Time flies quickly, especially some elderly friends, such feelings are more profound, as if they are unconsciously old. In this era of gradually increasing aging, if you can ensure the health of the body as much as possible in the process of aging, it is very important to improve the quality of life in the old age and ensure the happiness of the elderly.
We often say that "years urge people to get old", but in fact, although the passage of time is irreversible, if we can actively practice a healthy and reasonable lifestyle and maintain a good attitude in our daily lives, it is a very important basic aspect for maintaining "healthy aging" and improving the physical health level in old age.
Among the various healthy lifestyles, healthy eating is an aspect that many elderly friends pay attention to. Indeed, a reasonable and scientific way of eating, can help physical health, even in some chronic disease conditioning, delay aging, have an important role that can not be ignored, but in recent years due to the gradual increase in information channels, many elderly friends are difficult to identify which is the real scientific diet advice, for the "healthy" diet knowledge seen in full acceptance, and even long-term adherence to some unscientific "healthy" eating habits, but may bring health hazards to the body, today's popular science article, Let's take you to understand some common healthy eating misunderstandings among the elderly.
Myth 1: It's healthier not to eat carbohydrates
Speaking of carbohydrates, many friends do not understand its basic concepts, but firmly believe that not eating carbs can be more conducive to health, but this statement is not applicable to the health of most people, especially elderly friends, long-term adherence, may also bring certain health hazards.
Structurally, carbohydrates are actually a compound containing three elements of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, which is a necessary energy supply for the human body, and our body needs energy to be active, and the sugar or glucose that carbohydrates decompose is the most direct source of energy for the body.
There are many friends who need to control their weight, or need to control blood sugar problems, always try to minimize, or even stick to a completely carbure-free diet, but in fact, distinguishing between different carbohydrate types is more important than controlling carbohydrate intake.
If we make a simple distinction, there are two types of carbohydrates: simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrate structure is simple, usually has one or two kinds of sugar or straight chain structure, some of the edible sugar we eat, polished rice white noodles, and some of the sugar in the drink are simple carbohydrates, for this type of carbohydrate, after entering the human body can be quickly absorbed and utilized, excessive intake after the risk of obesity and blood sugar will increase.
And complex carbohydrates usually contain complex structures, after ingestion of the body needs a longer time to be able to digest and absorb, therefore, for friends who need to control weight and blood sugar, the choice of complex carbohydrates is safer, healthier, fruits, vegetables, beans, whole grain foods, most of which contain complex carbohydrates, but also contain dietary fiber, can enhance satiety without providing calories, help to further control hunger, strengthen blood sugar control.
Correct approach: Instead of eating carbohydrates, it is better to replace refined rice and white noodles with whole grains such as coarse grains and whole grains, eat more beans, fruits, vegetables and other foods containing complex carbohydrates, and eat less candy, cakes, sugary drinks and other foods.
Myth 2: Diets containing lipids are unhealthy
For elderly friends, with the increase of age, the body's metabolic capacity for lipids is prone to disorders, the probability of abnormal blood lipid problems will also be greatly increased, in this context, many friends for lipid nutrition "fear like a tiger", afraid to eat a little more lipids, strict control do not eat fat-containing substances, which is also a common "healthy diet" misunderstanding.
But in fact, fat is one of the 3 major nutrients necessary for the human body, and we want to survive, let alone inseparable from it. From maintaining the formation and stability of cell membranes, to the synthesis of hormones in the body, the regulation of immune function, and then to the absorption of other related fat-soluble nutrients, such as vitamins A, D, E, etc., lipid nutrition plays an important role.
As with carbohydrates, we should also lack healthy and unhealthy lipids for fat intake. Saturated fat and trans fat are two kinds of lipids that are not conducive to health, and unsaturated fat is a healthy lipid nutrient that should be consumed in moderation.
How are there deficiencies in which are healthy lipid nutrients and which are unhealthy? Usually, oils rich in saturated fats are solid at room temperature, such as lard, butter, coconut oil, etc., are rich in saturated fats, and oils with higher unsaturated fats will remain liquid at room temperature, such as olive oil, peanut oil, etc., and the unsaturated fat content is higher. Therefore, in terms of oil selection, although animal oils such as lard are not unpalatable at all, they should still be based on healthy vegetable oils rich in unsaturated fats, such as olive oil, corn oil, etc.
