While you can’t stop aging, you can stay healthy. The first step toward good health at any age is to eat a good well balanced diet.

The healthier you are, the better you look and you have to feed your body good nutrition for it to run like it’s supposed to run. You have to have good maintenance.

You wouldn’t run your car on the wrong fuel, or let the petrol tank get to the bottom, so you have to start treating your body like you do your car and your home.

Sometimes, you forget that your body is a well-oiled machine and it takes car and maintenance to keep it that way.

The best diet as you age

As we age, our bodies change; not just in how they look, but also in how they work. It is part of the natural process but be aware that it may take longer for you to digest meals.

You are not so active as you were when younger so may not drink enough water because you don’t feel as thirsty as you used to. Food may lose some of its taste, so you simply might not be as interested in eating.

This lack of interest can have several causes: you might have a harder time chewing, you might just not feel like cooking, or you might be tired of eating by yourself if living alone.

Don’t ignore the signs of you not being interested in cooking, or food, and don’t just rely on supplements because once your dietary health declines then the whole of your body can be affected.

Keys to a healthy diet

You probably know the basics of a healthy diet: lots of fruits and vegetables, healthy proteins, whole grains, some low-fat dairy and healthy fats, and less salt.

1. Let’s not forget your fluid intake either. Water may not be a food but try to think of it as one. Water is so underappreciated. Our bodies are mostly water. If you’re chronically dehydrated, just think of what your cells look like.

Robin Foroutan, a New York nutritionist, sums up what happens if you are persistently don’t drink enough. “You can’t think as clearly, you get fatigued more easily, you don’t tolerate heat as well. People who complain of things like fatigue and mild headaches and constipation, most often they’re just dehydrated.”

2. Include berries to your daily fruit intake. Any berries are good, but blueberries really come packed with nutrients that are beneficial for the body. They are packed with various antioxidants and that’s an essential element to keep your cells healthy.

Your body also needs daily vitamins E and C and humans can neither make vitamin C or store it so that’s why it is a daily must.

3. Increase your intake of dietary fibre from things like vegetables, whole grains, fruits, and beans all play a key role in your digestive system. It can help prevent or ease constipation as well as lower your cholesterol, blood pressure, and inflammation.

So that’s one bonus: next it can also help keep your heart healthy and bonus two can also can help control blood sugar levels and lower your chances of diabetes.

4. Fatty fish has many health benefits. Just two servings a week of salmon, mackerel, and sardines benefit your heart because they are high in omega-3 fatty acids.

5. Olive oil, particularly cold pressed organic, is a healthy substitute for butter if that is your usual choice for cooking. It’s healthier than some other oils.

6. Yogurt also helps because of its calcium and protein content. This is particularly important to help you digest your food, and keep bones strong and healthy.

7. Tomatoes are high in lycopene, a natural chemical, which can help protect you against certain cancers.

Cooked or processed tomatoes (in juice, paste, and sauce) may be better at that than raw ones. Researchers believe that heating or mashing tomatoes releases more lycopene.

8. Red wine in moderation may help lower “bad” cholesterol, prevent blood clots, and ease your blood pressure.

That usually means no more than one drink a day for women and two a day for men. If you don’t drink alcohol, though, don’t start.

9. Broccoli is full of fibre and contains iron, potassium, calcium, selenium and magnesium as well as the vitamins A, C, E, K and a good array of B vitamins including folic acid.

10. Nuts are usually given a bad press because they are believed to put on weight, but they are full of omega-3s, unsaturated fats (the good kind), fibre, and protein.

This makes them a perfect heart-healthy food, just make sure they are natural and unsalted nutrition and aim for five 1-ounce servings per week. For instance, all the following provide 1 ounce servings:

24 almonds, 18 medium cashews, 12 hazelnuts, 8 medium Brazils 12 macadamia, 35 peanuts
and 14 walnut halves.