Should Your Nutrition Change As You Age?
Your nutritional needs often change as you age, we know that at Body Sculptors in Louisville, KY. It’s why we create individualized eating plans. No two people are alike and you may not be like your younger self, either. Even though you need all the building blocks you needed in your youth, your body may not be as efficient at absorbing them. Eating healthy snacks and healthy meals can help reduce the potential for malnutrition and nutrient deficiencies.
What’s the easiest vitamin to get that we often lack?
The answer is vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency is rampant in the US, even though it should be easy to have enough. It comes from the sunshine hitting your skin and is made by the body. While overexposure to the sun can cause skin cancer, 10 to 20 minutes of direct exposure without a sunscreen is recommended. Older people, people in northern climates who can’t get enough sun during the winter months and those with darker skin to get enough have more of a problem getting vitamin D from the sun.
The amount of calories you burn as you age often changes.
People tend to slow down as they age and require fewer calories. While your metabolism does slow, loss of muscle mass with age plays the biggest role in the need for fewer calories. Fewer calories mean eating less, which could mean eating fewer nutrients. Watching the type of food you eat becomes far more important as you age. Dental issues can also change the type of food elderly people eat. You have less wiggle-room for adding unhealthy foods in your diet and far more need for extra nutrition as you become older.
Absorption of vitamins becomes more limited, so you need to increase your intake.
You need to increase your vitamin B12 as you age, since it becomes harder to absorb. It’s necessary for the healthy function of nerves, plus formation of red blood cells and cell metabolism. Getting more calcium from food is just as important for bones as getting enough vitamin D. Make salmon one of your food choices, not just for calcium, but for the healthy fats, too. Stay hydrated.. While hydration is important for younger people, it’s particularly important as you age. You tend to lose moisture more quickly the older you are. Dehydration can lead to UTIs and behaviors that resemble dementia.
- Avoid prepackaged food. They’re often over-processed and filled with additives but limited in nutrients. Instead, make smoothies if you’re short on time. If you have the vegetables and fruit already cut, it’s a snap.
- Obesity is the leading cause of preventable deaths and far more prevalent as people age. Watch your diet and make it healthy options. Also get plenty of exercise to help with weight control.
- One of the biggest issues faced by seniors is living alone or cooking for two. While it may seem cheaper to eat at the drive-through, it’s hard on your health. Do meal planning and freeze extra dinners for later.
- If you have dental issues, get your nutrients via a smoothie. Make sure you include the skin if it’s edible. It provides the fiber you need to be healthy. We can create a program that’s healthy for you, regardless of your age.
For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training
Intermittent fasting—IF—is one of the most popular modified ways of eating that can also help you lose weight. It’s not about what you eat, although you should eat a healthy diet, but about when you eat. While there are all types of intermittent fasting, from eating very light on certain days of the week and regular on others, to eating between certain hours or skipping meals for several days. The latter is not recommended unless your in good health, since skipping food for several days can actually slow your metabolism. What does work is eating between certain hours, which gives your digestion a bit of a break as well.
When you workout at the gym, you’re doing indoor exercises that can also be done outside the gym. However, most people don’t have the gym equipment in their home. That’s why bodyweight exercises are often one of the most popular at home/in home ones to do. Bodyweight exercises include everything from push-ups to squats. As the name implies, they use the weight of the body instead of barbells or dumbbells.
America is a nation of workers and many take pride in how hard they work. However, balancing work and health is important. Some people think it’s selfish to take care of themselves. It’s not. In fact, it’s selfish not to take care of yourself. If your job is taking over your life and you don’t have time to do the things that make you healthy, one day it will all catch up with you. Then the stresses of work and lack of self-care will catch up. Not only will you have to miss work, you’ll have to have someone else take care of you.
If you’re like many people, simply deciding you’re going to workout because someone said it was good for you isn’t going to help you stick with a fitness program. Somehow, eating a nutritious meal because it’s good for you, sounds like something mothers tell their children and if you are like most people, it didn’t make you want to eat Brussels sprouts. Having a motivation to stay healthy or get healthy can be your focus, spurring you on when you’d rather grab an order of fries than a salad or watch the latest Netflix release.
If you’re living in Louisville, KY, or other area where it can get really cold, you may wonder whether it’s healthy to run in the cold. In most cases, the answer is yes, depending on how you dress and how extreme the cold weather is. However, cold weather may make your heart work harder. It causes your blood vessels to constrict so there’s more blood going to vital organs like your brain. It causes an increased risk for blood clots that can lead to heart attack or stroke.
We all know that eating a tub of ice cream isn’t good for you, but would it be better if you ate a tub of frozen yogurt. Since it first hit the market, it’s been a huge hit. After all, yogurt is a healthy option, but, is it? Frozen yogurt still has sugar and flavoring added. If you go to a fancy frozen yogurt shop, you can add tons of toppings that would make a candy manufacturer blush. That can’t possibly be healthy. The answer is that it isn’t.
When you think of the benefits of celery, you immediately think of it as a low calorie food that’s good for dieters. Celery is a member of the parsley family. In fact, it’s name came from the Italian word, seleri and the French word, celeri that’s derived from the Greek word selinon that means parsley. It was first used for medicinal purposes in ancient times, often for treating problems with nervousness, hysteria and insomnia. It wasn’t used for food until the early 1600s by the French.
At Body Sculptors in Louisville, KY, helping people look and feel better is our major goal. We strive to help you find ways to get better results in less time by using scientifically based workouts and healthy eating habits. One question that often is asked is whether it makes a difference what or when you eat when you workout. The answer is a resounding yes. After a workout, you need to replenish your body and one thing that helps is the consumption of bananas.