{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T05:09:56Z","timestamp":1788930596355,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788912000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Nutr."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Unhealthy dietary behaviors have been associated with increased risks of mortality and chronic diseases, yet mortality is a distal endpoint that requires long-term follow-up and is therefore poorly suited for short-term evaluation. Aging, which lies upstream of mortality and is modifiable by lifestyle factors, may serve as a meaningful early intermediate outcome. However, evidence linking dietary behavior patterns to short-term changes in the pace of biological aging remains limited. Therefore, we conducted this study to examine the associations between dietary behavior patterns and short-term changes in the pace of biological aging in a Chinese adult population, and to assess whether these associations vary by follow-up duration and chronological age.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>In a longitudinal cohort from two health management centers in China, dietary behavior patterns were identified using data-driven clustering approaches and categorized into low-, moderate-, and high-risk groups. Changes in biological age, estimated from multi-system biomarkers, were used to quantify short-term aging pace. Associations over 12- and 24-month follow-up periods were assessed using weighted longitudinal models.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Among 71,579 participants in the longitudinal cohort, higher-risk dietary behavior patterns were associated with greater increases in biological age over 12\u202fmonths. When dietary behavior pattern was modeled as an ordinal exposure, each per-level increase in dietary risk was associated with a 0.017-year higher change in biological age at 12\u202fmonths (95% CI: 0.003, 0.030). In contrast, no statistically significant associations were observed at 24\u202fmonths. Associations were generally consistent across chronological age groups. Exploratory analyses of individual behavioral dimensions showed similar short-term patterns.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Adverse dietary behavior patterns were associated with modest but detectable short-term acceleration in biological aging, with attenuation over time. These findings support the use of short-term biological aging measures as intermediate outcomes for evaluating early physiological responses to dietary behaviors.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fnut.2026.1924515","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T04:40:52Z","timestamp":1788928852000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Dietary behavior patterns and short-term pace of aging\u2014evidence from a Chinese cohort"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Xin","family":"Huang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Health Science Center, Hunan Normal University","place":["Changsha, Hunan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhaoyang","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Health Science Center, Hunan Normal University","place":["Changsha, Hunan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Pingting","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health Management, The Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University","place":["Changsha, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jianzhou","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Xi\u2019an Jiaotong University Health Science Center","place":["Xi\u2019an, Shaanxi, China"]},{"name":"School of Public Health, Changzhi Medical College","place":["Changzhi, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yongmei","family":"He","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health Management, Aerospace Center Hospital","place":["Beijing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lu","family":"Yin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Information Center, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases","place":["Beijing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jing","family":"Deng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University","place":["Changsha, Hunan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ying","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health Management, The Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University","place":["Changsha, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"100963","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ajpc.2025.100963","article-title":"The dose-response relationships between all-cause and cardiovascular mortality and the accrual of various dietary habits","volume":"22","author":"Li","year":"2025","journal-title":"Am J Prev Cardiol"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"580","DOI":"10.1038\/s43587-022-00252-6","article-title":"A complex systems approach to aging biology","volume":"2","author":"Cohen","year":"2022","journal-title":"Nat Aging"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"508","DOI":"10.1111\/joim.13728","article-title":"Diet strategies for promoting healthy aging and longevity: an epidemiological perspective","volume":"295","author":"Hu","year":"2024","journal-title":"J Intern 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