Successful aging and diet

The population is aging worldwide, creating urgent need to describe healthy, meaningful, and successful aging; however, to date, there is no consensus on any of the aforementioned issues. Aging can affect mental, physical, cardiometabolic, and musculoskeletal health and lead to decreased well-being among older individuals. Simultaneously, diet is known to interact with health outcomes in all these conditions, and thus, the aim of this narrative review chapter was to explore the link between diet and successful aging. Healthy dietary patterns, especially Mediterranean diet, have been linked to healthier aging and increased well-being, for mental health and cognition, cardiometabolic risk, physical and bone health, as well as meaningful life experience in elderly. Moreover, healthy dietary patterns when adopted as part of a healthy lifestyle can offer multiple favorable effects. More holistic approaches are needed to ameliorate aging, and diet should be carefully considered as a major component.