Diet & Nutrition

Eating cheese plays a role in healthy, happy aging – who are we to argue?

Eating cheese plays a role in healthy, happy aging – who are we to argue?
Did we need science to tell us that a cheese platter was good for mental well-being? But this is important for healthy aging
Did we need science to tell us that a cheese platter was good for mental well-being? But this is important for healthy aging
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Did we need science to tell us that a cheese platter was good for mental well-being? But this is important for healthy aging
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Did we need science to tell us that a cheese platter was good for mental well-being? But this is important for healthy aging
The study design aimed to synthesize complex health factors into what the main barriers are to achieving mental well-being as we age
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The study design aimed to synthesize complex health factors into what the main barriers are to achieving mental well-being as we age

A massive study of 2.3 million people has found that, independent of socioeconomic factors, mental well-being may be the most important single aspect to healthy aging and living longer lives. But a surprise finding was that those who reported the best mental health and stress resilience, which boosted well-being, also seemed to eat more cheese.

Yes, cheese – something we've been making around the world and eating for more than 4,000 years, as recorded on the walls of tombs in ancient Egypt. In fact, a few years ago the world's oldest cheese – aged a few centuries beyond palatability – was dug up in the region.

The link between cheese and well-being was an unexpected finding in the study conducted by a team of researchers led by Tian-Ge Wang, out of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine.

"To inform meaningful health policies, we need fine-grained causal evidence on which dimensions of socio-economic status affect longevity and the mediating roles of modifiable factors such as lifestyle and disease," the researchers noted in the paper.

They looked at eight datasets encompassing a total of 2.3 million genetically diverse Europeans, using DNA-driven, two-sample Mendelian randomization to not just link a multitude of factors to healthy aging, but identify stronger, causal impacts. Naturally, it's complicated, because of what we know of how much genetics, lifestyle, wealth and education are inextricably linked to disease, health and lifespan.

In order to extract meaningful data, the team looked at mental well-being on the genetically independent phenotype of aging (aging-GIP) and the five common traits of this robust aging phenotype – resilience, self-rated health, healthspan, parental lifespan and longevity. These results were adjusted to account for socio-economic factors.

The study design aimed to synthesize complex health factors into what the main barriers are to achieving mental well-being as we age
The study design aimed to synthesize complex health factors into what the main barriers are to achieving mental well-being as we age

What they found was that people with better mental well-being also tended to be healthier as the years went on, scoring much higher in the aging-GIP traits such as resilience, higher self-rated health and longevity. Interestingly, while socioeconomic status has many impacts on how long we live – from being able to access healthcare to having lower work stress and better food and nutrition availability – the results of the study showed well-being and healthy aging was not absolutely determined by how rich or poor someone was.

That said, higher wages, better education and occupation satisfaction all played a part in the big picture of mental health and well-being examined here.

Anyway, back to the cheese. While not directly responsible for happy, healthy aging, a higher intake of cheese (and fruit) was one of the standout contributors in those who had high well-being scores.

A mediation analysis identified 33 factors that mediate "between the well-being spectrum and the aging-GIP" – essentially, statistically, the disease, behaviors and lifestyle choices that significantly reduce the healthy aging score. Key ones included TV watching, smoking, medication use, heart failure, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), stroke, coronary atherosclerosis and ischemic heart disease.

Cheese, on the other hand, swung the pendulum the other way in both its impact on the well-being spectrum and aging-GIP. One of five key lifestyle mediators the data testing identified, it had a 3.67% positive impact on those healthy aging factors (whereas, for example, higher fruit intake had a 1.96% positive result and too much TV time, an indication of a more sedentary lifestyle, had a 7.39% negative impact on the score for both indicators).

What does this mean overall? Well, much like all these cohort studies, complex interactions make it difficult to extrapolate any single factor to change for certain happy aging. Cheese could be as tied to wealth and social activeness as much as its dietary health benefits. And while a large study, it did solely focus on adults of European descent.

However, if you needed a reason to take another wedge out of the wheel in the refrigerator today, it seems you could be doing worse for your mental well-being and healthy aging.

The study was published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

Source: Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine via Scimex

9 comments
9 comments
David F
Well, it has been said that mice are hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings.
The Doubter
Jumping to some 'delicious' conclusions, aren't they?
paul314
For people in the industrialized world, fruit and cheese are typically foods that you make a deliberate choice to consume, rather than grabbing whatever processed stuff, or just putting on a pot of whatever is cheap and feeds you. So that means the people consuming them have the mental space to step back a bit from minute-by-minute demands in their lives. Could well be a correlation thing.
Brian M
@David F - But still fall for the mouse trap - so maybe not!
itsKeef
2-3 million ...and one... before reaching the end of the article , the seventy year old male rose and prepared three slices of mature Cheddar on a slice of toasted two day old sourdough.
Christian
A sample of 2.3 million genetically diverse Europeans is limited because "it did *solely* focus on adults of European descent". I guess the 15% of African/Asian/Arabian people living in Europe weren't included?

Either way, cheese is awesome, and like others have said, it's probably more a correlation, since cheese tends to cost a little extra and require a little more thought or education for most people than just grabbing processed food.

What's really interesting is that socio-economic factors play a part in longevity, but they don't dictate it. Meaning, anyone can live a long life regardless of their education/income. This is like those studies showing that the overall happiest people are married with kids, regardless of career, education, income, etc. Which is cool to see. Wealth is not the cure to illness, pain, or unhappiness.
DonnaAnita
Re "One of five key lifestyle mediators the data testing identified, it [cheese? Brie or goat or?; with enzymes or rennet?] had a 3.67% positive impact on those healthy aging factors," I don't see "it" on the “Candidate mediator” chart, unless “adiposity” points at obesity due to excess fat calories [but, no . . .]. Clarity rather than suggestion is a virtue.
johanschaller
Don't think you'd find too many people challenging the results of this study, but the important correlation is between good mental health and healthy ageing. Would the study have also isolated the effect of wine consumption I wonder? Then the synergistic effect of wine plus cheese. But I'm getting ahead of myself - I'll just nip down to the cellar...
Pierre Collet
@BrianM: David F was referring to the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
@Christian: Cheese is not milk. It doesn't contain lactose anymore (the harder the cheese, the less lactose) and can therefore be consumed by nearly anyone (no need for a Thymine mutation next to the lactase gene to eat cheese)...