It’s official – one of our favourite foods could help you live longer

In a study that will bring joy to millions, researchers found that people who eat more cheese have better mental health and stress resilience.

In a large-scale study of almost 2.4 million people, the team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University found that mental well-being is the single most important contributor to healthy ageing and longevity.

The study, led by Professor Tian-Ge Wang compared scores on positive outlook, depressive symptoms, neuroticism and life satisfaction with age related health issues.

The team used eight different population datasets in Europe and compared them against 33 factors to connect mental health to physical ageing. 

They found that worse mental health was linked to behaviours and illnesses known to shorten life span like smoking, too little exercise, heart diseases and breast cancer.

But in a surprising twist, they discovered that those who reported the most robust levels of mental health and stress resilience seemed to eat more cheese. 

Brie-lliant.

However, it should be noted that a higher intake of cheese was not directly responsible for longevity of life, but a standout contributor to high well-being scores. The researchers found that eating cheese had a 3.67% positive impact on their self-rated health and lifespan. 

Other factors such as smoking cigarettes had a 4.56% negative impact on health ageing factors, and eating fruit had a 1.96% positive impact. 

They also found that TV watching time had the largest negative effect on health ageing factors, and had an impact of 7.39%. 

Professor Wang, whose work is published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, said there was a ‘causative’ link between mental and physical health. 

The authors wrote: ‘These findings underscore the importance of mental well-being in promoting healthy ageing and inform preventive targets for bridging ageing disparities attributable to suboptimal mental health.’ 

The researchers said that the study was ‘meticulous and exhaustive’ in its consideration of influences between mental and physical health.

But figuring out why cheese has a huge influence on our wellbeing would need to be studied in further detail.