Dietary Changes After Age 40

This is a subject that I have been pondering for awhile now. There is so much information out there about what is good and bad for you after reaching this milestone age. You need more of this, less of that...be careful how much of whatever you take...might react badly with something else.
I'd like to know what changes other members have made that improved their health. I started taking multivitamins, and vitamin C awhile ago. Started walking more often, and decreasing the amounts of bad foods I was eating.
I tried taking vitamin D supplements, but they caused my heart to race even though I decreased the dosage. I'm told that means too much calcium in the blood, and I need more magnesium to balance it out. So for vitamin D I started drinking Almond Milk.
I have always leaned towards natural medicines/ therapies so any suggestions would be appreciated.
I started thinking more about this the past couple of days due to the death of a woman I know of a heart attack at age 39. She went to the hospital with chest pains and was sent home with a diagnosis of indigestion. She passed away the same night. It's a light bulb moment when you realize years of poor choices could creep up on you without warning.

reply to post by AccessDenied


Greetings AD!

Sorry to hear about your recent loss!

My diet has changed a lot. Now in my fourties I am vegetarian, I eat lots of fruit and vegetables. I never eat processed food or junk food. I have honey instead of sugar. I don't ever over eat.

I gave up having a car and I cycle or walk whenever I can.

I use a natural herb that I cannot talk about here to relax. I hardly ever touch alcohol.

My only bad point is that I still use rolling tobacco (Pueblo American Indian Natural Tobacco with no additives).

That's me. I am in my late fourties and everyone treats me like a twenty eight year old. Must be doing something right.

I don't do supplements much. Though I think they can be ok as long as you use common sense and don't over do them.

It is better to relax with your diet. Too much control or meddling can give you an eating disorder.

I simply put into my body the most natural unadulterated foods as possible, just how Nature meant it to be. Not all this human meddling.

You don't need to suddenly overhaul your entire lifestyle when you hit 40!

In terms of minerals and the like, if your body has adapted to use a certain amount over the years, then it will be fine without supplements.

The only thing you really need to do as a 40 year old (at any age really, but younguns never listen) is stop eating junk food, a good rule of thumb is that if you can see the grease dripping off it, it's bad. Don't change your diet too much, if you eat steak and potatoes, continue eating steak and potatoes, if you eat salad and mangoes, continue eating salad and mangoes, just top up your deficient side a little, so if you eat meat and spuds, have a couple of pieces of fruit throughout the day. Don't go overboard though or you'll have awful toilet memories for the next week. If you eat a lot of salad and greens, try sticking a chicken breast in every so often to make sure you have enough protein.

One of the most important things you can do, arguably the only important thing you can do is daily low intensity exercise. Go for a long walk every day, maybe let the other half drive home from the store while you walk (then you don't have to help with the shopping!) or find a local dvd rental place and walk there every so often, you could even take an hour or so walk to a friend's or family member's house. Alternatively, you could just go for a walk, but I always find that having an end goal keeps me motivated.

Try to avoid regular/scheduled high intensity exercise, you're trying to maintain your caloric balance and strengthen your vascular system, not train to be an astronaut.

One final thing, probably the hardest one of all - give up anything you might be addicted to, caffeine is arguably the worst offender, and there is caffeine in tea, coffee and soft drinks. Tobacco is bad too, alcohol is just as dangerous as caffeine due to the way it thins your blood, but most people consume it in small, irregular quantities so don't feel that you have to stop drinking, as long as you're not drinking every day!

Good luck

there is a theory about "cleaning" the things you put into your body.
Dr Emoto did research on water molecules projecting love cleans water.....it can also clean KARMA from what you ingest like say you ate a bite at a restaurant that has a bad reputation for mistreating employees well your food will carry their anger .....I play this music (joevitaleproducts.net... ) in my kitchen all the time...it helps "clean" up in there.....ok

Originally posted by obnoxiouschick
there is a theory about "cleaning" the things you put into your body.
Dr Emoto did research on water molecules projecting love cleans water.....it can also clean KARMA from what you ingest like say you ate a bite at a restaurant that has a bad reputation for mistreating employees well your food will carry their anger .....I play this music (joevitaleproducts.net... ) in my kitchen all the time...it helps "clean" up in there.....ok

Hehe! That's a lovely way to do things. When I wash the vegetables it seems to revitalize them slightly!

