Abstract: Aging is a complex biological process driven by the accumulation of multimodal molecular damage and the disruption of metabolic homeostasis. Dietary nutrition is regarded as one of the most plastic exogenous determinants of aging. Against the backdrop of China’s entering a deeply aging society, elucidating the molecular mechanisms by which food nutrients regulate aging and translating these findings into elderly-friendly functional foods are of major scientific and industrial significance for healthy aging. This review systematically summarizes the major biological theories and hallmarks of aging, compares the characteristics and limitations of three anti-aging interventions, namely nutrition, small-molecule pharmacology, and gene/cell therapy, and highlights the fundamental role of nutrition in delaying aging and extending healthy lifespan. From the perspectives of dietary restriction, carbohydrates, proteins, lipids and micronutrients (vitamins, minerals and plant-derived bioactive compounds), this paper further reviews the synergistic and antagonistic effects of different food nutrients on conserved longevity pathways such as mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR), AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), insulin/insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), sirtuins and forkhead box O transcription factors (FOXO). The results indicate that the main limitations of current studies include the translational gap between animal models and human evidence, the lack of unified biomarkers of biological aging, insufficient evidence for the effect of single-nutrient interventions on maximum human lifespan, and the underdeveloped status of elderly-friendly functional food products based on China’s characteristic dietary raw materials (e.g., coarse cereals and materials with both medicinal and culinary uses). Future research should focus on multi-omics-based biological aging clocks, multi-dimensional synergistic interventions guided by nutritional geometry, individualized precision nutrition strategies, and the development of elderly-friendly functional foods based on Chinese dietary characteristics, thereby promoting the transition of anti-aging research from mechanism discovery to effective intervention, and ultimately providing a theoretical foundation and practical directions for scientific and sustainable anti-aging dietary strategies.

Key words: food nutrition; anti-aging; dietary restriction; nutrient sensing; precision nutrition; healthy lifespan