Eat for Nutrition

Food for many is a tool for regulating their mood. Food as

anything other than a source of nutrition trans-
Jennifer is a nutritionist who specializes in working with
people
gave food a second thought. If they liked it, they ate it. If they
where they are concerned about their health or wish to get
into
better shape, and for the first time they consider how big a
decision
they have made by never deciding to eat right.”
mood. Food as anything other than a source of nutrition
trans-
Jennifer is a nutritionist who specializes in working with
people
gave food a second thought. If they liked it, they ate it. If they
where they are concerned about their health or wish to get
into
better shape, and for the first time they consider how big a
decision
they have made by never deciding to eat right.”
Jennifer says that although everybody would benefit from
eating
right, bad eating habits are a more serious concern for older
people
than for younger people: “As we age into our forties, fifties,
and
above, we lose bone density and our metabolism decreases.
This
When you water a plant, you give it whatever water it needs.
You
forms it from a requirement of life into a source of danger.
in their late fifties and older. “I see a lot of people who never
really
didn’t like it, they stayed away,” she says. “Then they get to
a point
means that what our body needs to thrive changes
significantly as
Jennifer tells her clients that one of the more valuable things
they can do is change how they eat. “People over age fifty
should
consider throwing out the idea of big sit-down meals and
instead
think about eating smaller meals more frequently throughout
the
maintain our energy level—instead of having it plunge and
peak
around our big meals. This also helps because making better
use of
the food energy we create means we burn more calories.”
are getting the recommended daily dose of calcium and
vitamin
D,” she advises, “and they should moderate their
consumption of
caffeine and soda. Drinking more water is an excellent
alternative.
“The most important thing is for people to be aware of what
they are doing and what they could be doing. A lot of folks
don’t
mind making more healthy decisions if they know what they
People with low life satisfaction were four times more
likely to develop a habit of continuing to eat once their
hunger was gone to compensate for depression.
we get older.”
day,” she says. “Small portions throughout the day help us to
As for what to eat, Jennifer again emphasizes meeting the
body’s
needs. “To keep their bones healthy, people should make
sure they
should be doing and why.”
The caricature of older people is that they are grumpy and
serious.
actually the opposite is true. Aging by itself is no threat to
happiness,
and in fact older people are generally as happy as younger
Sam approached his upcoming sixtieth birthday with dread: “I
was imagining it was going to feel gloomy—like being sixty
was a
the wrong day to try Thai food for the first time,” he says.
for how bad things were going to be, and then I realized I
didn’t
feel bad—I felt great.