I love water! The Waters of Life, quite literally. You NYC? I would love to visit there. I want to see Greenwich Village and Manhattan a lot.

reply to post by Revolution9


a bit more north and east.....or maybe not I think I wanna go on a vacation ....

reply to post by Dispo


That's good advice for sure.

For me tobacco is too enjoyable. I tried giving it up, but I like what it does too much still right now.

Then again I am not one of those who want to live to be very old, stuck lonely in a Nursing Home or something.

"Better to burn out than to fade away" (Neil Young "Rust Never Sleeps" Album).

But it is well bad news when we hear of so many young people dying of strokes and heart attacks when this could easily be avoided by just a few alterations to lifestyle.

I don't blame people. It is all in our faces too much, all the junk food. We are made to be too busy to make the right lifestyle choices even and have to grab a burger at lunch time for conveniences sake.

I am vegetarian because I feel guilt when I eat animals. Also, I am concerned at all the antibiotics, growth hormones and Lord knows whatever else is contaminating that otherwise good for you steak (in moderation).

Originally posted by obnoxiouschick
reply to post by Revolution9

 

a bit more north and east.....or maybe not I think I wanna go on a vacation ....

Me, too! You wanna come to healthy Cornwall UK where it is all ocean and hills? We could swap apartments for a week?

Stay healthy my friend. Hope you get a nice vacation some time soon!

reply to post by Revolution9


I completely agree, which makes me somewhat of a hypocrite I suppose. I do try to follow my own advice most of the time, but being good is just such hard work.

One thing that does bother me is the fact that I can't give up caffeine, I go through litres of coke a day, but I hae managed to stop the red bull and relentless etc. The worst thing is that I can go completely cold turkey, suffer through the worst pain I've ever felt in the form of headaches for a week, then spend a month disorientated every day, but then I feel so much better and I can drink without having acid reflux type pains in my oesophagus and everything just seems better... Then a few months later I decide "one glass won't kill me" and it starts all over again.

Ah well, we all have our vices, I guess the most important thing is that we don't have too many at once.

Here's another quote for you:
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”
-Hunter S. Thompson

Things I found that work.

Lots of Vitamin C supplements (I'm at 5 grams a day now, spaced out of course not all at once). Hydrate hydrate hydrate (the most common words in Hospital Emergency rooms are "Push fluids"). Give up sugar (I have for years at a time, and am now off it again, but it's a quick addiction that's for sure). Go vegan (been vegetarian for 24 years and vegan most of that time - the candy and cookies put some milk products into me when I eat those, but never milk or cheese outright). Vitamin D, I think, can be best gotten from sun exposure, so walking should cover that (unless you are totally covered. Come to think of it, what do women in some Mideast countries do for vitamin D, though the eyes I guess). I gave up soda when I gave up meat. And I always go up stairs two at a time - that after watching children climb stairs and realizing how high they had to climb and seeing that it was actually a good exercise. That's some stuff.

Originally posted by Dispo
reply to post by Revolution9

 

I completely agree, which makes me somewhat of a hypocrite I suppose. I do try to follow my own advice most of the time, but being good is just such hard work.

One thing that does bother me is the fact that I can't give up caffeine, I go through litres of coke a day, but I hae managed to stop the red bull and relentless etc. The worst thing is that I can go completely cold turkey, suffer through the worst pain I've ever felt in the form of headaches for a week, then spend a month disorientated every day, but then I feel so much better and I can drink without having acid reflux type pains in my oesophagus and everything just seems better... Then a few months later I decide "one glass won't kill me" and it starts all over again.

Ah well, we all have our vices, I guess the most important thing is that we don't have too many at once.

Here's another quote for you:
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”
-Hunter S. Thompson

high fructose corn syrup .....it end up with carcinogens in the manufacture process....stick with real sugar soda ....I think RC was the last that made it

EVERYONE should just listen to their bodies ...it tells you when your thirsty, when you need something sweet when you need protein ......and please moderation nothing in excess unless you are a superhero.

reply to post by Revolution9


...and the natural herb that we can't talk about, of course.

reply to post by obnoxiouschick


I know exactly how bad it is for you, which is why it bothers me. Every time I chug a bottle I pull an imaginary cord and shout "choo choo! next stop cancer city!"

reply to post by Aleister


that's called PAIN RELIEVER

Originally posted by Aleister
Things I found that work.

