Choosing Good Nutrition to Support Your Health

Eating well throughout your life is the cornerstone of keeping you strong, active, and healthier. Even if you have bad habits around your diet, it’s never too late to make positive changes to support healthy aging.

Your doctor may have already made specific recommendations about your diet, or maybe you’d like to lose weight or keep your blood sugar better under control. Whatever your reasons for learning about good nutrition in older adults, we’ll discuss how to choose the best food and overcome common obstacles to healthy eating.

Changes in dietary needs with age

Each season of life has specific nutrition requirements, and being an older adult is no exception. As people age, the kinds of food their body needs change, too. Some common differences include: 1

Having a slower metabolism means decreased calorie needs
Changes in nutrient absorption, which increases the need for certain types of foods
Medications may affect how the body processes foods
Chronic diseases can impact nutrition

All of these changes mean that nutrition for older adults often needs to include more protein and certain essential vitamins and minerals. This can help you maintain muscle mass and replace nutrients commonly lost due to changes that happen with aging.

A good place to start is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has a personalized food planning tool called MyPlate. This can help you choose from each food group based on your age, sex, height and weight, and activity level.

How what you eat affects common health concerns in older adults

Along with the changes in nutrition needs that happen with aging, a healthy diet needs to consider any chronic health concerns you may have. Healthy nutrition can help prevent some of these conditions, and if you already have a diagnosis, the right food can help control or improve it.

Always be sure to talk to your doctor about their recommendations based on your situation. They may need to do additional testing, for example, to see whether you have vitamin deficiencies (such as B12 deficiency), or ask you to avoid certain foods known to make your health conditions worse. They may also recommend you meet with a registered dietician (RD) to help you create a nutrition plan that is best for you.

Let’s consider some typical recommendations for common health conditions in older adults:

Diabetes

Controlling your blood sugar by watching what you eat is extremely important if you have been diagnosed with diabetes. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) emphasizes that while there is no one-size-fits-all diet for managing diabetes, there are some tips to consider: 2

Minimize added sugars
Include lots of non-starchy vegetables
Eat less refined foods and grains and more whole, unprocessed foods
Losing even 5% of your body weight if you are overweight can improve diabetes
Swap saturated fats, like butter, for unsaturated fats like olive oil
Work with your doctor or RD for the best low-carbohydrate choices for you

High blood pressure

If you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure, a common dietary suggestion you may hear your doctor or RD talk about is the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet. The basics of the DASH diet include: 3

Eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains
Add fat-free or low-fat dairy products to your diet
For protein, eat fish, beans, poultry, and nuts
Limit foods high in saturated fat– these include full-fat dairy products, fatty meats, and palm, coconut, and palm kernel oils (use vegetable oils instead)
Eat foods low in saturated fats and low in trans fats
Reduce added sugars, like those found in sweetened beverages and desserts
Increase foods high in potassium, magnesium, calcium, fiber, and protein
Limit your sodium intake

Heart disease

High blood pressure and heart disease often exist together; in any case, managing your blood pressure is an important part of treating heart disease. You’ll find that nutrition plans for a healthy heart also follow the DASH recommendations. These are the American Heart Association (AHA) heart-healthy diet suggestions: 4

Don’t eat more calories than you use
Eat a wide selection of fruits and vegetables
Eat lean meats like poultry and fish and other healthy proteins like legumes and nuts
Avoid processed foods as much as possible
Decrease your sodium intake with sodium-free or low-sodium foods
Limit or avoid alcohol
Use non-tropical vegetable oils
Minimize added sugars

Kidney disease

If you are one of the 37 million adults in the US with chronic kidney disease, following diet recommendations for supporting kidney health is important. 5 The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases gives the following suggestions: 6

Work with an RD to identify the right amount of protein for you– too much protein is hard for the kidneys to process
Follow a heart-healthy diet
Reduce your sodium intake
Talk to your doctor about whether you should reduce potassium and phosphorus intake

Support your immune system and decrease inflammation

Along with choosing good nutrition that can help reduce problems from the above chronic conditions, there is much research that supports the role of a healthy diet in improving other conditions and supporting your immune system as well.

For example:

Diets rich in whole foods and low in processed foods and saturated fat, such as the Mediterranean diet, have been found in studies to reduce inflammation that contributes to arthritis.7

A combination of the DASH diet and the Mediterranean diet, called the MIND diet, has shown promise in preventing Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. 8

To support a healthy immune system, eating a balanced diet of whole foods, lean proteins, and plenty of water can help support your gut health, which impacts your immune response. 9

Barriers to eating healthy in older adults

It’s one thing to understand healthy food choices, and another to act on them. For older adults, there are some common barriers to healthy eating that can make it more challenging:

Changes in taste and smell- a decrease in these senses with aging can make foods less appealing

Decreases in oral health or swallowing abilities- dentures that fit poorly, or trouble swallowing due to the aftereffects of a stroke, can turn eating into a chore

Decreases in mobility- we often take our mobility for granted, but if you can’t move around easily, it’s hard to shop for food or even to stand long enough to cook a meal

Having a fixed income- many older adults are on a fixed income and must ration their money between food choices and other needs like prescription medications

Vision loss- being able to safely drive to the store, or to see clearly to safely cook, can mean vision changes negatively impact eating

Changes in thirst- older adults often have a decreased sense of thirst and may not stay hydrated enough

Thankfully, there are some ways to counteract these problems. The following tips can help you eat healthier despite common barriers:

Add seasoning- if low sodium food and a decreased sense of taste are making foods bland and unappealing, adding other spices can help increase flavor.

Choose foods high in water content- fruits and vegetables high in water (like watermelon or cucumber) and soups, broths, or smoothies can boost your hydration. Avoid alcohol, too- this can have a diuretic effect, flushing water from your body.

Talk to your doctor- they can work with you to recommend mobility aids, physical therapy, speech therapy, and other strategies to improve limitations.

See your dentist regularly- addressing problems with your oral health and care early and often can keep your mouth healthier.

Talk to family and caregivers- make sure they know your challenges. They can offer support, mealtime companionship, and help you with tasks like shopping and meal preparation.

Consider delivery- grocery stores that provide food delivery can help you keep your kitchen stocked, and programs like Meals on Wheels can reduce both mobility and financial barriers to food.

Extra attention to good nutrition is worth it

Learning about healthy food choices and working with your healthcare team to choose good nutrition to support your health will help you stay healthier and more active. This will increase your overall quality of life.

Some older adults may find that extra support such as professional caregiving with activities of daily living helps them successfully change poor diet habits. In-home caregivers can assist with meal preparation, transportation to the store, and help older adults feel more engaged with everyday life.

If you are trying to decide on in-home care and need more details, Caresify’s expert team is available to help you create a custom plan of care to meet your needs. You can read more about our available services here, or call 888-799-5007.

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