Food Choices In 60s
Forever Young, The Anti-Aging Guide, Click Author
Is your appetite lower than it used to be? Do foods taste less appealing than they used to? There is a reason for that. You’re metabolism is slowing down. It will slow down a little even if you are exercising. If you don’t exercise your metabolism will take a nose dive into the gutter. This means you can eat very little and still gain weight. How unfair is that?
Your taste buds are also getting a little less sharp that they used to be. Senior taste buds. Who would have known? Your sense of smell is declining a bit as well. These both affect how much you enjoy your food. If you’re on medication, that can also alter the way foods taste.
Your biggest concern in the eating department should be to make sure you get enough nutrients. If you eat low quality food—or the same foods every day—you can be in danger of developing a nutrition deficit.
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So how do you get around these problems? Here are some guidelines to help you out:
How to Eat Well When You Don’t Want to Eat
1) If food doesn’t taste right experiment with different spices. Go to the baking section of your grocery store and look at all of the different spice blends. Make sure you check the sodium content. Take a few home with you. Sauté them in a teaspoon of olive oil to pull out the flavors before cooking as normal.
2) Try food from different cultures. This exposes you to a wide variety of food and broadens your mind. Take an ethnic cooking class or a vegetarian cooking class so you can get an idea of what the food should taste like.
3) Concentrate on the quality of your food ingredients. Buy fresh fruits and vegetables whenever possible. If there is a farmer’s market in your area, go take a look at what they offer. You often can get fresher food for less money than what you would pay in the supermarket.
Investigate CSAs (community assisted agriculture) programs in your area. A CSA is basically an agreement between you and a farmer. You pay him ahead of time for part of his harvest. He in turn picks the fruits and vegetables and delivers them to your door. You get fresh produce and he gets a living wage. It’s a win/win situation.
4) Eat smaller meals more often. Breaking up those three big meals into five or six smaller ones can take the stress off of eating. It’s a lot easier to eat what you should if there is less food on your plate at any one time.
5) Turn eating into a social occasion. Regularly get together with friends or family at a restaurant that serves healthy food. Better yet, take turns cooking in each other’s kitchen and sit down to some home made meals. Make it healthy and take home leftovers.
6) Exercise vigorously. This will improve your appetite because it builds muscle and burns more calories. Your metabolism will speed up in self defense.
These are the coping skills you will use to eat right. Now you may be wondering what ‘eat right’ means for a person in their sixties. We will cover that next.
What to Eat
Your guidelines are very simple. If you follow these you will put yourself on the road to good health:
1) Eat whole grains. As you age, the old plumbing doesn’t always work the way it used to. When you stick to whole grains like brown rice, barley, and Quinoa, you are giving your various systems a boost in the right direction.
Experiment with grains your have never tried before. Go to your local health food store or a chain like Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods or Wegman’s, and look at the many different types of grains waiting for you. Take something new home once a month.
2) Eat fat-free dairy or calcium and Vitamin D fortified soy products. Those bones need all of the help they can get. Have a glass of milk at breakfast and lunch.
3) Focus on eating fruits and vegetables high in antioxidants. There are three primary reasons why you want to do this:
- The more antioxidants you have in your system, the more ‘weapons’ your body has to use against cancer.
- Most of us suffer from failing eyesight during this time. Foods like blueberries can help maintain the eyesight you have.
- Vitamin C and E, which are present in many fruits and vegetables, have been linked to a lower risk for Alzheimer’s. This is not a cure—but personally I’ll take any help I can get.
4) Get at least 60% of your protein calories from vegetarian sources. Why?
- Vegetarian (plant based) protein contains fiber. The more fiber you have in your diet, the fewer toxins you will have in your body.
- There is no cholesterol in plant based protein. When you eat beans and soy you are giving the old heart a break.
- Plant-based proteins are easier to digest that meat. You want to give your body a workout, not your stomach.
How to Put these Guidelines into Practice
You may have your doctor telling you some of the same things. Eat less garbage… Cut back on the red meat. Eat more whole grains… Yada, yada, yada. How many people bother to sit down and actually put together a meal plan that is doable, tastes good, and is good for you?
Not your doctor, I’m guessing. Maybe your doctor is one of those rare people who tries to go the extra mile. Unfortunately, most of those doctors are overworked and just don’t have the time to outline what to eat.
