It’s never too late to maintain a healthy lifestyle! With age comes change and as you mature, good nutrition plays an important part in how well you age.
By eating a wide variety of wholefoods, you are ensuring your body gets exactly what it needs for optimum health:
- Protein. This is need to restore and maintain muscles. Great food sources of protein include eggs, meat, fish, poultry, nuts, seeds, legumes and dairy;
- Carbohydrate. Carbohydrates are the body’s favoured source of energy. The two main types of carbohydrates ore the simple sugars such as refined white sugar and complex carbohydrates such as vegetables and grains. Although they are considered a simple sugar, fruits contain important vitamin, minerals and antioxidants which all play an important role in aging well. The recommendation is to eat a variety of 2-3 fruits per day.
- Fat. Healthy fats are important for maintaining the integrity of cells including brain cells. Healthy fats can be called brain food. Monounsaturated fats such as avocado, nuts, olive oil. Omega fatty acids found in cold water fish such as tuna, salmon, mackerel are also important for optimum overall health;
- Water. This is very important to replenish cells and avoid dehydration;
Changes to your body and diet as you age
- As you age, your body’s daily energy needs decrease. This means that you need to consume fewer calories per day. Your health practitioner can advise and support you;
- Natural hormonal changes can render your body more prone to depositing of body and a decrease in muscle tissue. Eating a healthy and balanced diet can help you stay within a healthy weight range. Increasing activity and strengthening muscle is important to maintain healthy muscle.
- As you age, your bones are more likely to lose mineral content, especially those in the post-menopausal stage. This is because a decrease in oestrogen increases bone loss. In order to prevent osteoporosis, you need to increase your calcium as well as your vitamin D intake. You may need to take a supplement. Check this with your nutritionist;
- As you age, you are more disposed to atherosclerosis or plaque build up on the inside of arteries. It is therefore very important to eat heart healthy foods. These include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, fish and lean meats;
If transportation, health issues or financial difficulties are hindering you from getting the healthy food you need, most communities have support systems such as Meals on Wheels. Many community centers
also offer meal times.
Originally published on May 06, 2015
