We need food to run our individual internal organs and our whole system, apart from others like water, oxygen etc. We would eat quite a variety of food during our young days, but when we age we would need to carefully pick and choose what we would eat. It may not be possible especially when we become a senior to eat the same food choices that we would have consumed a few years before. A table full of food is what brings family and friends together and we tend to celebrate by consuming a variety of delicious food prepared in gourmet style. These would need to be slowed down when age catches up on you and eating habits would also need to change like everything else.
Even if we are not struck with any of the sicknesses and diseases that are prevailing around especially among the seniors, still we would need to be careful with our food intake. Our food should be more nutritious and ensure we derive more goodness than what we would have been used to eating before.
There has been ample research on the subject of food especially for seniors where it has been seen that a reasonably balanced diet would keep you away from high blood pressure, diabetes, heart diseases, osteoporosis, among many others including some forms of cancers too. Though this may be the case most seniors living alone find it difficult to prepare a good home cooked balanced diet every time they eat. The process could be quite time consuming and tedious too. Especially when age catches on the chore of cooking would be quite a task to manage. In such a context it would seem prudent to pick up something on a drive thru or getting one of those instant foods available in the stores. This would not be healthy living and would create other issues which could be devastating to your health.
The fact is that when we age our muscles shrink, metabolism slows down, with which the calorie intake slows down and whatever calories we do take in would be used up. This makes it imperative that what we eat and the calories produced are effectively used up by our bodies to the optimum. Leaving calories unexpended or providing lesser calories than required could both bring detrimental results. The option is to take in the right food in the appropriate quantities.
You could be asking for unnecessary trouble if you think and eat what you consumed when you were 25 years old even at the age of 55 years which could cause you immense health problems. It is because of these issues that you would need to eat a very balanced diet.
If you have trouble deciding what to eat, you could always get help from the Human Nutrition Research Center of the United States Department of Agriculture, which has teamed up with AARP to offer seniors ample information on what food are best for them. They would take into consideration your present health condition and advice accordingly to ensure you lead a healthier and fulfilling senior life. They have recommended standard food intakes which would serve seniors at various ages and health levels and this is easily accessible which really cuts down on the requirement to consider the intake of food as a major issue. They recommend the following. Fruits and vegetables Grains (whole) Protein rich foods
Try and eat Organic as it is so much better for your health
Selecting what you would eat within the above quantities would be your prerogative and with a little prudence in what you would choose, the variety at your disposal is quite wide and inviting too. It is eating the right foods that matter and combining all of them in the right mix would provide any senior better health and a sickness and disease free life. To ensure that you take in the right foods and make food preparation simple would be to see that the least is leftover from each meal. It is when you cook more than you eat that the issues arise with storage and also eating the same food over a few days which in itself is not a very good idea. You could pick up a few recipes which would be easy preparations and eat healthy all the time. There are many such recipes which you could select. Some websites carry such easy to prepare recipes and picking up the right one which would suit your palate would give you a wide variety of choices. You should try to consume more fresh foods than relying on frozen food of any kind but it could be a difficult task but doing so could ensure better health and keep you away from sickness that could affect you as you age more in the years to come.
