Want to Age Healthier? These Daily Foods Will Help You Do It

Eating more black tea, berries, citrus fruits, and apples may help you age healthily, reports the journal Nucleic Acids Research.

A study by researchers from Edith Cowan University (Australia), Queen's University Belfast (Northern Ireland) and Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health (USA) found that foods rich in flavonoids can help lower the risk of key components of unhealthy ageing , including frailty, impaired physical function and poor mental health.

The term frailty in medicine refers to older people who are most susceptible to the adverse effects of aging—falls, disability, frequent hospitalization, and the need for long-term care. They typically have weak muscles, conditions such as arthritis, poor eyesight, deafness, and memory problems. Frail older people walk slowly, get easily exhausted, and have difficulty getting out of a chair or climbing stairs. They usually cannot leave their homes without help.

- The aim of medical research is not only to help people live longer, but also to keep them healthy for as long as possible, said Dr Nicola Bondonno, lecturer at Edith Cowan University (ECU).

" We know from previous studies that people who eat more flavonoids live longer and are less likely to develop any of the major chronic diseases , such as dementia, diabetes and heart disease. Our research shows that people who eat more flavonoids age better," she added.

The study authors analyzed data from 62,743 women and 23,687 men collected over 24 years. They found that women with the highest flavonoid intake had a 15 percent lower risk of frailty, a 12 percent lower risk of impaired physical function, and a 12 percent lower risk of poor mental health compared with women with the lowest intake. While fewer associations were observed in men, higher flavonoid intake was still associated with a lower risk of poor mental health.

“ Flavonoids are well known for reducing oxidative stress and inflammation, supporting blood vessel health and even helping to maintain skeletal muscle mass – all of which are important for preventing frailty and maintaining physical function and mental health as we age,” said senior author Professor Aedin Cassidy, from Queens University Belfast.

She added that regular consumption of flavonoid-rich foods—such as berries, apples, red wine, oranges, and tea —may support healthier aging by reducing the risk of frailty, physical decline, and mental decline. The stronger associations observed in women may be due to differences in the time of follow-up between the two cohorts, rather than true gender effects that remain understudied.

" We found that participants who increased their intake of flavonoid-rich foods by three servings per day had a 6% to 11% lower risk of all three ageing outcomes in women and a 15% lower risk of poor mental health in men. Overall, these results underscore the potential of simple dietary modifications to impact overall quality of life and help optimize healthy ageing," said Professor Eric Rimm of Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.