There are many myths surrounding senior nutrition. Many of these myths are harmless but some of them can be dangerous. People should be more aware of what seniors need when it comes to nutrition and healthy habits.

However, if you learn more about healthy nutrition, you can improve your life quality and enjoy the world more.

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Here are some of those myths and the truth behind them:

1. It’s Too Late to Start Eating Healthy When You Are Old

This is a myth about senior nutrition is definitely one of the most popular ones. This is the reason why so many old people eat poorly. They are convinced that the bad habits that they had throughout their life cannot be fixed. So they keep on eating food that is not good for them and they further deteriorate their life quality.

However, it’s never too late to fix your bad habits. In fact, various studies recommend this. One study found that seniors who ate well exhibited less likelihood to die during a 13 year testing period while people who continued on with their bad habits didn’t have the same likelihood. The former also had a better life quality and did more interesting things. Another study found that even if they have some chronic diseases, eating can help them manage their conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol.

This proves that it’s truly never too late to do something good for your body that will also improve your life.

2. Older People Lose Appetite Naturally

Another common myth is that seniors don’t need to eat that much – and to a certain point, it’s true. Older people need less food because they go through metabolic changes that cause this loss of appetite. However, thinking that a complete shift in how a senior eats is normal could cause serious health problems.

Huge loss of appetite can be caused by many different and dangerous health issues. Sudden weight loss is also a bad sign. This is why caregivers should weight seniors to keep a good track of everything that is happening with their health.

As mentioned, seniors of eat less because of various reasons like decreased sense of taste or dental issues, but a complete change isn’t normal.

Go to the doctor regularly in order to stay on top of your health.

2. They Need Fewer Nutrients

Just like we believe that old people losing appetite is is normal, we think that older people don’t need as many nutrients as younger people do. However, this is not true.

Older people need to eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, protein and whole grains. However, there are some special concerns when it comes to good senior nutrition. They need a lot of calcium and vitamin D as well as a lot of fluid. All of these act together to keep their muscles and bones strong.

3. If They Are Not Skinny, They Are Not Undernourished

People usually see people being skinny as a sign of malnourishment. While this is how it sometimes happen – malnourished people being skinny – it doesn’t mean that a person that looks regular or overweight can’t be malnourished.

Overweight people people often have malnutrition problems as well. As people get older, they don’t feel like preparing meals and they eat processed food which does feed them but has low nutritional value. All of this increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, arthritis, cancer and so on. Obese people also have no desire or energy to move around a lot and they miss out on many interesting things that older people can do.

Overweight people also have more medical costs, more illnesses and slower injury recovery.

Obesity is caused by many things like physical changes, environmental situation like poverty, genetics and so on.

4. Senior Communities Serve Bad Food

This may have been true back in old days when people didn’t have much regard for older people. However, nowadays, old people are well taken care of in assisted living and many other arrangements.

Food here is great and it fits each person’s habits, needs and health. The food they get from the senior communities is much healthier and better in quality than what they could have prepared in their home.

 

All of these myths prove how little we know about seniors and their needs. We can learn from them and try to help seniors a bit more.

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Freddie Tubbs is a business writer and editor at UK Writings. He regularly attends business and management events, and contributes posts to multiple blogs.