the most important components of a longevity diet.<\/p>\n

He shared: \u201cThere are a lot of lies on Instagram and the internet, and one of them is that carbs are bad for you.<\/p>\n

\"sweet<\/p>\n

Complex carbs like sweet potatoes could promote longevity<\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

\u201cCarbs are arguably one of the healthiest things in any longevity diet, but there is a distinction. The most unhealthy in our diet are simple carbohydrates – the refined grains, the sugars, and the high-fructose corn syrup.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut on the other side of the carbohydrate bracket, you have complex carbohydrates like beans, whole grains, and tubers. Those are the healthiest ingredients in a longevity diet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do I know this? Because I know exactly what 100-year-olds have eaten their entire lives, and it\u2019s mostly complex carbohydrates.\u201d<\/p>\n

This claim was supported by a study from the Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan, published in 2023.<\/p>\n

Researchers observed that men who consumed too few carbohydrates significantly increased their risk of all-cause mortality.<\/p>\n

It was also noted that women who ate too little fat had a marginally higher risk of all-cause and cancer-related mortality.<\/p>\n

Complex carbohydrates, found in whole grains, legumes, and vegetables, are slowly broken down by the body, providing steady energy.<\/p>\n

Unlike their simple carbohydrate counterparts, whole food carbohydrates are nutrient-dense and don\u2019t cause blood sugar spikes.<\/p>\n

\"Senior<\/p>\n

Longevity experts recommend complex carbs for healthy ageing<\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

They also provide a wealth of essential nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, necessary for cellular repair and disease prevention.<\/p>\n

Dan Buettner, who coined the term Blue Zones, regions of the world where people commonly live to an exceptional age, emphasises the importance of these foods.<\/p>\n

These areas, including Ikaria in Greece, Okinawa in Japan, and Sardinia in Italy, feature carbohydrates prominently in their diets.<\/p>\n

Some popular choices among these populations include whole grains like oats, quinoa, and brown rice, as well as starchy vegetables and sweet potatoes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although carbohydrates have long been vilified for their association with unwanted weight gain and blood sugar spikes, an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4318],"tags":[105,388,4716,4434,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-35312","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-lifestyle","10":"tag-longevity","11":"tag-nutrition","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114369729073323973","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}