Eating Smart At Every Decade
When it comes to nutrition, eating the best foods for your age is the secret to conquering the changes going on in your body - and to ensure you are properly fueling it so you always feel your best. But how do you know what’s best for each decade?
I’m breaking down the best ways to conquer your health & nutrition goals from your 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond to ensure that you’re prepared for any phase of your life.
Eating In Your 20s - Creating Healthy Habits
The most important thing you can do in your 20s is create a solid foundation for yourself by making healthy choices regularly. Malina Links Malkani, MS, RDN, CDN, and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics says that this is the optimal time for you to set yourself up for future health and nutrition success. This is because you can be proactive about your health instead of dealing with the consequences of unhealthy choices down the road.
The top three ways to set yourself up for life-long optimal health are:
Learning how to cook healthy meals that you enjoy - enjoyment being the key factor! You won’t eat it or stick with it if it’s too boring.
Establishing a routine of regular meal planning and grocery shopping. Remember the saying: Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Building a wide variety of fruits and vegetables into your daily diet. Half of your plate at each meal should be filled with fruits and veggies!
When it comes to picking the right foods to build your plate, try to limit your intake of processed foods like soda, packaged snacks, and added sugars. The American Heart Association says women should have no more than 25g per day and men 36g!
Instead, aim for well-balanced meals that include mostly fresh, organic fruits & veggies, lean protein like chicken breast and eggs, good-for-you carbs like whole grain bread, and healthy fats like avocado and EVOO. Bonus: pick food and drinks that are high in calcium. The older we get, the harder it is for our bodies to absorb calcium, so the more you eat now, the less likely it is that you’ll suffer from bone damage like osteoporosis later in life.
Eating In Your 30s: Eating for Your Heart
Your 30s come with a lot of changes - most people are balancing work, babies, friends, taking care of a home and more. With this increase of obligations on your calendar, it’s common to be less active which can tank your energy and metabolism. This typically causes people to gain weight more easily than they did in their 20s if they don’t adjust their eating habits and lifestyle.
The bad news? The more fat you carry, the higher your blood pressure gets, which puts you at risk for heart attacks, strokes, heart disease and more.
So what can you do? Here are some tips:
Eat more potassium-rich foods like dark leafy greens, bananas, sweet potatoes, and beans. These help relax your blood vessels by removing salt and lowering your blood pressure, says the American Heart Association.
Choose leaner cuts of meat like chicken and fish over red meat. I always opt for organic, grass-fed meat for additional health benefits.
Aim for at least 3 servings of whole grains, like brown rice and oatmeal, per day. They contain key nutrients like fiber, zinc, iron, and vitamins B and E which all work together to improve the way your body processes blood sugar, fights obesity, and lowers your cholesterol.
Eating in Your 40s: Eating the Rainbow
The most important thing you can do in your 40s is eat the rainbow each and every day! In addition to heart disease, your risk of diabetes, cancer and osteoporosis only gets higher as you reach your 40s, which means you need to prioritize disease prevention if you haven’t already. The best way to do that? Increase your fruit and vegetable intake!
In addition to your disease risk, your metabolism slows down and your cholesterol & blood pressure can go up, so your diet is more important than ever. Aiming for 3-4 servings of vegetables and 2-3 servings of fruit per day is a great way to ensure you're getting enough fiber, potassium, and calcium. An easy way to sneak in these extra servings? A morning smoothie! Challenge yourself to eat a rainbow of fruits and veggies each day to make it fun!
Make sure you’re still filling up on whole grains like whole wheat bread, brown rice, or oats instead of carbs like white bread, bagels, or donuts. And keep watching your calcium! Women lose 3-5% of bone mass per year after menopause because of a decrease in bone-building estrogen. Not only should you double down on your calcium intake from foods, but make sure weight-bearing exercises are a regular part of your fitness routine!
Eating In Your 50s: Prioritizing Bone Health
When you reach your 50s, you start to lose bone mass which is risky for your overall health because your bones protect your heart, lungs, and brain from injury. To keep your bones healthy and strong, you should aim to eat at least 3 servings of calcium-rich foods like milk, yogurt, broccoli, and leafy greens per day. It’s also important to make sure you’re getting enough vitamin D because your body can’t absorb calcium without it! The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons recommends 1,000 IUs per day for bone health.
For women particularly, as estrogen decreases, you’re at an increased risk of heart disease, osteoporosis, and other age-related health issues. You’re also at an increased risk of breast cancer, so stock up on breast cancer-fighting antioxidants from dark green, dark yellow, or orange fruits and veggies.
Additionally, recent studies have seen a positive correlation between prunes and bone health. A study published in Osteoporosis International found that eating just 5-6 prunes per day may help to prevent bone loss in post-menopausal women. Another study, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, found that eating 10-12 prunes per day for one year was associated with increased bone mineral density and improved indicators of bone turnover in postmenopausal women. Prunes have vitamins and minerals that likely work together to protect the bone, including fiber, vitamin K, magnesium, potassium, boron, copper and polyphenols.
Eating In Your 60s and Beyond: Maintaining Healthy Habits
By your 60s, you’ve hopefully spent most of your life prioritizing healthy habits like eating fruits and vegetables, good-for-you whole grains, healthy fats, fiber, vitamins and key nutrients so that they’re now eaten out of routine. Here is where your hard work will really pay off: eating an adequate amount of fiber and antioxidants helps lower cholesterol and improve digestion, lowering your risk of a cardiovascular event.
Americans eat only about half of the daily recommended amount of fiber - which is 25g to 30g per day. An easy way to up your fiber intake without trying? Choose fruits and veggies high in fiber, like raspberries, cauliflower, and asparagus.
It’s also important to make sure you’re getting plenty of vitamin D, especially now that you’re spending more time indoors than your earlier years.
Lastly, you want to fill your plate with Omega-3-rich foods like salmon and tuna. Consuming enough Omega-3 fatty acids could reduce the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and cognitive decline!