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Eating Well As You Grow Older
Edited by Ahmad B. Naim, MD
As you grow older, the demand for food by the body changes. Eating well in your later years can strengthen the immune system, improve your mental health, and increase your physical energy. Below are few tips that can help you eat healthily to improve your overall health.
What to expect
As you age, certain factors such as lifestyle changes and physical activity can work against your desire to eat healthily.
Lifestyle Changes: Single seniors, especially men, may be novices at cooking their own meals or they just may not feel like cooking. Also, folks on fixed budgets and limited incomes might have trouble affording a balanced, healthy diet.
Decreased Physical Activity: A large number of seniors have limited physical activity that could be due to medical reasons. This could mean fewer calories burned which could result in weight gain.
Slow Metabolism: After you reach age 40, your metabolism slows down with each passing year. This means you burn calories at a slower rate. So, if you keep eating the same amount and kinds of food as when you were younger, this will likely result in weight gain.
Health Issues: Physical ailments and prescription medications can influence appetite. You should always talk to your doctor to find out if this is the case with you and the medicines you take.
Digestion: Saliva and stomach acid production also decreases in old age, which makes it more difficult for the body to digest food and provide the essential vitamins and minerals that you need to keep your bones healthy, have a sharp memory, and have good circulation of your blood.
Emotional Factors: Loneliness and depression can affect your diet as well. Feeling depressed can lead to either a lack of eating or, for some, it could mean overeating. Again, your doctor can help you treat depression or other medical problems you may have.
What to change
The above factors can increase your risk of having fragile bones, memory loss, and decreased mental alertness. Knowing what to eat and making timely changes can make a big difference in your mental and physical health.
Here are a few simple tips that can help:
• Eating less salt helps prevent high blood pressure.
• Monitoring the fat and cholesterol content of your food can help to maintain a good cholesterol level.
• Consuming more calcium and vitamin D improves bone health.
• Eating foods high in fiber prevents constipation,
• Consuming fresh fruit and vegetables helps in achieving appropriate daily vitamin and mineral requirements.
• Drinking lots of water helps to keep the kidneys healthy.
• Exercising helps maintain good bone and muscle strength.
• Try to avoid processed and refined foods, as they usually contain more calories and salt, and have fewer nutrients.
What to eat
There are numerous ways you can have a healthy meal. Below are some suggestions:
• Eat whole grains such as brown rice, wheat bread, and rolled oats instead of refined products such as white bread, white rice, etc.
• Take 2-3 daily servings of “raw foods” such as fruit and vegetables. Raw foods contain a variety of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that help in digestion.
• Steam your vegetables as this preserves the nutrients. You can also sauté them to add flavor to your food. Do not boil them as this leeches the nutrients out of the vegetables.
• Eat protein. Good sources are fish, poultry, eggs, beans, peas, nuts, tofu. You can vary these from day to day giving you lots of choices. Baked, broiled, grilled, steamed, or poached meat is easy to cook and can be flavorful. Avoid red, salty meats such as bacon or ham.
• Enjoy dairy products such as milk, cheese, and yogurt. These are good sources of calcium, which is essential for healthy bones. Certain dairy products like cream cheese, cream, and butter do not have enough calcium. Also, you should choose fat-free or low fat dairy products.
• If you do cook with oil, try to cook with olive oil or sunflower oil as they have "good" fats.
• Drink water and eat foods with high water content such as melons, grapes, cucumbers, onions, apples, cabbage, and soup. Staying properly hydrated flushes the kidneys and can prevent constipation.
Not feeling hungry
This is common in seniors and could be due to medications or other factors such as physical ailments or bland foods. Your doctor can help you with adjusting the medication dose or changing it altogether. The following can also help:
• Add more taste to your food by using olive oil, vinegar, spices such as cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and garlic.
• Try something different, like a new soup or omelette.
• Experiment with recipes created especially for seniors.
• Use your imagination with leftovers in creating new dishes or casseroles.
Dislike eating alone
If eating alone is keeping you from enjoying a good meal, then consider the following:
• Visit family often if they live near-by; perhaps invite them over for lunch or dinner.
• Invite old friends to your home for potluck parties on a regular basis.
• Make new friends by joining a class or activity or volunteering.
• Get in touch with the local senior center, YMCA, or a meal program.
• Share your home by renting it out to a student or a young couple.
Dislike cooking
Depending on location and finances, you can do various things to overcome this and still have a delicious and nutritious meal. Try the following:
• Order home delivery through your local deli or grocery store.
• Swap services. Ask a friend, neighborhood teen or college student if they would be willing to shop for you, in exchange for sharing a meal with friends at your house later in the week. This solves two needs at once – buying groceries and providing dining companionship.
• Use a personal chef service as they usually prepare delicious and wholesome meals often for a week at a time. They can also make special meals based on dietary restrictions.
• Barter services with a housemate or neighbor. You can do groceries or other chores while they cook for you.
• Look for a community assistance program such as “Meals on wheels”.
