Nutrition For The Elderly

It is always important to eat healthily, but the two stages when it is most important are almost certainly your formative years and your declining years. In the beginning, you need to build your body to put it on a good footing for the rest of your life and in your later years, things do not work the same as they used to, so it is best to give them good quality materials to work with.

So the tips below are valid for every stage of your life from being a young adult up, but they are especially vital for older people.

It is vital to remain hydrated. Most individuals do not drink enough water, but older individuals tend to have less water in their bodies than younger ones and this needs to be replaced. It is generally recommended that individuals drink eight 250 cc beakers (a tumbler) of water (two litres) a day, but if you would like to be more precise the ratio is 25 cc’s per kilo, so a 250 cc glass for each 10 kilos or 22 pounds.

Protein is vital to older individuals and as they are usually less lively than younger individuals, they do not require so much carbohydrate. Therefore, it is better to be selective with your foodstuffs, eat less bread, rice, potato and sugars, but eat a bit more lean meat, eggs, cheese and especially fish.

If you are going to consume carbohydrates, be certain to eat the wholemeal, whole grain, unprocessed versions of rice, bread and pasta. This is to increase dietary fibre. A lot of older people suffer from constipation because they are less active and raising fibre and roughage will help counteract this. Green leaf vegetables, all vegetables and fruit are fantastic for increasing dietary fibre.

Cut down on fat and oil. You require some fat and oil, but it is not difficult to eat enough to lubricate yourself and the consumption of the correct amount of fibre, roughage and water will prevent constipation.

Iron is vital for healthy blood, so find out how much you need per day (RDA – recommended daily amount) and make sure that you get it either from red meat, cereals or supplements. The same goes for zinc which is not easily absorbed.

Calcium is extremely important especially for women. Osteoporosis is very common. Osteoporosis is a calcium lack which results in brittle bones. Most individuals merely think of milk whilst they think of calcium, but milk is not digestible for adults. You can acquire it from meat, cheese and broccoli amongst other sources.

The B group of vitamins is also important for your blood and immune system. Many older people have a deficiency of Vitamin B12. This is a complicated condition and necessitates a doctor’s advice, but it is widespread.

Next time you have to have a check up, look to see if they are checking your body’s level of vitamin B12 and if it is not in the list of tests, ask for it to be included.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a number of topics, and is now concerned with omega 3 arthritis. If you want to know more, please go to our site at Omega 6 9