Diet doesn’t just fuel the body, it sends molecular signals that can slow down or speed up biological ageing, according to a new perspective in npj Aging (Nature Portfolio). The authors explain that biological age, a measure of functional health, can diverge sharply from chronological age and that targeted nutritional and lifestyle choices can bend the trajectory toward healthier ageing.

“Nutrition is one of the strongest levers we have to influence the rate of biological ageing and resilience against chronic disease,” says Professor Carsten Carlberg of the University of Eastern Finland. “Our goal is to move from ‘one-size-fits-all’ advice to targeted dietary strategies that measurably shift biological age.”

Bending the ageing curve

Summing up recent research, the authors propose that lifestyle choices like diet, physical activity, sleep and social engagement can bend the ageing curve – enabling optimal ageing. People ageing optimally maintain a biological age younger than their chronological age, while unhealthy habits accelerate ageing and heighten disease risk.

Food contains thousands of bioactive compounds that act as molecular signals and, according to the authors, could be specifically harnessed to modulate biological age. However, there is still a vast amount of “Nutrition Dark Matter” – more than 139,000 compounds that remain largely uncharacterized but may regulate key ageing pathways.

Biological age can be tracked using ageing clocks – computational biomarker models based on epigenetic, proteomic or microbiome data. The article compares the applicability of different ageing clocks in healthy ageing research. For example, risk-predictive clocks like GrimAge can help identify and monitor interventions to slow ageing.

Whole diets still win – the gut microbiome is the target

Research has shown that long-term adherence to plant-rich healthy eating patterns such as the Mediterranean diet and the AHEI and DASH diets can up to double the odds of ageing healthily, preserving cognitive, physical and mental function into older age.

The article highlights the gut microbiome as a central target of dietary interventions to slow down ageing. Diet strongly shapes the gut microbiome, which in turn modulates inflammation, circadian rhythms and immune resilience, offering multiple levers for precision nutrition interventions.

“Think of this as precision geroprevention,” adds Carlberg. “With validated biomarkers and pragmatic policies, we can guide everyday food choices that keep biological age below chronological age for longer.”

Call to action for healthy ageing

The authors point out that with ageing populations worldwide, preventive approaches are urgent. To translate the recent advances in research and technology into meaningful change, they call for action in several areas. These include:

• Validation and standardization of ageing biomarkers,
• Mapping the food-derived bioactive compounds and their targets to uncover new dietary modulators, and
• Building cross-sector partnerships to bring precision nutrition from the lab into clinics, communities and public health policies.

The article also highlights the work of the Biomarkers of Aging Consortium and the EIT Food Healthy Ageing Think & Do Tank in advancing healthy ageing research and its translation towards clinical practice.