Aging and the Diet Equation

How should we really be eating as we age? By Bruce Weaver, MPA, PA-C, President & CEO AAging Better In-Home Care.

From the time that Americans began leaving their farms to move into urban areas in search of jobs or a better lifestyle, diets began to change—unfortunately, not always for the better. Highly processed foods purchased from large grocery stores began replacing the simple foods and products that had traditionally been grown or made on the family farms. Freshly laid eggs, meats from animals allowed to roam, whole milk from family cows, homemade breads from whole wheat flour, fruits and vegetables grown on the farm and access to locally grown foods became a thing of the past for many inner-city residents.

Convenience became the by-word of the American eating experience, with instant potatoes, sugary sodas, frozen meals, white-flour breads and pastries laden with sugar, maltodextrin and corn syrup, easy drive-through fast-food restaurants and cheap high-calorie snacks in convenience stores and on grocery shelves. Along with all this convenience and fast food, however, came the national epidemic of ever-increasing cases of heart disease, diabetes, obesity and cancer.

Research into the American diet and the effects of these changes on health has been ongoing for decades and, unfortunately, depending on who has funded the research projects, continues to present conflicting results about how we should eat. Perhaps the most controversial information is over the use of shortening, margarines and vegetable oils in our diets versus switching back to real butter or increasing the use of olive oil and coconut oil for cooking purposes. It seems that “vegetable oils” are not truly derived from vegetables. Corn is a grain, soybeans are legumes (beans), and canola oil is derived from the rapeseed, another grain. These highly processed and unnatural sources of fat may be doing more harm to our bodies than previously thought. And we don’t know for sure exactly which additives or preservatives in our foods might be doing long-term harm to our bodies. Decades ago, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved many additives because they were determined to cause no short-term harmful effects. But what about 30 to 40 years down the road? Have we been eating substances for many years now that could have been contributing to the huge increases we’re seeing today in rates of cancer, diabetes and obesity?

Probably one of the most interesting findings in a recent study appears to be the role of protein in the senior population. This study looked at the health and nutrition habits of 6,381 individuals over an 18 year period and discovered that very high protein diets in middle-aged Americans left them more than four times as likely to die of cancer or diabetes. However, it had the opposite effect on Americans 65 and older. These older individuals were 60 percent less likely to die of cancer and 28 percent less likely to die of any cause. The take away message here may be that diet has and always will have a significant effect on health, although in what direction it’s not always easy to know. However, our safest assumption may be that eating simply, with less processed foods, along with locally grown products is the truest recipe for a long and healthy life.

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