New Research: How Phytonutrients Drive Results in the Younger You BioAge Study

Recent peer-reviewed research on the Younger You program reveals that:

1. The Younger You program can increase your intake of beneficial, phytonutrient-dense foods more than other diet programs studied for their beneficial effects on bio age (like the Mediterranean diet).
2. Epinutrient superfoods (previously known as DNA methylation adaptogens) are the most potent epinutrients of the Younger You program.
3. And in a growing body of peer-reviewed research outside Younger You: Phytonutrients are linked to bio age improvements across research studies and impact all the hallmarks of aging.

Why Phytonutrients Matter for Healthy Aging

Phytonutrients are the “dark matter of nutrition,” a vast group of compounds of which over 10,000 have so far been categorized. Don’t read too much into that, though — we’re only just scratching the surface of understanding what these amazing molecules can do. And many more phytonutrients, and their important metabolites (a nod to the important enzymatic transformations performed by our microbiome), are yet to be discovered!

As humans, we’ve evolved with a myriad of compounds, and their general health benefits have long been recognized. Plant-rich diets are a healthy dietary plan that pretty much all health and nutrition experts can agree on. The conversation around phytonutrients, however, has been evolving — we’ve been talking for a few years about how phytonutrients provide information to our cells, directing their operations, and whether biochemical activity trends towards dysfunction and disease, or towards better/optimal health. Now, we are adding to that discussion the impact of phytonutrients specifically on epigenetic bio age.

Traditional Diets vs. Modern Realities

One of the intriguing conundrums is this: We recognize the extraordinary value of traditional dietary and lifestyle practices in Blue Zone regions, including Mediterranean areas like Crete. Yet, fully integrating those practices (and I mean everything from fresh-from-the-boat sardines, wild greens, to slow-paced, community-oriented routines) into our modern lifestyles is just not often practical. I believe that’s what makes some of us want to reach for something “heroic” like jumping in line for gene therapy (among other things) as a way to bypass the need to check all those Blue Zone boxes. But it is inevitable that attention to diet will continue to be essential, and honing in on phytonutrients as part of a tailored dietary plan is our modern-day version of a heroic longevity strategy.

Key Findings from Two Newly Published Papers on Polyphenols

For these reasons, I am excited to tell you about the findings of two new peer-reviewed research papers that have just been published in the journal Aging. Here’s where you can access the full publications:

• Dietary associations with reduced epigenetic age: a secondary data analysis of the methylation diet and lifestyle study
• Dietary polyphenol assessment for aging research

These are papers that my colleagues and I have worked on, extending the discussion on phytonutrients and focusing in on polyphenols. And I’m sharing three key takeaways from these efforts with you here.

Key Takeaway #1:

The Younger You Diet Dramatically Boosts Phytonutrient Intake

Following the Younger You program substantially ups your phytonutrient intake. And I mean substantially! The program, when followed according to the Younger You Intensive instructions (i.e., as used in our research), provides 2,908 mg/d of polyphenols. There’s a significant amount of attention in the scientific literature on polyphenols as being highly relevant- they have effects on all the hallmarks of aging, including epigenetics (more on that below). They are also abundant in the diets of long-lived individuals in Blue Zones around the world.

Where do all these polyphenols come from in the Younger You program? The program is designed to be plant-dense, even as it leans towards lower carbohydrate intake. And the quality of plant food is carefully designed. According to our new research, adopting the Younger You program leads to average increases in consumption of colorful vegetables (1.96x), cruciferous vegetables (2.97x), greens (3.86x), and epinutrient superfoods (2.32x) (more about epinutrient superfoods below), as compared to study controls. Beets, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds were also regularly present in Younger You diets, whereas they were almost entirely absent in the diets of controls.

 

The Younger You diet multiplies consumption of important phytonutrient food categories

(The multipliers above are the average increased consumption in study participants following the Younger You Intensive program compared to controls)

Given this, it’s perhaps not surprising that the total polyphenol intake of the Younger You diet is high, even when compared to other diets that we think of as being rich in polyphenols, like Mediterranean diets. In fact, the 2,908 mg/day polyphenols in the Younger You dietary protocol is higher than 1,235 mg/d polyphenols consumed in the top quintile of the PREDIMED cohort, where that level of consumption was associated with a 37% reduced risk of death from any cause compared to the lowest level of consumption. It is also higher than the additional 1,240 mg/d polyphenols used in the DIRECT PLUS trial, which also resulted in reduced epigenetic age.

