Healthy Diet Still Important For the Elderly
Elderly adults can count on at least one thing to stay fashionable: eating healthfully. A new study adds to a body of research suggesting a healthy diet is the key to living longer, MSNBC reports. Based on answers to a questionnaire, researchers divided about 2,500 adults ages 70 to 79 into six groups depending on what they ate and drank most of: healthy food—primarily fruits and veggies, poultry, low-fat dairy, and whole grains; high-fat dairy products like ice cream and cheese and less poultry and low-fat dairy; meat, fried foods, and alcohol; refined grains; breakfast cereals; and sweets and desserts, with less emphasis on fruits, veggies, and fish. They followed up with the participants 10 years later and noted who died. Those in the "high-fat dairy" group were 40 percent more likely to die during the study period than those in the "healthy food" group, the researchers found; when compared to the "sweets and desserts" group, the increased likelihood of death was 37 percent. However, the study isn't without caveats. Researchers only followed adults in two U.S. cities, so they can't be sure if the results would be similar in all older adults. They also only questioned participants about their diets once, so their eating habits could have changed over time. The results will be published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
A healthy diet is one that includes many servings of fruits and veggies, but most adults don't get their recommended daily dose, a national report card recently showed. Experts shared their advice to buck that trend with U.S. News in November:
From: 6 Ways to Trick Yourself Into Eating Fruits and Veggies
1. Use them in sauces, chili, soups, and casseroles. They're great at camouflaging zucchini, squash, carrots, or corn. Grate and sauté them or pulse them in a food processor until they're smooth. But they don't have to be hidden to taste good. Pasta sauces or toppings on meat dishes are other veggie vehicles. Grab a can of butternut squash soup and cook gnocchi in it—it's "super yummy," says Andrea Giancoli, a registered dietician and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. Smother your chicken in ratatouille—an assortment of seasoned, sautéed veggies—or top sea bass with tomatoes, capers, and olives or perhaps a mango salsa.
2. Bake them into muffins, breads, and pies. Yes, you can enjoy pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving relatively guilt-free, so long as it's not topped with a huge dollop of Cool Whip. Carrot cake, zucchini bread, and banana muffins are a few more possibilities. Many recipes call for applesauce instead of all or some of the butter or oil, and it brings just as much moistness. "It can definitely be an awesome way to get your more nutritious substitutes to replacing high-oil, high-fat baked goods," says Sarah Krieger, a registered dietician and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.
3. Drink them. Naked Juice, low-sodium V8, and homemade smoothies can get you a couple of servings in just a few gulps. You can even hide veggies like carrots in the kids' fruit smoothies without risking a coup. But we tend to underestimate calories when we drink them rather than eat them, Krieger says. Slow down, she advises. Let these fiber-loaded drinks tell you when you've had enough.
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