Some of the above could be hard work or just harder to change old habits. However, the benefits could be quite high in the form of increased energy, good mental health, and increased resistance to disease. The overall result of an emphasis on good nutrition will be an improvement in your quality of life, mobility, and independence.
Dr. Naim is trained in Internal Medicine and Public Health and currently works as a Health Economics and Clinical Outcomes Researcher in PA.
Problem Gambling
Edited by Mirza I. Rahman, MD, MPH
Gambling can infrequently lead to tremendous wealth. Recently, a group of eight co-workers, including three immigrants, in Nebraska, claimed the record U.S. lottery prize of $365 million. They opted to take a lump sum payment of $177.3 million before taxes, which when divided equally was whopping $15.5 million after taxes. The flip side of such a feel good story is that people who gamble to excess can find themselves caught-up in recurring and serious problems.
Thus, the National Council of Problem Gambling (NCPG) is launching its Problem Gambling Awareness 2006 campaign, a grassroots public awareness and outreach program. It will be held March 6-12, 2006. The goal of this campaign is to educate the general public and health care professionals about the warning signs of problem gambling and raise awareness about the help that is available both locally and nationally.
The NCPG is the national advocate for programs and services to assist problem gamblers and their families. The ongoing mission of the NCPG is to promote awareness of problem gambling and the availability of counseling support services to help minimize the effects of this national problem and to provide a message of hope and help to those in need.
Research shows that 2% - 3% of the US population will have a gambling problem in any given year. That is 6 million to 9 million Americans; yet only a small fraction seeks out assistance, such as treatment and self-help recovery programs.
While it is important to recognize that most people can gamble without developing a problem, a small percentage of persons who gamble suffer enormous negative social, economic, and psychological consequences. Individuals, families, and communities all suffer from problem gambling, and, while it would be impossible to describe all of the repercussions associated with problem gambling, the following issues help to illustrate why problem gambling can be so destructive.
GAMBLING & SPENDING
Scope of gambling in the US:
- 85% of US adults have gambled at least once in their lives, 80% in past year.
- Since 1975, the proportion of adults who "never gambled" dropped from 1 in 3 to 1 in 7.
- 48 States with some form of legalized gambling (Hawaii and Utah are the exceptions).
- 2002 U.S. legal gaming revenue was $68.7 billion.
- In 1999 the National Gambling Impact Study Commission
estimated the annual cost to society of problem gambling was $5 billion.
- During fiscal year 2002, U.S. lottery sales totaled $42.4 billion; per capita sales were $168.
- It is estimated that in 1997 Americans collectively wagered more than $1/2 trillion.
- Consumers spend more on legal gaming in the U.S. than most other forms of entertainment combined.
- Forty to 60 percent of cash wagered in casinos is withdrawn from ATMs, either from personal accounts or as cash advances from credit cards.
Domestic Issues
Effects of adult problem gambling on children:
- Children of compulsive gamblers are often prone to suffer abuse, as well as neglect, as a result of parental problem or pathological gambling.
- Research consistently shows higher rates of pathological gambling in teens whose parents gamble too much.
- Children of problem gamblers have been shown to have higher levels of use for tobacco, alcohol, drug use, and overeating than do their classroom peers.
- Child endangerment and child abuse may increase.
- Studies indicate that between 10 and 17 percent of children of compulsive gamblers had been abused.
- Child endangerment was exemplified in Oregon with the September 2001 report of an Oregon licensed day-care provider who left three children (1, 2 and 3 years old) in a van for over 11 hours while she gambled in a casino.
Domestic Violence
- Between 25-50 percent of spouses of pathological gamblers have been abused.
- Case studies of 10 casino communities revealed that the majority of those communities witnessed increases in domestic violence related to the opening of casinos.
Crime
- Several studies suggest that crime rates rise with increased availability of gambling to communities, but this issue is under intense debate.
- Forty percent of clients enrolled in Oregon’s gambling treatment system reported committing crimes to finance their gambling.
- As access to money becomes more limited, gamblers often resort to crime in order to pay debts, appease bookies, maintain appearances,and garner more money to gamble.
- Studies of Gamblers Anonymous (GA) members report that approximately half of the participants had stolen to gamble and over one-third had been arrested.
- The vast majority of gambling-related crimes are non-violent; embezzlement, check forgery, stealing credit cards, fencing stolen goods, tax evasion, insurance fraud, employee theft, and fraud are common gambling-related crimes.
Suicide/Depression
- Ten percent of clients enrolled in Oregon’s gambling treatment system considered and formulated plans to commit suicide within six months of enrollment to treatment.
- A major depressive disorder is likely to occur in 76 percent of pathological gamblers.
The National Problem Gambling Awareness Week website has a variety of tools, suggested activities, and free material to promote awareness of problem gambling, and more importantly, to offer hope and help for those who suffer from gambling problems.
Additionally, they have a 24-hour confidential national helpline, 1-800-522-4700, for those who need immediate help with their problem gambling.
Dr. Rahman is board certified in both Family Medicine and General Preventive Medicine & Public Health.
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