Just to extend comparisons a little further, various research efforts have attempted to quantify the average daily consumption of dietary polyphenols in a number of countries around the world, with some surprising results:

• 664 mg/d in Italy
• 820 mg/d in Spain
• 1,193 mg/d in France
• 1,757 mg/d in Poland
• 1,905 mg/d in Greece

US average polyphenol intake has been estimated at 884.1 mg per 1,000 kcal, which equates to 1,768.2 mg/d for a 2,000kcal diet.

You might do a double-take at that US estimate. I did. It is surprisingly high compared to some European regions that we would consider “Mediterranean.” The values for Italy and Spain also seem surprisingly low, to be honest. One of the challenges is that there isn’t a consistent and validated way of measuring polyphenol intake across populations, a fact that our team also wrote about in a recent Letter to the Editor of Aging-US. As a scientific community, robust quantification methods for polyphenol intake seems like a priority now that the data on their beneficial impacts are snowballing. But for now, we have to interpret polyphenol calculations with some degree of caution, and look at directional trends rather than for absolute accuracy. Nevertheless, I am confident about the Younger You diet topping out the charts in polyphenol intake compared to many other diets; the emphasis on phytonutrient-rich foods is just undeniable.

Key Takeaway #2:

Epinutrient Superfoods Have the Greatest Impact on Bio Age

This latest research analysis shows that what we identified as polyphenol-dense “methylation adaptogens” (what we now refer to as epinutrient superfoods) in our research had the most bio age-lowering impact of all the elements in the Younger You program. That is really important to know! It doesn’t mean that the other aspects aren’t important, too, but it tells us that these miraculous compounds are essential.

DNA methylation adaptogens are epinutrients that help your cellular biochemistry place those epigenetic methyl groups on your genome in just the right places, influencing whether the expression of that gene is increased, decreased, or even silenced altogether. They do this by influencing the expression and activity of DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) enzymes, which are responsible for placing those methyl groups on your genes. (This is distinct from food compounds, which are considered to be “methyl donors,” i.e. substrates or coenzymes/cofactors in the methylation cycle – these are still important and should be part of any well-crafted bio age dietary plan, but for the greatest effect we’re looking at those DNA methylation adaptogens.)

The category of foods that we could consider as having DNA methylation adaptogen activity is actually quite large. However, in our research, we focus on having participants pick one of the following options daily:

Epinutrient Superfoods Used in the Younger You Intensive (Choose One+ Daily)

For those interested in the stats: the beta correlation coefficient for DNA methylation adaptogens in this analysis was -1.24 (95% CI -2.80, -0.87) with a p-value of 0.016. The model used controlled for baseline epigenetic age and weight changes, i.e. it removed those variables as potential factors influencing the activity of DNA methylation adaptogens.

Why did we pick these foods? Simply, it comes down to the concentration of specific phytonutrient compounds, in particular polyphenols, that have substantive evidence for their modulating effects on DNA methylation.

Key Takeaway #3:

Polyphenols Support All the Hallmarks of Aging

In functional medicine, we’re no strangers to encouraging our patients to consume more phytonutrients, including polyphenols, and now, there’s an additional compelling reason — their ability to optimize all the biochemical pathways related to aging. This is where we circle back to the hallmarks of aging, as I promised.

In an incredible new paper, also published this month, researchers from the University of Molise in Italy, along with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, created this visual of the impact of polyphenols on all the hallmarks of aging. Take a look at the dark/light green ring in the image below – the polyphenols listed there are all what we would consider methylation adaptogens, i.e., having the ability to modulate epigenetics. Of course, as you may know, I am bullish on epigenetics being hierarchically upstream of the other hallmarks (i.e. if you positively influence epigenetics, you can positively impact all the other hallmarks).

I also think this is a valuable additional tidbit from the scientific literature: The hormetic effects of phytochemicals mimic the effects of caloric restriction, which is one of the most well-studied anti-aging interventions.

Source: Davinelli et al., 2025

How to Increase Phytonutrients in Your Diet

Here are the next steps you can take to increase polyphenols and other phytonutrients in your diet:

1. Follow the Younger You dietary plan
2. Choose from my curated supplement store:
   • Epinutrient superfoods (DNA methylation adaptogens)
   • Greens powder
3. Visit my recipe page for phytonutrient-dense recipes, including this month’s recipe for bitter melon with eggs.
4. Get personalized guidance from my clinical nutrition team.

Final Thoughts on Polyphenols & Biological Age

The newest Younger You research solidifies what we’ve long practiced in functional medicine: food is information. And with targeted phytonutrients, we can support the body’s ability to age better.