Your diet plays a major role in how well you age…
When aging begins in our youth, we start to lose fiber, vitamins, and other nutrients. In addition, the dying cells increase while the living cells decrease. These are some of the reasons that adding supplements or vitamins to your daily diet can be a good idea. Fiber will help reduce such risks as heart disease. At least 30 grams of healthy fiber should be a part of the daily diet.
Changing your diet now can help you stay on schedule as you age. Some people find it difficult to change their diet because they are used to fast foods or unstable meal plans. Ideally you will follow a scheduled diet, eating a minimum of three healthy meals daily.
You’ll notice improvement by making your diet a goal, a planned and scheduled activity. We need to make many changes as we are aging to live a longer lifespan. When planning your diet consider grains, fibers, proteins, and so on. Eat plenty of veggies and fruits whenever possible. Vegetables and fruits are known to reduce the risks of diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease and even cancer. Fibers will assist in keeping your cholesterol and sugar levels in line.
It really should come as no surprise that nutrition plays a vital role in the aging process. Throughout life good nutrition is essential to good health, but our needs change as we grow older. Calcium, fiber, iron, proteins, Vitamin A, Vitamin C and folate become increasing important.
We gradually reach a point in which we need fewer calories. This is because aging usually results in more body fat and less lean muscle, and in most cases decreased activity levels. Older people are encouraged to eat foods high in nutrients, which are commonly referred to as nutrient dense foods.
For most of us, aging results in a decline in the senses. It’s common to find a loss of visual acuity and/or a loss of hearing. These losses can have an impact on what or how an individual eats.
Vision and hearing loss can lessen diet quality and activity levels…
A decrease in the ability to see clearly can result in less activity due to the increased risk for injuries. Additionally, this loss can result in difficulty or inability to read food prices and packaging. Nutrition labels are sometimes left unread and the individual may not be able to read recipes.
This can have a direct impact on what the person chooses to eat. Grocery shopping, food preparation and eating are all affected by this and ultimately the nutritional status can suffer.
A hearing loss can lead to the individual choosing not to eat out due to embarrassment or frustration when ordering food.
The decrease in the senses of taste and smell can easily be related to impairments in nutritional status. If food doesn’t smell or taste appetizing we are less likely to eat it.
It’s not uncommon for aging individuals to be asked (by their physicians) to cut back on salt or sugar. For many this can result in bland tasting foods. A remedy for that may be to experiment with a wide variety of foods and food flavors and to use lemon juice, dill, curry and herbs of all types to spice up flavors.
If loss of teeth is an issue, it’s important to get or have dentures adjusted for a proper fit. Other suggestions include chopping, steaming, grating or grinding hard or tough foods.
According to many experts (but not all), about 60 percent of calories should come from carbohydrates with an emphasis on complex carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates put less stress on circulating blood glucose than the refined carbohydrates do.
Low levels of Vitamin B12 have been associated with memory loss and age-related hearing loss. The following foods are rich in Vitamin B12: meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy foods.
With age, the need for iron and calcium increases. Vitamin D-fortified milk is recommended by many experts, but you can also get plenty of natural Vitamin D by allowing yourself some natural exposure to the sun. To help improve the absorption of iron, Vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables should be included.
Zinc has been linked to improving taste acuity. To ensure adequate Zinc intake you can eat meats, eggs and seafood.
Zinc, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, phytochemicals, lutein, zeaxantin and beta-carotene have been shown to help slow the onset of age-related macular degeneration. Studies have shown that Vitamin E may be linked to the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. Vitamin E sources include whole grains, peanuts, nuts, vegetable oils and seeds.
Adequate fluid intake is also essential to good health and healthy aging. This will decrease the stress on kidney function which tends to decline with age. Adequate fluid intake, with an emphasis on water, also eases constipation.
For many older individuals there is a decreased ability to detect thirst and therefore it becomes important that you measure an adequate fluid intake into your day.
At least 5 to 8 glasses of water, juice, milk, coffee, or tea should be consumed per day – keeping an emphasis on water.
Many older individuals seem to get in ruts, eating the same foods over and over. This is partly due to habit but in some cases it’s due to finances. In order to get more nutrients per spending dollar, focus grocery spending on fruits, vegetables, milk, eggs, legumes, whole grains, lean meat, fish, and poultry.
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Tags: aging process, anti aging diet, anti aging nutrition, diet quality, good nutrition, healthy meals, lifespan, nutrient dense foods, vegetables and fruits
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