Most of the trans fat comes from high-temperature cooked food, under the influence of high temperature, part of the lipid nutrition will be converted into trans fat, this fat is more harmful to health than saturated fat, therefore, for some baked goods rich in trans fat, fried foods, high-temperature processing snacks, etc., should be eaten as little as possible.
The right thing to do: Replace saturated fats with healthy unsaturated fats, and foods such as nuts, seeds, avocados, olive oil, and deep-sea fish are rich in unsaturated fats and are a healthy choice for lipid nutrition intake.
Myth 3: Dairy products are unhealthy and should be eaten less
There are two very different views on whether you need to drink milk, one is that dairy products are healthy foods and should be eaten more, while the other is that dairy products are not healthy and should be eaten as little as possible, in fact, more importantly, how to distinguish which dairy products are more beneficial to health.
Milk or dairy products, is a high nutrient density, rich in a variety of nutrients of a food source, especially protein, vitamins and calcium and other minerals, we can get from dairy products, some dairy products will also add fortified calcium and other nutrients, further enhance the elderly body calcium supplementation.
Therefore, for the intake of dairy products, for the healthy diet of the elderly, is a very important aspect, the practice of not eating dairy products at all is of course not advisable, but it should be noted that there are many dairy products with a lot of sugar, such as some yogurt products, the milk component content is lower, and the sugar component content is higher, such "dairy products" for the elderly friends, it is not a healthy choice.
Correct approach: the reasonable intake of dairy products by the elderly is very important for the overall nutritional supplement of the body, and sugar-free and low-fat pure milk, pure yogurt and other products are a better choice for the healthy intake of dairy products for the elderly.
Myth 4: Fruit juice is more beneficial to health than fruit
Some friends believe that fruit juice is the "concentrated essence" of fruit, which is more beneficial to health than eating fruit as a whole, and this is also a true misconception of healthy eating. Even pure fruit juice with additional added sugar (in fact, many juices add more sugar) also contains higher sugar, so when choosing a juice, we will consume more calories, but it will not make people feel full, and if you eat fruit directly, the dietary fiber in the fruit can enhance people's satiety, and can more fully ingest vitamins and other nutrients in the fruit.
In some related product promotion, it will also be emphasized that fruit juice has a "intestinal detoxification effect", in fact, the lack of dietary fiber juice drinks, will not be beneficial to improve constipation and other issues, but to strengthen the intake of dietary fiber, is a better choice, our body itself has a liver, kidneys, intestines and other good detoxification system, as long as you take good care of these organs, you must drink juice detoxification is much more reliable.
Correct approach: Do not believe the rumors of juice detoxification and intestines, choose to eat fruit, rather than juice to eat, more conducive to the full intake of nutrition, in order to be able to obtain the full nutrition of the fruit.
The bottom line of healthy eating
For elderly friends, healthy eating is indeed very important, but polishing your eyes, learning to think positively, using a scientific dialectical attitude to look at some of the so-called "healthy diet" theories, being able to distinguish between true and false, and moderately maintaining, is the most important. Whatever is good, if you eat too much, it may become a burden; some things are not so friendly to health, but if it is completely banned, it may not eat at all, it may also affect the body's basic nutritional needs, so a moderate, suitable diet that is suitable for oneself, combined with one's own physical condition, is the healthiest aspect of eating.
Healthy and reasonable diet of elderly friends, the real good practice is to combine their own situation, reasonably arrange the dietary structure, control the intake, under the premise of ensuring the comprehensive intake of all kinds of nutrients required by the body, control the intake of calories, avoid increasing the burden of body metabolism, healthy diets do not have certain rules, for the elderly friends with different physical conditions, combined with their own conditions, personalized arrangements for their own dietary nutritional supplements, make the diet healthier, so that the intake of nutrition can serve their own health, is a better choice.
I hope that this article can help elderly friends to avoid some "healthy diet" misunderstandings, and also welcome everyone to forward and share, so that more people in need can see such knowledge, let us work together to spread reliable health science knowledge!