Below you will find some recipes that are healthy and easy to prepare. I’ve used convenience products (like washed salad lettuce leaves, etc.) wherever possible to speed up the cooking time. Feel free to buy your vegetables out of a bag and prepare them yourself. There is nothing more calming than leisurely chopping vegetables and mixing ingredients while listening to music and sipping some wine. Your food will taste all the better for it.
| Vegetable Omelet | Directions |
| ½ cup Egg Beaters
¼ cup salsa 1 Tbsp grated fat-free cheddar cheese |
1. Spray a pan with butter spray and put on medium heat.
2. Combine all ingredients, cook until eggs are set. Serve on toast if desired. |
| Irish Oatmeal | Directions |
| ¼ cup Irish Oats
1 cup Soy milk 1 Tsp vanilla 1 Tbsp Maple syrup |
1. Spray pan with butter spray and put on medium heat. Toast the oats until they smell nutty and brown slightly.
2. Meanwhile heat the milk in a saucepan. When it begins to boil add the oats and all remaining ingredients. 3. Lower the heat to simmer and cook 30 minutes. |
| Mediterranean Couscous | Directions |
| 1 cup Whole wheat couscous
1 cup cooked chicken or soy strips ¼ bag mixed vegetables 1 Tsp Mrs. Dash original blend ½ can low sodium diced tomatoes |
1. Heat 1 ½ cups of water in a tea kettle or in the microwave. When the water boils pour it over the couscous and cover.
2. Put the vegetables in a shallow pan with the tomatoes and a little butter spray. Cover and cook on high until vegetables are tender (approx. 5 minutes). 3. Add the chicken or soy and heat through. Serve over the couscous. |
| Fiesta Salad | Directions |
| ¼ cup Fat Free refried beans
¼ cup cooked brown rice ½ cup red bell pepper, chopped 6-8 baked tortilla chips ¼ cup fat free cheddar cheese |
1. Put all of the chips on a microwavable safe plate.
2. Layer on the beans. 3. Add a layer of brown rice. 4. Sprinkle on the cheese and bell peppers. 5. Microwave until heated through, about 2 minutes. |
| Humus Among us | Directions |
| 1 Whole wheat pita cut into 4 wedges
¼ – ½ cup hummus (flavor of your choice) |
Scoop up the hummus with the pita. Enjoy. |
| Egg Sandwich | Directions |
| 1 Hard boiled egg
1 piece whole grain toast 1 Tbsp fat free mayonnaise 1 Tsp dill relish 1 slice tomato 1 lettuce leaf |
1. Mix all of the ingredients together except the toast and vegetables.
2. Layer the vegetables on the bread, and put the egg mixture on top. |
| Easy Chicken Pot Pie | Directions |
| 1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
2 cooked chicken breasts from the deli 1 can low fat, low sodium cream of mushroom sauce 1 cup fat free milk 1 Tbsp Mrs. Dash garden blend Filo dough, thawed |
1. Combine the cream of mushroom and milk in a bowl and mix well.
2. Put half of the filo dough on the bottom of a small casserole dish. Put the vegetables, chicken, and sauce on top. 3. Cover with the other half of the filo dough. Sprinkle the top with a little water and give it a spritz of butter spray. 4. Cook until the filo is brown and the pie is heated through, about 25 minutes. |
| Minestrone Soup | Directions |
| 4 cups low sodium broth of your choice
1 cup frozen vegetables 1 cup small shell pasta 1 can low sodium diced tomatoes |
1. Put the pasta and broth in a pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat to simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and heat through. |
All of these recipes can be doubled or halved according to your needs. If you make enough to last you for a few days you won’t have to cook more than twice a week if you don’t want to. I find it easier to enjoy cooking when I don’t have to do it every day. That’s probably why so many men become celebrity cooks.
The more you cook at home and the less you eat out, the healthier you will be. We all go out to eat from time to time. But it is far too easy to make bad choices when we can have anything on the menu. Those portion sizes are way too big as well. Even if you decide to take home half of the food instead of eating it, you are still eating a fair amount of fats and refined products.
You might want to think of making healthy cooking into a personal hobby. Perhaps you are sick of cooking and don’t want to do it any more. But cooking for yourself (and perhaps a spouse) is different when you are retired. You don’t have to rush. If the other person doesn’t like what you make, they can go cook their own food. Cooking can be your personal pleasure. If done right, it can be a meditative, stress-reducing activity.
Hey, you have to eat. You might as well learn to like the process.
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Exercises in Your 40s 50s 60s 70s – Elderly
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