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Research shows that consuming a diet high in polyphenols for just 8 weeks can reverse biological aging by at least 2 years.
In a nutshell
- Consuming foods like green tea, turmeric, berries, and garlic (called “methyl adaptogens”) was linked to a reduction in biological age by more than two years in just eight weeks.
- The study found that these age-fighting benefits came from the foods themselves, not from weight loss, suggesting their compounds directly affect the aging process at the cellular level.
- Just one serving daily of these widely available foods could potentially help slow down biological aging, offering an accessible alternative to expensive anti-aging treatments.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Your kitchen might hold better anti-aging secrets than your medicine cabinet. An insightful new study suggests that regularly consuming foods like tea, berries, and garlic could help reduce your “epigenetic age” — a scientific measure of how old your body is biologically, rather than chronologically.
Participants who followed a specialized diet rich in these foods showed biological age reductions exceeding two years on average in just eight weeks. That’s like rewinding your body’s internal clock — without expensive treatments.
Common Foods, Uncommon Benefits
We’re not talking about rare superfoods from boutique health stores. These age-fighting ingredients are ordinary items available in most grocery stores: green tea, oolong tea, turmeric, rosemary, garlic, and various berries.
Scientists publishing in the journal Aging found that these specific foods, known as “methyl adaptogens,” were strongly associated with reductions in biological age. Methyl adaptogens are rich in polyphenols, which have been shown in lab studies to modulate DNA methylation—chemical tags that help regulate how genes are expressed as we age.
While prior studies have shown that biological age can differ from your actual age on the calendar, this research goes a step further: it suggests that food choices may help shift that biological age backward.
The data come from the Methylation Diet and Lifestyle (MDL) study, which initially reported that participants following a targeted eight-week program lowered their epigenetic age by an average of 3.14 years compared to those who didn’t make any lifestyle changes.
Researchers then took a closer look to identify which foods might be driving these changes. The standout performers? Methyl adaptogens.
The Study Breakdown
The trial involved 43 healthy men aged 50–72, mostly White and highly educated. Participants were randomly assigned to either continue their usual lifestyle or follow a specific protocol that included daily servings of leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, colorful vegetables, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, lean meats, low-glycemic fruits, and at least one item from the methyl adaptogen group. Alcohol, sugar, trans fats, grains, legumes, and dairy were restricted.
After eight weeks, researchers analyzed DNA methylation in saliva samples to assess changes in epigenetic age. While the treatment group lost an average of 4.6 pounds (compared to a 0.9-pound gain in the control group), weight loss did not account for the biological age reductions.
Instead, higher intake of methyl adaptogens was independently associated with epigenetic age reversal, even after controlling for baseline biological age and weight differences.
How These Foods May Fight Aging
What gives these foods their power? The polyphenols found in green tea (EGCG), turmeric (curcumin), garlic (allicin), berries (anthocyanins), and rosemary (rosmarinic acid) appear to influence enzymes and pathways linked to aging—such as DNA methyltransferases and the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, which governs cell growth, metabolism, and survival.
These same pathways are often disrupted in age-related diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, neurodegeneration, and cancer. Several compounds in the methyl adaptogen group also influence telomerase activity, which may help maintain the protective ends of chromosomes — though more human studies are needed to confirm this effect.
Still, the evidence is building that food isn’t just fuel, it’s information that can potentially influence the trajectory of aging.
Accessible Anti-Aging
Unlike costly anti-aging treatments or supplements, the foods studied here are simple to incorporate into everyday meals. The researchers emphasized that even one daily serving of methyl adaptogens was linked to measurable reductions in biological aging markers.
Of course, this was a small, short-term study of middle-aged men. The researchers caution that more diverse, long-term trials are needed to generalize these findings. Self-reported food intake is also a limitation, and other lifestyle factors like meditation and sleep weren’t assessed in this follow-up analysis.
Even so, the results suggest that methyl adaptogens may be a practical and accessible way to influence your biological aging, using nothing more than a cup of tea, a handful of berries, or a sprinkle of turmeric.
Paper Summary
Methodology
The researchers conducted a secondary analysis of data from the Methylation Diet and Lifestyle study, a randomized controlled trial involving 43 healthy men aged 50-72. Participants were randomly assigned to either follow a specialized diet and lifestyle program or maintain their regular habits as a control group. The diet included specific foods like dark leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, colorful vegetables, and methyl adaptogens (green tea, oolong tea, turmeric, rosemary, garlic, berries), while restricting foods like dairy, grains, legumes, and alcohol. Participants self-reported their dietary intake using the VioScreen food frequency questionnaire. DNA methylation patterns were analyzed from saliva samples before and after the intervention using Horvath’s epigenetic clock algorithm to measure biological age.
Results
After controlling for baseline epigenetic age acceleration and weight changes, consumption of methyl adaptogens showed a significant linear association with reduced epigenetic age (B = -1.21, CI = [-2.80, -0.08], p = 0.016). The treatment group lost an average of 4.61 pounds while the control group gained 0.90 pounds, but these weight changes weren’t significantly associated with epigenetic age changes in the regression model. The hierarchical linear regression model accounted for 44% of the variability in epigenetic age change. People who were epigenetically older than their chronological age at baseline showed the greatest reductions in epigenetic age following the intervention.
Limitations
The study had a small sample size (38 participants completed the trial) and consisted entirely of men, most of whom were white (81%) and highly educated (41% with graduate degrees). The researchers relied on self-reported dietary data, which could be subject to reporting biases. There was significant collinearity between dietary variables, making it difficult to assess effects of specific foods independently. The study didn’t analyze other components of the lifestyle intervention like exercise, sleep quality, and meditation adherence. Results may not be generalizable to more diverse populations including women or people from different racial or educational backgrounds.
Funding and Disclosures
The research was funded by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) through various grants, including the Building Research across Inter-Disciplinary Gaps grant (R90AT008924) and grants K24AT011568 and 1R25DK130848-01A1. Some researchers involved in the study (RH, RB, and KF) developed the MDL protocol used in private clinical practice, and one researcher (KF) has published a book based on this protocol, representing potential conflicts of interest.
Publication Information
The study titled “Dietary associations with reduced epigenetic age: a secondary data analysis of the methylation diet and lifestyle study” was published in the journal Aging (Volume 17, Number 4) in April 2025. The authors include Jamie L. Villanueva, Alexandra Adorno Vita, Heather Zwickey, Kara Fitzgerald, Romilly Hodges, Benjamin Zimmerman, and Ryan Bradley, representing multiple institutions including the University of Washington, National University of Natural Medicine, Colorado State University, Institute for Functional Medicine, Sonoran University, and University of California, San Diego.
