4 Ways to Keep Enjoying Healthy Meals as You Age
Many things about your body change as you get older. Your hard work and dedication to yourself, your job and your family appear in physical changes to show your wiser, well-lived self. Your taste buds also change, making it harder to find delicious and nutritious food.
What food is good for old age, and how can you make it more fun?
If you aren’t enjoying your favorite dishes as much, don’t fret. Here’s how to keep your meals interesting as you get older.
How Does Age Affect Food Choices?
Almost everyone has up to 10,000 taste buds when they are born. Different ones detect various tastes, such as sweet and savory. Evolutionarily, this helped people learn which food was safe and which wasn’t. For example, bitterness indicated that a plant could be dangerous, while a sweet one was often safe.
When you’re young, this taste variety helps you enjoy fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and healthy fats. Around age 40, people generally know their likes and dislikes and how to have a varied, healthy diet. However, that’s also when your taste buds can dull.
As you get older, some of your taste buds can lose their effectiveness, making foods you previously enjoyed less exciting. Your sense of smell also decreases as you age, affecting your taste perception. When this happens, you may gravitate toward sweet, salty and fatty foods because they taste stronger.
Though an aging nose and mouth cause challenges, there are also opportunities to try new things and make healthy meals interesting.
1. Spice Things Up
You don’t have to overdo the salt to satisfy your taste buds. Spices can transform your food for the better.
Exploring new herbs and spices can provide fun and powerful flavors with various health benefits. Here are some varieties that have positive impacts and can make any dish more interesting:
- Cayenne pepper: Is linked to reduced cancer risk and can help suppress your appetite
- Cinnamon: Can help lower cholesterol and inflammation and is a rockstar at helping control blood sugar
- Cumin: Can improve immunity and aids in digestive health
- Garlic: Can boost immunity and heart health
- Ginger: Can lessen inflammation and help with stomach upset
- Rosemary: Can reduce allergies and congestion
- Sage: Can improve cognitive health, helping you maintain your ability to learn and remember things
- Turmeric: Can enhance immune health and has anti-inflammatory properties
2. Explore Worldwide Cuisine
Increasing your food’s diversity can also help you stay healthy and enjoy your food. The internet connects us in ways like never before. Cultural foods are often Americanized with sugar and milder flavors, but you can often find authentic, healthy recipes for Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Mediterranean and many other traditional dishes.
These foods often have different flavors and textures than you might be familiar with. With a little bravery, some foods that sound odd to your ears may become some of your favorites.
When you open your mind to new cuisines, you greatly expand your palate, making the loss of some tastes less painful.
3. Make Healthy Foods Fun
Just because it’s harder to taste nutritious foods doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy them. Modern technology allows you to turn almost any fruit into a healthy ice cream or custard. Vegetables can be combined in many ways, and you can add them to burgers and pasta sauce to give them more nutritional value.
There are many ways to get creative about the foods you make. If you’re in a slump, try transforming your meals into something more enjoyable.
You can supplement with smoothies and other high-nutrient recipes if you have a decreased appetite.
4. Enjoy Meals With Others
Research shows that we enjoy our food more when we eat in a social setting. Putting down devices and staying away from the television can help you engage with family while you eat.
Just because you age doesn’t mean you can’t dress up and head out for a meal. Enjoy a night out with family every now and then, perhaps trying an eatery you’ve never been to before. If you don’t feel like going to a restaurant, consider inviting friends and neighbors to have a potluck, where you can each contribute a dish and enjoy each other’s company. You may discover a new recipe you might enjoy making yourself someday.
It can be fun to plan and host a meal, which can also improve your mental state and make you feel excited about the meal for reasons other than taste.
Enjoying Healthy Meals as You Age
Older people sometimes have to think outside the box to enjoy healthy foods. Use these tips to improve your outlook on eating as you age and open yourself to new and inviting recipes. Sometimes just a few tweaks here and there are all that’s needed to wake up your senses and explore flavors you never knew existed.
