The nutrition of a person after 50 is crucial. It is arguably the most important factor in maintaining a healthy body at this age. You can't take much more abuse in the form of fast food, inactivity, and too much alcohol. The side effects are imminent. Therefore, changes in diet are imminent in women after 50.
Women over 50 and new habits
Good nutrition is essential throughout life, of course, but around and after age 50, changes occur within the body that make the foods you eat of particular importance.
" As you age, you lose muscle mass, about 10 percent every decade after age 45,". "While you are losing muscle, you are more likely to gain body fat and require fewer calories." This is because muscle burns more calories than body fat, he adds.
It’s also important to prioritize exercise, particularly resistance training, to help counteract that decline in metabolism that occurs with aging.
You must prioritize nutrition to prevent heart disease, diabetes, and other conditions that are of more concern as people age.
1. Eat fatty fish
Eating at least two 3.5-ounce servings of cooked fatty fish like salmon, tuna, or herring each week can help keep your heart health strong. These fish provide omega-3 fatty acids that help the heart. They are essential to a person's overall health and are promoted for their protective effects, especially on the brain, heart, and eyes.
Add more plums to your diet
Bone health is important as you age; About one-third of women and 20 percent of men over 50 will break a bone due to osteoporosis. Eating prunes helps to strengthen bone health and maintain healthy bones. In fact, eating five to six plums a day has been shown to help prevent bone loss, according to a study conducted in Osteoporosis International. Add them to a salad, or make jam or even brownies with them.
The bone-protective effects of dried plum in postmenopausal women have been supported by several animal studies and confirmed in randomized controlled trials.
2. Eat tomato sauce
Surprisingly, this food helps prevent wrinkles. Tomatoes are red gems that provide the antioxidant lycopene. This antioxidant can help protect skin from wrinkles and other damage that occurs due to UV light, it adds. Cooked tomatoes are preferred because your body absorbs lycopene from them better. You can add tomato sauce to pasta or use it in a zucchini recipe.
3. Limit sugar as a primary diet change
Of the dietary changes we should all make at any age, is limiting your intake of added sugar, and this becomes even more important as you age. Added sugar, like table sugar and brown sugar, should make up no more than 10 percent of your total calories. So, for a 2,000-calorie daily diet, this translates to about 12 teaspoons of added sugar.
For the extra sugar you add to your day, it is recommended to use one that offers some nutrition like pure maple syrup. It is a unique sweetener because it contains over 60 health-supporting polyphenols, as well as the mineral manganese that helps with blood sugar and the B vitamin riboflavin. You can lightly sweeten the beans overnight, a muffin recipe, or the Maple-Dijon Salad Dressing.
Even a very important recommendation would be to accustom our palate to the natural flavor of food, this will help us avoid even natural sweeteners, learning to consume drinks and foods without extra flavors.
4. Don't eat trans fats
Although you want to avoid them at all times, doing so becomes even more important as you age. Before menopause, estrogen provides some protection against heart disease. But after menopause, women are at a higher risk for heart disease, and trans fats don't help at all - on the contrary, they are very harmful.
Your weight will vary day to day as much as several pounds due to normal fluctuations in body water. So looking at your weight from one day to the next, or even one week to the next, does not accurately reflect weight loss. Dietary influences are just some of what can impact the number on the scale, whether a true weight change or just normal day-to-day fluctuations. Medications, hormones, exercise, and body composition changes additionally influence weight. Keto Genx