How Our Nutritional Needs Change After 50
With each passing decade, your body undergoes a series of transformations from muscle loss and thinner skin to fluctuations in stomach acid and energy levels. These biological shifts mean we are more prone to nutritional deficiencies, ones we shouldn’t be ignoring if we are looking to age with energy and vitality.
While older adults may need less calories to maintain their weight due to muscle loss and inactivity, getting a decent amount of minerals and nutrients is as important as ever. In other words, if you are over 45 and you haven't taken your nutrition seriously, it's time to start.
Importance of Protein
The research is in and physically inactive adults are losing as much as 5% of their muscle mass each decade after 30. This dramatic loss in muscle mass, or ‘sarcopenia’, means as we grow older, our protein intake should increase.
In one study, 2,066 elderly people were followed for three years. They found that the participants who ate the highest amount of protein lost 40% less muscle mass than those who ate the least amount of protein.
Experts recommend that healthy older adults consume 1 to 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily so stock up on lean meats, dairy products and seafood. This, coupled with daily weight-bearing exercises is the golden duo to prevent muscle loss as we age.
The Ultimate Bone Health Duo
Another terrific duo for bone health are vitamin D and calcium. Building and maintaining healthy bones requires calcium, and vitamin D facilitates calcium absorption so there is no doubt you should be getting adequate amounts.
The problem arises in older adults as our skin becomes thinner, impeding on our bodies ability to absorb enough vitamin D, subsequently impacting our calcium absorption. This change in our skin can dramatically impact our calcium levels, possibly leading to osteoporosis and increasing our risk for fractures.
To counter this impact, it’s critical we take extra care in getting our calcium and vitamin D intake up to scratch by consuming more calcium-rich foods and boosting our levels through supplements. 45PlusLife Muscle and Bone Health supplements contain calcium and vitamin D, making them ideal to help support calcium absorption and bone health.
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45+LIFE Muscle and Bone Health has been specifically developed for adults aged 45 years and older. It combines key vitamins, minerals and nutrients with HMB, a game changer when it comes to maintaining muscle mass. |
The Healthy Brain Vitamin
Vitamin B12, or ‘cobalamin’, is a water-soluble vitamin known for the creation of red blood cells as well as the maintenance of healthy brain function.
There is no doubt that it’s a critical vitamin for ageing brains, however, research suggests that 10 to 30 percent of people over 50 have impaired absorption of vitamin B12. This may be due to a decrease in stomach acid production as we age resulting in a decline in vitamin B12 absorption from the foods we eat.
The good news is that there are steps you can take to improve your B12 intake such as eating the right foods such as beef, liver and chicken as well as low-fat milk, eggs and fortified breakfast cereals.
As you venture into your 50s and 60s, you may have noticed a dramatic decrease in energy levels. This could be a sign that your nutritional needs are changing. Learning that our nutritional needs change and acting on that information is critical if we are looking to grow into the latter stages of life with strong bones, improved muscle mass and a healthy brain.
