Healthy Eating Strategies to be Followed While You Get Older!

When you look into the mirror, you find yourself aging. But, this is the time when you need to focus on healthy eating so that you love the reflection that you see in the mirror. Good nutrition is directly or indirectly linked to a healthy ageing. It will surely keep you energized, active, and will help fight against digestion, slow metabolism as well as gradual loss of muscle mass and bone. However, this is a true saying that, “You can’t stop ageing, but, can stay healthy”. The first and the foremost step during these senior years is to practice healthy eating.

As you age, your body and life changes too. And this is the time when healthy eating is required. Practising healthy choices of diet can help combating certain chronic ailments like diabetes, Blood pressure, high cholesterol etc.

Food and Strategies to be Followed for Healthy Eating during Older Days

• Eat every three to four hours: Rather that eating once a time heavy meal, make a habit of eating every three to four hours. This will boost the energy level and will keep the appetite level in check to avoid over eating.
• Eat protein rich diet: Make a habit of consuming 20 to 30 gms of protein every day. This will help maintaining the muscle mass. Fish contains high quality protein, so try to eat atleast twice a week. Other good sources of proteins are , eggs, lean means, poultry, beans, nuts, seeds etc.
• Stay Hydrated As you get older, the desire of drinking water becomes less, because you feel less thirsty. Actually most of the body are composed of water, and if there is lack of water in the body, just imagine what the body cells will look like?
• Choose whole grains: Replace refined products with whole grains, as they are rich in nutrients and fiber.
• Choose low fat dairy products: Reduce the consumption of saturated fats that have high tendency to get you at the risk of heart diseases.
• Cut down the salt: If you are more than 51, it is highly recommended to consume less than 1,500 milligrams of salt per day. Opt for low sodium foods and try to season your meals with herbs and spices rather than salt.
• Always choose healthy cooking techniques: Steaming, baking, roasting, sautéing are some of the healthy techniques that should be followed over frying.
• Consume ample amount of fruits and vegetables: Have a practice of eating five to seven servings of veggies and fruits each day in order to keep the level of antioxidants like A, C and E high. These fruits and veggies have the tendency to make you full for longer time as they are rich in fibers. This will however diminish the craving of consuming snacks.

How Do I Know That I am Maintaining a Healthy weight?

Following are the two standard measures that will help you know that you are in a healthy weight:

• BMI is a measure of weight correspondence to the height. The BMI score with 18.5 to 24.9 indicates a healthy weight of adults.
• A waist circumference of more than 35 inches in women and 40 inches in men indicates increased risk of health problems.

How to Follow a Healthy eating Plans

Control portion sizes

Portion is the amount of one food that you eat in one sitting. Some people eat more than they actually need. Following are the tips that need top be taken care of

• Avoid eating infront of TV, computer or laptop screen. Because if you are distracted, you may not know how much you are eating.
• Make a habit of reading Nutrition Fact Label to see how much calories and fats are there in a single serving sized of an item.