Associations between diet quality, epigenetic aging and epigenome in two population-based cohorts

Juliana F Tavares, Dan Liu, Valentina Talevi, Fabian Eichelmann, Franziska Jannasch, Matthias B Schulze, N Ahmad Aziz, Ute Noethlings, Monique M B Breteler

1. 01

   Minimal overlap of participants in the top adherence quartile across ten diet-quality scores

2. 02

   Adherence to a healthy dietary pattern associated with reduced epigenetic aging, with magnitude varying by which score is used

3. 03

   Different dietary patterns produced distinct DNA methylation profiles

4. 04

   Those distinct profiles largely converged on the same underlying biological pathways

Study Design

observational

Sample Size

Not reported

Study Duration

Not reported

Methodology

Cross-sectional analysis in the population-based Rhineland Study with validation in EPIC-Potsdam; ten diet-quality scores related to biological aging markers and genome-wide DNA methylation.

Limitations

Observational and cross-sectional: no causal claim that changing a diet score lowers epigenetic age is supported. Diet quality is self-reported, and both cohorts are European, so score calibration may not transfer to other populations.