Nutrition Tips for Women Over 50

By Carol Burns, RD, MS

As a woman ages, her body naturally loses muscle and body fat builds up more easily. These changes are triggered by alterations in a woman’s hormonal balance. Eating healthy and exercising regularly can help to slow down muscle loss and aid weight control. They can also help a woman with the prevention against heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes, cancer and even the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. These are risks that increase with family history, inactive lifestyle and eating a poor diet.

Here are some tips on good nutrition and exercise for women.

Q: What are some good nutrition and anti-aging secrets?
Keep weight gain at bay. Cutting back on calories, regular exercise and strength training are all good ways to help build more muscle. With more muscle, the body is able to burn more calories.

Keep bones strong. Get adequate calcium and vitamin D. Vitamin D is critical to calcium absorption in your body. The body can synthesize vitamin D from sun exposure, as the body ages it’s less able to process the sun’s vitamins.

Prevent heart disease and more. Enjoy the bounty native to Mediterranean countries – plenty of seafood, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans and use olive oil. Red meats are served less often and wine is consumed in low to moderate amounts. The good nutrition found in a Mediterranean-style diet is thought to lower heart disease risk, because it is low in unhealthy fats, especially trans fats and saturated fats and provides overall good nutrition and monounsaturated fats in olive oil.

Q: What should I be doing to improve my nutrition?

Try to eat a wide variety of foods, including 5 servings of fruits & vegetables daily. Boost calcium and vitamin D. That means three to four 8-ounce servings of low-fat dairy every day. If you are intolerant, try hard cheese yogurt, fortified products like orange juice, canned salmon, broccoli and legumes. Take 1000 to 1500 milligrams of calcium daily if you are not getting adequate calcium in your diet and try for the new Institute of Medicine’s recommendation for Vitamin D of 600 IU daily. Talk with your physician about your specific needs.

Eat more fruits, veggies, whole grains and legumes because these will give you plenty of disease-fighting antioxidants, more fiber and less sodium. Get enough fiber from whole-wheat pasta, cereals and breads, oatmeal, brown rice, popcorn and fresh fruits and vegetables as all are high in fiber. Eat the right proteins by balancing lean protein (like skinless chicken), fatty fish like salmon (with omega-3 fatty acids) and vegetable proteins. Enjoy a vegetarian meal a few times a week as a plant-based diet is low-calorie and dense in vitamins, minerals and disease-fighting antioxidants.

Cut salt intake because too much salt is linked to high blood pressure. Choose fats wisely and keep fats to a minimum. Avoid trans and saturated fats. Limit butter, margarine, salad dressing, fried foods, snack foods and sweets. “Good fats” include many vegetables oils like olive oil and fish oils, such as salmon and tuna. Curb the sweets by limiting the soft drinks, sugar and sweets; they can be loaded with calories and have little nutritional value. 

Source:  http://www.womensjournals.com