Healthy Eating Tips for Seniors – As we age, our nutritional requirements can change as well. Most often we are not as active as we once were so our caloric intake would need to be reduced as a result. Also, some of the foods we could tolerate in our younger years can cause major issues at this stage of our lives. Unless your doctor has given you a very specific diet to follow, the following tips should help you make healthy choices in the foods you eat.
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1. Learn the Important Nutrients for Seniors
Rather than discussing the specific vitamins and minerals you require at this age, it is easier to look at basic food groups so that you can begin planning meals around these. If you are in assisted living, then you probably have a nutritionist on site. With that said, you may want to start researching senior living near me because this is one of the services you really can use in your senior years.
As for the basic food groups, the following are recommended:
- Protein – lean meat, eggs, seafood, beans.
- Whole grains – whole wheat bread and pasta, brown rice.
- Fruits and vegetables – look for bright red, green, orange and purple.
- Low fat dairy.
If you prefer, there are dairy substitutes you could use like oat milk. Speaking of oat milk, oatmeal is a wonderfully nutritious food for us as we age because it is truly a heart healthy food. It helps to lower cholesterol in the bloodstream.
2. Only Eat Recommended Portions
There may have been a time when you could eat two full plates of pasta topped with loads of cheese and four meatballs. Those days are long gone! If you even eat half of that you will no longer be fit as a fiddle. In fact, you might even take up the entire string section of an orchestra if you ate that much at each meal.
3. Concentrate on Hydration
This is especially important in the summer months because being adequately hydrated helps to prevent heat stroke. However, it is also essential throughout each season for several reasons. You are probably taking several medications at this stage, many of which are filtered through the kidneys. You can quickly suffer kidney damage if you don’t help to keep those toxins passing through that important organ, so keep this in mind. Also, you could drink a glass of cranberry juice a day because cranberries have amazing properties that help to keep your kidney, bladder and urinary tract healthy and cleared of bacterial infections.
Don’t Let a Small Budget Deter You on Your Path to Health
There are ways to stretch your budget if you set your mind to it. One of the ways is to buy things in bulk and on sale. While you will be cooking a larger meal, the idea is to portion it to be kept frozen as several meals. It’s always cheaper per serving to cook more than it is to cook small portions. Often, this is because family size packages are cheaper per ounce. Now that you know just how important a senior diet is, take the time to plan exactly what you need to stay healthy, and you will feel so much better for it.