ORLANDO, Fla. – Women tend to live longer than men but suffer from more diseases. On average, women live to be about 80 years old, while men live to be 75 in the United States. Now a new study reveals that certain colorful foods can make those longer lives healthier.
When it comes to debilitating diseases, the numbers for women are far higher than it is for men.
“Two-thirds of Alzheimer’s patients here in the U.S. are women.” Says Sepi Shokouhi, PhD Assistant Professor, Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
The numbers are the same for patients with macular degeneration. And with women having a longer lifespan, that means they will have to live with these conditions longer. But new research from the University of Georgia suggests that what women eat can make a difference.
Richard Seidman, MD, MPH Chief Medical Officer, L.A. Care Health Plan explains, “There’s a growing body of evidence that shows that healthy nutrition and medically tailored meals can significantly improve overall health outcomes.”
And the more colorful those meals are the better. People who ate high levels of foods high in pigmented carotenoids such as yams, kale, spinach, watermelon, bell peppers, tomatoes, oranges and carrots had a 40 percent lower risk of the advanced form of macular degeneration.
A study from the National Council on Aging found the risk of dementia decreased the more you ate these foods.
Both men and women have the same carotenoids requirements for their diets, but these researchers say these requirements should be higher for women since they tend to absorb them much faster.