Foods

This section has one short article for each of the common foods and drinks in the Bag of foods, ordered from the food most strongly linked with longer life to the one most strongly linked with shorter life. Each article reports what the largest available review found about the food and all-cause mortality (death from any cause), what was compared, how strong the evidence is, and its main limitations. The same ranking appears as a chart at Foods ranked for longevity.

The largest single review across food groups pooled prospective studies (studies that follow people forward in time) of 12 food groups [1]. More whole grains, vegetables, fruit, nuts and fish went with lower all-cause mortality, and more red meat and processed meat with higher. The authors estimated that eating the risk-lowering foods at their best-studied amounts was associated with a 56% lower risk of death, and eating the risk-raising foods at the highest amounts with about a 2-fold higher risk [1]. Single foods show the same pattern. Each extra 28 grams of nuts a day went with 22% lower all-cause mortality in a meta-analysis (a study that pools the results of earlier studies) of prospective studies [2], while greater intake of ultra-processed foods, industrial products made largely from refined ingredients and additives, went with 21% higher all-cause mortality in an umbrella review (a review of meta-analyses) [3].

Some long-held beliefs did not survive closer analysis. For alcohol, a meta-analysis that adjusted for biases such as former drinkers being counted as non-drinkers found no significant reduction in all-cause mortality for low-volume drinking, and higher risk at higher intakes [4]. Most of the evidence in this section is observational: it compares people who already eat differently, and people with healthier diets also differ in smoking, activity and income in ways that statistical adjustment cannot fully remove. Where the evidence for a food comes from a single cohort (one group of people followed over time), where reviews disagree, or where no pooled figure exists, the article labels it limited or mixed, and the ranking places the food near the middle rather than at its single reported figure. Whole diets are covered under dietary patterns.

The articles, from better to worse: nuts, leafy greens, coffee, olive oil, chili peppers, cruciferous vegetables, tea, fish, soy foods, berries, yogurt, fruit, whole grains, legumes, mushrooms, cheese, vegetables, poultry, chocolate, butter, dairy overall, eggs, fried foods, fruit juice, milk, potatoes, sweets and added sugar, white rice, avocado, citrus fruit, diet drinks, sugary drinks, refined grains, salt added at the table, red meat, alcohol, ultra-processed foods, processed meat.