Lots of Vitamin C supplements (I'm at 5 grams a day now, spaced out of course not all at once). Hydrate hydrate hydrate (the most common words in Hospital Emergency rooms are "Push fluids"). Give up sugar (I have for years at a time, and am now off it again, but it's a quick addiction that's for sure). Go vegan (been vegetarian for 24 years and vegan most of that time - the candy and cookies put some milk products into me when I eat those, but never milk or cheese outright). Vitamin D, I think, can be best gotten from sun exposure, so walking should cover that (unless you are totally covered. Come to think of it, what do women in some Mideast countries do for vitamin D, though the eyes I guess). I gave up soda when I gave up meat. And I always go up stairs two at a time - that after watching children climb stairs and realizing how high they had to climb and seeing that it was actually a good exercise. That's some stuff.

edit on 12-12-2012 by Aleister because: more

Wow! Clever stuff! My hero. You are even more conscious about it all than my very disciplined Vegan friend. I take my hat off to your willpower.

I am quite a creative, frenetic soul. Like how can you strike a balance and be a healthy version of Jim Morrison?

Originally posted by Aleister
reply to post by Revolution9

 

...and the natural herb that we can't talk about, of course.

Sigh! If only they knew that it's not all bad! I like the visions and the insights, the lateral thought that is produced.

30 years this has been going on for and it has had no impact on my brain power, memory or any other processes.

I am living proof and like I said people always think I am much younger than I am.

Originally posted by Dispo
reply to post by Revolution9

 

I completely agree, which makes me somewhat of a hypocrite I suppose. I do try to follow my own advice most of the time, but being good is just such hard work.

One thing that does bother me is the fact that I can't give up caffeine, I go through litres of coke a day, but I hae managed to stop the red bull and relentless etc. The worst thing is that I can go completely cold turkey, suffer through the worst pain I've ever felt in the form of headaches for a week, then spend a month disorientated every day, but then I feel so much better and I can drink without having acid reflux type pains in my oesophagus and everything just seems better... Then a few months later I decide "one glass won't kill me" and it starts all over again.

Ah well, we all have our vices, I guess the most important thing is that we don't have too many at once.

Here's another quote for you:
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”
-Hunter S. Thompson

Haha! Dispo, I love Hunter! What a guy. I even think the way he took his life was so in character. I had a friend who took his life in his sixties, same age. I was really haunted by it until I read about Hunter's suicide.

What was that note he left???

(something like) " I'm bored and grown too bitchy" then blows his own head off. Wow! Since reading that I can understand men in their sixties who react that way. I still think it is not the right thing to do by any means. Yet now I can understand my friend's final act.

Don't you worry! Enjoy! Just try and do a little exercise, eat just some healthy stuff. It will help a lot.

My Grand Dad ate healthily. He consumed vast quantities of beer and cigarettes. He lived until in his early eighties.

Good luck, Dispo!!!

reply to post by AccessDenied


Things change.
over the past two weeks i've been doing the atkins diet.
Cut out sugar.
Eating more veggies.

And so far it's been good. I think that I'm going to keep limiting my carb intake as much as I can from now on.

You don't have to go to that extreme. But definitely protein, nuts, legumes, fruits and veggies should be the bulk of your diet. With a lesser amount of grains/carbs to balance it out.

I cut out sugar. Everything I read indicates that it's excellent nutrition for cancer tumors and nothing else. And I significantly reduced the amount of wheat gluten I consume - I now have it about twice a week, and only in a small amount. As a result, all of the little aches and pains from injuries past have subsided, and now I'm no longer reminded of that time I jumped out of a tree and landed badly, or that time I destroyed my ACL...

If you're haunted by old injuries, I highly recommend eliminating wheat gluten.

Lots of great info, thanks everyone.
First off..I don't smoke..anything, if you get my drift.
Moderate drinker. I enjoy my wine.
Iam very addicted to coffee..sadly. That will be difficult to give up.
I have cut back on sugar, but this time of year brings out the worst in me and I always overindulge in sweets.
I definitely need to drink more water. I hate it though, so I half a glass with juice to give it flavor.
Adding more vegies is a great idea, but when I cook, I cook for a family. Try getting a 4 year old to eat vegies...
For those who take supplements, what do do you recommend, and how much?
My vitamin c is 500mg and then my regular multivitamin. Any suggestions what else to take regularly?