IN PROFILE
Eating to Age Well
What you put in your mouth is a powerful way to enhance your health, stave off ageing and prevent chronic illnesses – and it does not need to be complicated.
For decades, Australians have known Guy Leech as one of the country’s most recognisable endurance athletes – he is a former Australian Ironman Champion, Coolangatta Gold winner, World Ocean Paddling Champion and winner of Australian Celebrity Survivor. Leech is now aged in his 60s, and his focus has evolved from elite performance to something far more universal: helping ordinary Australians to stay active, strong and healthy as they age. After spending decades immersed in the worlds of sport, performance and health, Leech discovered that he kept arriving at the same simple observation, which is that most people want to take better care of themselves – but they are just overwhelmed by where to start. Edible medicine “The problem with modern wellness,” Leech explains, “is that you can walk into almost any healthfood store and find shelves lined with products which target every possible concern. There’s one supplement for joints, another for bones,
one for heart health, one for energy, another for skin, another for healthy ageing … Eventually, a ritual that might have begun with good intentions can become an expensive and exhausting daily routine, where people can end up taking handfuls of tablets every morning. Plus, the more complicated a routine becomes, the harder it is to maintain.” Like many people entering their fifth decade and beyond, Leech started asking
himself different kinds of questions about nutrition, health and ageing, focusing less on peak athletic performance and more on longevity, consistency and simplicity. “These questions really all came down to just one: If you could create one daily nutritional foundation to support healthy ageing, what would it look like?” he says. “And the answer to that question ultimately became the foundation of NEXT50.” Changing nutritional needs Leech believes that healthy ageing is about staying capable. “Most people are not obsessing over ingredient panels or scientific terminology when they wake up each morning,” he says. “Instead, they
are thinking about their quality of life. They want the energy to keep travelling, they want to stay active, they want to keep exercising – walking, swimming or playing golf. They want to feel mentally
"Most people want to take better care of themselves – but they are just overwhelmed by where to start."
sharp and to be able to keep up with their children and grandchildren. Importantly,
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ISSUE 77 • 2026
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