In a world filled with supplements and serums, it’s often the basics—like diet and exercise—that matter most for healthy aging.

Reviewed by Dietitian Casey Wing, RD, CD

Key Points

• A balanced diet and regular physical activity are important components of a healthy lifestyle.


• Researchers found that both diet and exercise can impact the biological aging process.


• Everyday choices and lifestyle habits can have an impact on long-term health and aging well.

There’s no arguing that two of the most important components of a healthy lifestyle are a balanced diet and regular physical activity. In fact, the World Health Organization highlights both—alongside habits like not smoking and limiting alcohol—as key behaviors for supporting overall health. But in a world filled with supplements, serums and lofty social media promises, these foundational habits are often overlooked. However, they may play a bigger role than you think—not just in how you feel day-to-day, but in how you age over time.

While we usually associate aging with visible changes, like wrinkles or gray hair, it goes far beyond what we see on the surface. In fact, the biological aging process refers to changes that occur at the cellular level, slowly affecting how well our bodies function over time. These changes stem from a mix of factors, including genetics, environment and everyday lifestyle choices. And while some of these factors are largely out of our control, others—like how we eat and exercise—are well within it.

Both diet and physical activity have been studied for their potential to support healthier aging. Regular exercise has been shown to help counteract several hallmarks of aging, including chronic inflammation and cellular decline, while nutrient-dense dietary patterns have also been linked with better long-term health and aging outcomes.

That said, researchers are continuing to explore how these habits can work together in terms of aging better, and a recent study published in The Journal of Nutrition set out to examine just that. Researchers took a closer look at how diet quality and physical activity are associated with biological aging, offering new insight into how these everyday choices may shape the aging process.

How Was the Study Conducted?

To determine whether dietary habits and physical activity are associated with healthier aging, researchers used data from the Young Finns Study (YFS), a large, ongoing study that has followed participants from childhood into adulthood, assessing cardiovascular risk. Of the more than 4,000 individuals originally enrolled in YFS, 1,039 were included in this analysis, and participants were assessed over a seven-year follow-up period.

First, researchers assessed the biological age of each of the participants using epigenetic clocks—an emerging biomarker of aging based on DNA methylation patterns—calculated from blood samples. These measurements were taken initially in 2011 and again in 2018.

Next, diet quality was evaluated using five established dietary indices, which are basically scoring systems to measure overall diet quality or adherence to specific dietary guidelines. Researchers used data from food frequency questionnaires completed in 2001, 2007, 2011 and 2018. The dietary indices included:

• A Mediterranean Diet Index, based on intake of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, grains, legumes and fats


• The Findiet Index, reflecting adherence to Finnish dietary recommendations, including intake of fruits, vegetables, grains, fish and red meat


• The Alternative Healthy Eating Index, aligned with U.S. dietary guidelines, calculated using fruit, vegetables, grains and fats


• The Dietscore, which captures adherence to general healthy eating patterns across various countries, including intake of fruits, desserts, sweetened beverages, fried potatoes and vegetable fats


• The Baltic Sea Diet Index, representing a Nordic-style eating pattern rich in foods like vegetables, grains, fish and red meat

Finally, physical activity levels were assessed using an overall score based on self-reported data, including frequency and intensity of activity, time spent in vigorous activity, duration of exercise sessions and participation in organized physical activity.

After gathering all the data, researchers analyzed how these diet and physical activity measures—both independently and together—were associated with biological aging.

What Did the Study Find?

It may not come as a surprise to hear that higher-quality diets were linked with healthier aging. When researchers averaged participants’ diet index scores, they found that better overall diet quality was associated with a slower pace of epigenetic aging—meaning participants appeared biologically younger than their actual age.

One of the more interesting findings emerged when researchers looked at diet and physical activity together. Among participants with lower levels of physical activity, higher diet quality was clearly associated with less accelerated epigenetic aging. However, participants who displayed higher levels of physical activity appeared to display less accelerated biological aging regardless of diet quality.

This is notable because it suggests that while both diet and exercise are important, a better quality diet may help offset some of the effects of a less-active lifestyle while higher levels of physical activity may help offset some of the effects of a less-than-ideal diet when it comes to biological aging.

Researchers also noted that the five dietary patterns studied shared many core components. Across all indices, higher intakes of vegetables, fruits and whole grains—and lower intakes of red meat and saturated fats—were consistently linked with better outcomes. This suggests that the overall pattern of eating may matter more than following any one specific diet.

It’s important to note that while the associations observed between diet quality, physical activity and biological aging were positive, they were modest. This reinforces the idea that aging is influenced by many factors—not just diet and exercise alone.

How Does This Apply to Real Life?

If you’re trying to optimize your health, especially when it comes to aging well, this study offers a reassuring takeaway: you don’t need to follow one specific diet or overhaul your entire routine overnight to support healthy aging.

Researchers found that a higher-quality diet was especially beneficial for people who were less physically active, which suggests that what you eat may help buffer some of the effects of a more sedentary lifestyle. On the other hand, people with higher levels of physical activity showed similar aging patterns regardless of diet quality—which highlights just how powerful regular movement can be.

That said, these findings don’t offer a green light to ignore one habit in favor of the other. Instead, the results reinforce a more realistic and sustainable approach: diet and exercise both matter, and they usually work best together over time to support healthy aging.

If you’re looking to put this into practice, here are a few simple ways to get started:

• Focus on a balanced, varied diet. Try building meals around fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Things like adding berries to your breakfast, tossing extra veggies into a pasta dish or swapping refined grains for whole grains when you can are simple ways to up your diet quality.


• Make movement part of your routine. Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week by doing things you genuinely enjoy like brisk walking, cycling or dance classes.


• Think big picture. While this study focused on diet and physical activity, other habits—like getting enough sleep and managing stress—also play an important role in how we age.

At the end of the day, aging well isn’t about a perfect diet or a challenging exercise regimen—it’s about consistently stacking small, supportive habits over time.

Our Expert Take

This study, published in The Journal of Nutritionreinforces an important point: both diet and physical activity play meaningful roles in the biological aging process. One of the most practical takeaways is that no single “perfect” diet stood out above the rest. Instead, the shared foundations across all five dietary patterns were consistently linked with more favorable aging outcomes. This is encouraging, because it suggests that supporting healthy aging doesn’t require strict rules or a specific eating plan. Alternatively, focusing on simple, sustainable habits, including a balanced diet and regular movement, can go a long way over time.

It’s also important to keep the findings in perspective as aging is influenced by a wide range of factors, including genetics, sleep, stress and overall lifestyle. That said, this study adds to a growing body of research showing that everyday choices can meaningfully help shape long-term health and aging.