Eating healthy after 50 usually involves an effort in two areas.
Increasing your intake of foods that are good for you such as berries leafy greens, and proteins, while cutting out the foods that clog your arteries.
The following 5 types of foods should be avoided.
1. Fried Foods that triple the calories
Consider the oil that your fries or onion rings have been submerged in, and consider how its saturated fat “may have a negative impact on blood cholesterol,” says Amy Gorin, a registered dietitian and owner of Plant-Based Eats in Stamford, Connecticut. Here are three expert tips:
Christine Rosenbloom, a registered dietitian and nutritionist and co-author of Food & Fitness After 50, says that because frying tends to triple the calories in foods, you should invest in an air fryer. (She swears by hers)
Alicia Ines Arbaje, M.D., associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School, says to save your fats for dinner and to avoid them at breakfast and lunch.
Thomas Loepfe, M.D., a geriatrician at the mayo Clinic, says, “Go with grilled, not fried.
Bottom line: Get the side salad instead of restaurant fries. And when you’re looking at labels, consider that “a 200-calorie serving of food should have no more than 2 grams of saturated fat,” says Nancy Farrell Allen, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
2. Packaged foods with sneaky sugars
Hidden sugars can be found in pasta sauces, yogurt, granola bars, instant oatmeal packets, and breakfast cereals. And why is that so harmful to older adults? “Excess sugar can put stress on organs such as the pancreas and liver,” Allen says, “…which can increase blood sugar and blood triglyceride levels and raise the risk of fatty liver disease.”
Loepfe adds: “Sugars increase one’s risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, the incidence and prevalence of which increase as we age.” And at a time in life when every calorie should be nutrient-dense, “And added sugar really contributes to calories we don’t need.”
Bottom line: Check labels for added sugars-but don’t fret over natural sugars in fruits or milk.
3. Sugary drinks, including most bottled teas
Soft drinks aren’t your only enemy. Bottled teas, fancy coffee drinks and “fresh” lemonades can all be loaded with the sweet stuff. “For example, the 16-ounce chai latte at Starbucks, one of its most popular drinks, has 42 grams of sugar, “Rosenbloom says.
With bottled drinks, beware of misleading labels. “Just because a drink says “pure” or ‘green tea’ or ‘honey’ doesn’t mean it has less sugar, “Rosenbloom says. And products touting their organic cane sugar, coconut sugar, or raw sugar? “Sugar is sugar,” she adds.
Bottom line: “Aim to keep added sugar intake to 10 percent or less of total daily calories, Gorin says. For a 2,000-calorie daily diet, that would be no more than 200 calories or 50 grams of added sugar per day.”
4. High-sodium instant meals (think frozen pizzas)
Seventy-five of people over the age of 60 have high blood pressure. And even if you are on medication, you want to lower your sodium intake,” Rosenbloom says.
If you think you’re eating a low salt diet because you don’t salt your food, consider the salt you consume that is in that frozen pizza or can of soup you just heated up.
Seventy-five percent of salt in our diet comes from processed foods, not the salt shaker. So, what can you do? An easy way to spot low-sodium foods is to look for those in which sodium is 5 percent or less of the daily value; anything in the 20 percent range is high-sodium.
Bottom line: Aim for 1,500 to 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day.
5. Ultra-processed snacks
Unless you’re picking an apple from a tree or getting your milk straight out of a cow, most food you eat is processed. It’s the ultra-processed foods that you must strike from your diet. Minimally processed foods are bagged greens, diced veggies, frozen fruits, and vegetables. But foods not good for you are cake mixes, snack chips ketchup, sweetened yogurt, meat, and frozen pizzas because they add food coloring, sodium, preservatives, and other additives to make the consumers happy. Many processed foods are void of fiber and nutrients like potassium or magnesium, and they tend to be calorically dense, with a lot of fat and salt, says Joseph Gonzales, a registered dietitian at the Mayo Clinic.
And some of the preservatives, like nitrates, may be harmful in high amounts, perhaps leading to premature aging cells in the body, Loepfe says.
Bottom line: Make label-reading a habit. And better yet, cook at home.
CONCLUSION
To develop good eating habits, it is important to avoid processed foods as well as reduce salt intake and be willing to read labels.
Are you making an attempt to watch what you are putting in your body? Have you noticed any changes in your weight or your blood pressure? Feel free to share your comments below.