Dr Cox told The Pat Kenny Show the big challenge for public health is to allow people to live longer and disease free. 

A health journalist has warned that a significant fibre deficit in diet can cause increase in cancers. 

In his new book ‘The Age Code’, Dr David Cox explores the emerging science showing how what we eat can influence the ageing process at a cellular level, and even determine the age of our organs. 

Dr Cox told The Pat Kenny Show the big challenge for public health is to allow people to live longer and disease free. 

He pointed to a fibre deficit as one of the main reasons for the rise in cancer in people under 50 years old. 

“Things we're not even doing or things we're eating which are not good for us in our diet, are basically stressing our bodies, which is accelerating aging in different ways”, he explained. 

“Many of us are eating too much. 

“From the moment we wake to the moment we sleep. We're eating in some way, whether that's meals or snacking.

“It basically puts what I call metabolic stress on our bodies because our bodies are not getting a chance to kind of recover.”

He said the possibility to measure biological age like chronology cal age would transform medicine in the coming years or decades. 

Artwork of DNA. Image: Science Photo Library / Alamy. 1 October 2021

“We're now starting to get lots and lots of different tests, which basically estimate how old we really are based on our biology”, he explained.

“They will measure the amount of ageing which has taken place in your DNA or the amount of ageing which has taken place in your immune system.

“That actually gives you a much more accurate representation of how healthy you really are.”

Fibre deficit: faster ageing

He stressed the importance of nutrition and vitamin B supplements to support DNA aging. 

“We're not getting lots of enough fiber, but we're also just not, we're eating too many processed foods and not enough whole foods. 

“When we eat some more whole foods in our diet, I'm talking about lots of kinds of fruits and vegetables here, lots of in particular, but also fish, lean meat, things like that, whole grains, we're getting lots of kinds of many valuable kinds of micronutrients.

“Lots of the typical dietary pattern, which most of us follow, we have our biggest meal in the evening, and we have a relatively smaller breakfast and lunch.

“Actually, ageing science shows us it should be the other way around. The biggest meals of the day should actually be our breakfast and lunch and we should have a smaller, lighter dinner.”

He explained that this was due to the fact that our metabolism was most active in the morning and therefore the most able to break down large amounts. 

Dr Cox suggested decreasing the amount of saturated fat and increasing the amount of  omega-3s and fibre to reduce inflammation in the body.

Main Image: An open fridge with various items of fresh food.