The Guide to A Healthy Lifestyle in your 50s and Beyond

Source: rocket50

By: Nicole Radmacher, rocket50 contributor

Date:   April 2, 2023

The Guide to A Healthy Lifestyle in your 50s and beyond

I know you are tired of hearing this, BUT I am going to say it again - a healthy diet is the best way to have a healthy lifestyle! Over your lifetime, the definition of a healthy diet will evolve as your body changes with age.

For instance, men over 50 often change their diet to foods that minimize the risk of common health issues such as high blood sugar, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and prostate health.

On the other hand, women go for foods that support heart or brain function, control the symptoms of menopause, and boost their overall health.

Ideally, you'll want to stick to an adaptable, easy-to-follow, not overly restrictive, and nutritionally balanced diet. So, which options do you have?

Here's how you can start eating healthy in this best phase of your life.

How Do You Age Healthily?

We can not change the fact that we age, it is an inevitable and very natural process. However, we can control how healthily we're climbing through the years. Healthy aging aims to increase the number of active, healthy years you have. In most cases, you can live a very active lifestyle well into your senior years.

Several factors affect healthy aging. These include:

• Diet
• Health conditions and medical history
• Physical activity
• Genetics
• Smoking and substance use
• Social support
• Access to quality medical care
• Nutrition plays one of the most significant roles in healthy aging by:
• Reducing your risk of contracting chronic diseases
• Slowing down bone weakening
• Slowing down age-related muscle loss
• Assisting in weight management
• Avoiding malnutrition

The Bodily Changes That Occur in Your 50s

As you age into your 50s and 60s, your body undergoes several changes. The most significant ones are:

Bone Loss

The risk of developing osteopenia, age-related bone loss, increases as you transition into your 50s. Bones maintain their strength by undergoing a natural cycle called osteogenesis.

During this process, special cells called osteoclasts break down the bones before osteoblasts, another group of special cells, rebuilds them into a more robust structure.

As you age, this process becomes less effective, reducing how quickly and efficiently your bones can be rebuilt. This leads to bone weakening over time, increasing the risk of falls and decreasing mobility.

Muscle Loss

Sarcopenia, commonly known as age-related muscle loss, is the gradual decline in muscle mass as you age. By the age of 40, you typically lose 8% of muscle mass every decade. By the age of 70, this rate climbs to 15%.

A healthy diet and lifestyle help slow down this process. Typically, this includes eating a protein-rich diet and doing regular strength training exercises.

Slowed Metabolism

One landmark study shows that metabolism remains relatively stable between the ages of 20 to 60 years before starting to decline past 60. The decline is attributed to a decrease in muscle mass, among other age-related factors.

Therefore, the primary focus of your 50s and 60s is preserving muscle mass through good nutrition and physical activity. Healthy eating also prevents excess fat gain, which increases the risk of chronic diseases and accelerates aging.

The Eating Changes You Should Make

Your body has different nutrition demands when you strike your 50s. Here're a few dietary changes you should make to stay fit and healthy.

Reduce Your Sugar Intake

70% of processed foods contain added sugars or artificial sweeteners. Refined bread and pasta don't pack enough nutrients and are broken down to glucose very quickly. Too much sugar can lead to insulin resistance, a precondition for diabetes where the body’s cells become resistant to insulin so the pancreas has to produce more and more. Estimates suggest that one in three adults in the US has pre-diabetes and 90% don’t know about it. 

Eat More Fish

The risk of contracting chronic diseases such as Alzheimer's, stroke, dementia, heart disease, and diabetes increases with age. Omega-3 fatty acids, present in fish, help lower inflammation in the body and the risk of contracting some of these diseases.

2-3 weekly fish servings should be enough to get the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, in particular if you opt for wild-caught fish. Alternatively, if you're vegetarian or prefer plant-based sources, you can get the same supplements from hemp seeds, walnuts, chia seeds, and other plant-based sources.

Avoid Processed Foods

When eating a lot of processed foods, we are ingesting all kinds of food additives, colourings, flavorings, sweeteners as well as high quantities of saturated fats, sugars and sodium. All these have an impact on your health and make you age prematurely.

Having always healthy snacks available (nuts, olives, vegetables sticks) and learning how to prepare simple recipes with fresh ingredients are an important part of healthy nutrition. 

Take Water as Your Main Beverage

A daily, high intake of sugary beverages increases the risk of weight gain, heart disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.

Water is the best substitute for these sugary daily beverages. Choosing water as your regular drink reduces your intake of simple sugars, which only add "empty" calories and provide no nutritional value.

You can create some variety and add some flavor by adding fresh herbs like mint or adding fresh ginger, lemon or lime slices, cucumber slices or some fresh berries to your water.

Plan Your Meals Ahead

If you have a hectic schedule, planning meals is a very effective way of consistently eating a nutritious diet. You can, once a week, plan your meals for the entire week by writing a plan for batch cooking, writing out a schedule, or following any other meal-planning technique.

Planning your meals also helps you buy the right amount of groceries, reach your health goals, and reduce food waste.

You can also use the services of meal planning companies to prepare quick meal plans aligned with your health and dietary goals.

Typically, you'll want to minimize processed foods, focusing on whole options. For instance, you can fill half your plate with veggies for most meals and drink water instead of sugary drinks.

Use Smoothies to Add Nutrients

Smoothies are a great way of adding more fruit and vegetables to your diet. They are very easy to make, the body digests them quickly, and new ingredients can be added to customize and improve its nutritional value.

For instance, you can blend spinach and kale, two nutrient-rich ingredients, into a smoothie containing fruits such as oranges and apples. By adding some avocado, you’ll get a creamy texture and add some healthy fats. 

You have limitless combinations and flavors to experiment with that suit your dietary needs.

Learn More About Healthy Eating from Others

Healthy eating is not difficult for people over 50 wanting to live a healthy lifestyle. Apart from employing some of the tactics mentioned above, you can exchange ideas with other people on how you maintain healthy diet choices.

Nicole Rademacher is our rocket50 nutrition & wellbeing expert,  specializing in how people 50+ can stay healthy and fit for the rest of their lives.  She is a certified WILDFIT coach and lives in Mallorca, Spain