Can the Elderly Have a Diet?

Contents:

Medical Video: Healthy Aging with Nutrition

It feels, almost everyone craves the ideal body shape and a healthier life, including those who are elderly. There may be some elderly who want to maintain their ideal body weight or lose weight by applying a diet. So, is it permissible to go on a diet for the elderly? Are there specific rules?

Diet for the elderly, do you need to do it?

Maybe what you often know, if the diet is mostly done among young people to adults. Yes, it is not surprising because many people, especially among young people, who crave to have an ideal weight and finally go on a diet.

Even so, it is not uncommon for elderly people who want to go on a diet. But not a few also question whether the diet for the elderly is safe. Indeed, for those who have excess weight then a diet with weight loss is believed to reduce the risk of developing disease.

However, a diet that is popular today is quite extreme for the health of the elderly. In fact, it not only makes the weight go down, but also can reduce the muscle mass of the elderly. Not to mention, extreme diets can make the elderly experience a lack of certain nutrients. This is certainly a risk for the health of the elderly.

That is why, why a diet that is popular today is not recommended for the elderly.

Then actually, what diet is recommended for the elderly?

Although not too recommended, it does not mean that the elderly cannot get the ideal body weight and reduce the risk of disease. Instead, you can keep your weight from rising, by applying a healthy daily diet.

Because basically, a diet is not merely a matter of losing weight. Diet actually aims to change your diet to be healthier and more balanced. In short, by going on a diet, you try to maintain health by adopting a healthy diet, for example by limiting fat intake, sugar, salt and increasing food sources of protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients.

That way, the body will always be healthy even as the age increases. A healthy diet can also help you maintain a normal body weight, meet nutritional needs, and even supply a certain amount of energy to the body. Finally, it will reduce the risk of chronic diseases.

elderly diet

A healthy diet also functions as a treatment for the elderly

Applying a healthy diet is not only intended to prevent the emergence of diseases, but also can be one way to treat attacks of disease. Because, it does not rule out the possibility that as we get older, the body will be more susceptible to health problems, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, osteoporosis, high cholesterol, and other medical conditions.

Well, this is where the role of a healthy diet is needed by the elderly. For example, when you are diagnosed as having diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol. That is, you have to control your diet by eating foods that are rich in nutrients, but low in calories, sugar, and saturated fats. In essence, the diet in question is adjusting the diet with the disease you are suffering from.

In fact, doctors can limit some food intake which is believed to inhibit the metabolic process of the drugs you consume. For example, when you are regularly taking warfarin, a blood thinning medication, you are usually advised to avoid eating grapefruit or red grapefruit.

The reason is because grapefruit can reduce the body's ability to digest warfarin drugs. On the other hand, you might be more encouraged to increase consumption of some foods, quoted from the Healthline page.

Therefore, if you are taking medication regularly, be sure to know what foods and drinks you may or may not consume. Again, this is intended to apply a diet with a healthy and balanced diet.

Can the Elderly Have a Diet?
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