Nutritional mix for the elderly

First find out your own physical baseline, then meet basic nutritional needs, and finally avoid individual taboos. There is no standard answer that is accurate for all elderly people.

Last year, when I was doing free nutrition clinics in communities, I met no less than 20 elderly people who came in with the "Food Supplement List for the Elderly" copied from the Internet. The one who impressed me the most was 68-year-old Aunt Zhang. She has type 2 diabetes. She heard others say that multigrain porridge lowers blood sugar, so she drank it every now and then. As a result, her fasting blood sugar was above 8 for two consecutive weeks. She always felt weak and struggled to carry a vegetable basket. When I asked, I found out that the multigrain porridge she cooked took more than an hour each time. The degree of gelatinization was extremely high, and the glycemic index was actually higher than that of white rice. In order to be "light", she had not eaten a bite of lean meat for half a month, and only dared to eat two eggs a week. Her protein intake was less than half of the recommended amount. Her blood sugar was not stable, and she first suffered from mild muscle attenuation.

At this point, someone must ask, isn’t it always said that the elderly should have a light diet, with more vegetables and less meat? This is actually the most common difference of opinion in the field of elderly nutrition: the traditional health-preserving school insists on "coarse food with less meat and fish, reducing the burden on the gastrointestinal tract", while the modern clinical nutrition school emphasizes "prioritizing the intake of high-quality protein and preventing muscle loss". Both statements are actually correct, but they apply to completely different groups of people.

It is absolutely right for the elderly who have just undergone gastrointestinal surgery, or have severe gastroesophageal reflux or severe hyperlipidemia to eat light meals in a short period of time to reduce the burden on the gastrointestinal tract and metabolism. But if your health is good, you don't have any serious problems, and you still dare not touch meat because you believe that "eating more vegetarians will lead to a longer life", then you will most likely be like Aunt Zhang, losing muscle quickly, your immunity will also collapse, and your risk of falls and fractures will double or triple.

You don’t need to try hard to memorize complex nutritional standards. When you take a shower, touch the “bye bye meat” on your upper arm. If it is soft enough to easily pinch more than 2 cm, and your legs feel weak after walking for 10 minutes, then don’t hesitate to add protein first: a boiled egg a day is standard, and if you can’t drink pure milk, drink Shuhua milk or yogurt. Eat 2 taels of lean pork, chicken or fish and shrimp every day, even if it is fattened pork belly, as long as you don’t feel uncomfortable eating it, it’s totally fine. A 72-year-old man I followed up in the past few months used to be a vegetarian and had to take two breaks to climb the third floor. Later, he added a cup of yogurt and four or five boiled shrimps every day. After three months, he was not out of breath climbing the stairs. His bone density increased by 0.1 unit during the last physical examination.

There is another hotly debated topic: Should elderly people take nutritional supplements? Some people say, "It's medicine that's three parts poisonous, and food supplements are stronger than anything else." Others say, "The elderly have poor digestion and absorption, so supplements are a must." In fact, this also depends on the situation. If you have good teeth, can eat enough of the foods mentioned above every day, and often go out to bask in the sun, then you really don’t need to buy extra health care products that cost hundreds of dollars. Not to mention it is a waste of money, and taking too much will increase the burden on your liver and kidneys. But if you have bad teeth, can’t chew meat, are bloated after drinking milk, and seldom go out, then taking a daily supplement of 10g of whey protein and a 400IU vitamin D is better than anything else. We previously followed a group of elderly people who had all missing teeth. After half a year of supplementation, their muscle mass increased by an average of 0.7 kilograms, and the risk of falling fell by 40%.

By the way, don’t listen to others who say that the elderly should cook their meals soft and chewy. As long as your teeth are fine, occasionally nibbling on a crisp apple, some cold cucumbers, or crispy fried vegetables can actually exercise your chewing ability and stimulate saliva secretion, which is good for digestion. The 79-year-old Grandpa Wang downstairs in my house has better teeth than a 30-year-old like me. He gnaws on a crisp peach every day and doesn’t deliberately cook his meals. His gastrointestinal function during the last physical examination was better than that of many 60-year-olds. On the contrary, an aunt I met before was always afraid that hard food would hurt her stomach, so she ate rotten and mushy noodles. As a result, she was less than 70 years old and lost only three teeth. Her digestive function became worse and worse. She would suffer from acid reflux after eating even the smallest amount of residue.

In fact, nutrition for the elderly is really not that complicated. Don’t just follow the uniform lists on the Internet, and don’t listen to the nonsense of health product advertisements. Pay more attention to your blood lipids, blood sugar, bone density, muscle mass and other indicators during your annual physical examination, and adjust your diet according to your physical condition. This is more reliable than any “longevity diet”. If you are really unsure, go to the nutrition clinic of a community hospital near your home and register. It costs more than ten yuan, which is much better than guessing on your own.