Are There Any Special Nutritional Needs For The Elderly?
It is always important to eat healthily, but the two phases when it is most vital are probably your formative years and your declining years. In the beginning, you have to build your body to put it on a good footing for the rest of your life and in your later years, parts do not work the same as they used to, so it is best to give them decent quality materials to work with.
So the pointers below are valid for every phase of your life from being a young adult up, but they are particularly vital for older individuals.
It is vital to stay hydrated. Most people do not drink enough water, but older individuals tend to have less water in their bodies than younger ones and this has to be replaced. It is by and large recommended that people drink eight 250 cc glasses (a tumbler) of water (two litres) a day, but if you would like to be more accurate the ratio is 25 cc’s per kilo, so a 250 cc glass for each 10 kilos or 22 pounds.
Protein is vital to older individuals and as they are normally less lively than younger individuals, they do not require so much carbohydrate. Therefore, it is better to be selective with your foods, eat less bread, rice, potato and sugars, but eat a bit more lean meat, eggs, cheese and particularly fish.
If you are going to eat carbohydrates, be certain to eat the wholemeal, whole grain, unprocessed versions of rice, bread and pasta. This is to increase dietary fibre. A lot of older people suffer from constipation because they are less lively and raising fibre and roughage will help counteract this. Green leaf vegetables, all vegetables and fruit are fantastic for increasing dietary fibre.
Cut down on fat and oil. You need some fat and oil, but it is not a problem to eat enough to lubricate yourself and the consumption of the right amount of fibre, roughage and water will prevent constipation.
Iron is important for healthy blood, so find out how much you require per day (RDA – recommended daily amount) and make sure that you get it either from red meat, cereals or supplements. The same goes for zinc which is not easily absorbed.
Calcium is extremely important particularly for women. Osteoporosis is very common. Osteoporosis is a calcium lack which results in brittle bones. Most individuals merely think of milk whilst they think of calcium, but milk is not good for adults. You can get it from meat, cheese and broccoli amongst other sources.
The B group of vitamins is also vital for your blood and immune system. Numerous older people have a lack of Vitamin B12. This is a complicated condition and requires a doctor’s advice, but it is widespread.
Next time you have to have a check up, look to see if they are checking your body’s level of vitamin B12 and if it is not in the list of tests, ask for it to be included.
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on several subjects, and is now concerned with . If you want to know more, please visit our site at
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