Healthy eating as a strategy to achieve successful ageing: focus on Mediterranean diet and functional foods.

People want to live longer. To date, it is impossible not to grow older, but it is desirable to get older in good health, avoiding age-related disabilities. To do this, it is necessary to have a healthy lifestyle which can limit the damage caused by the environmental hazards that face us each day. In humans, healthy ageing and longevity are modulated by a fortunate interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Regarding the latter, physical activity and healthy dietary habits are the most important modifiable factors that can affect the maintenance of a healthy ageing phenotype. A feasible diet that reduces the risk of ageing-related diseases, promoting health ageing and longevity, should be one that delivers refined carbohydrates and amino acids in a pro-ageing way, in activating or reducing specific molecular pathways. It is not necessary to determine the ideal composition of this diet, because it does already exist. It is the traditional “poor” MedDiet, which rich in nutrients and single foods, can act on ageing. The new findings presented in the experimental studies of this thesis could present a great opportunity for the food and farming industry, especially in Sicily, where local products like extra virgin olive oil, green olives, barley and opuntia ficus Indica, represent a great potential resource. In the era of many expensive and mysterious longevity elixirs, these resources could represent traditional, cheap, and accessible “healthy foods” for everyone. However, it is important to highlight that the interesting effects of nutraceuticals and functional foods could be considered a prevention for many age-related diseases, and not a solution.