My mom would often tell me to eat variety of foods for a healthy body, mind and a good health. It is true that variety in meals holds key to longer life. If you try to know about the diet patterns of all those people who lived more than 90 years, you will find something common – all such people ate variety of meals.

We often try to eat more of all those foods which we love and no or very little quantities of all those foods which we are not fond of. All this causes an imbalance in our diets and fills us with overdose of some essential vitamins and minerals and deficiency of some other nutrients. If you eat a variety of food  in  one meal, it shall help you to lead a life which is free from several types of diseases. Foods which contain antioxidants or foods which provide us much needed fatty acids and whole grains help you to find different diseases related to Alzheimer’s, heart diseases and also diabetes.

This fact has been proved in a very recent study where research was carried out on a set of people who were given a variety of meals, while another group was given meal of one or just two types of foods. Scientists have found that if any person takes a variety of meals in a day, it helps in the reduction of cholesterol from the body which is a big reason for diseases such as those related to the heart. Variety of meals also helps to reduce the blood pressure levels of any individual by at least one tenth – this has been reported by express.co.uk.

Studies suggest that a diet which includes a variety of foods like meat, poultry, dairy products, blueberries or other fruits, porridge oats, oily fish, vegetables and salads is responsible for boosting the health of any individual, rather than a diet which was of only fish meals or vegetable meals or just poultry meats. With such variety of foods in meals, our body gets essential minerals, vitamins and other nutrients which help to keep our body healthy – thereby helping to increase our lifespan.

It has been proved that if you have a healthy and active diet, it shall help to hold back the occurrence of several diseases of liver and heart. Blood sugar levels and blood cholesterol levels are also controlled keeping you protected from these problematic conditions. Thus, if you wish to increase your longevity, you need to have a diet which is rich in fruits which are high in antioxidants, nuts and vegetables along with foods which are rich in fatty acids like fresh mackerel and also wholegrain cereals.

As per the famous Nutritionist Angela Dowden “The key is definitely to introduce these kinds of foods into the diet. It is a very healthy diet and completely proves the point that it is about healthy eating as a whole, not just doing one thing.” She further adds that  “It is a lifestyle change instead of tweaks here and there. It could be that it is just one of the foods that is producing these effects but it is much more likely that it is an additive affect of them all contributing,” 

Image credits - liverpoolcatering.co.uk