Nutrition for Seniors: Seven Lifestyle Strategies to Stay Strong, Healthy and Independent Longer

I’ve been coaching nutrition for more than 10 years and teaching university nutrition courses for seven. I’ve seen thousands of people benefit tremendously from the health strategies I share with them. But no transformation has been as dramatic or as inspiring as my grandfather’s.

A few years ago, in his early 80s, my grandfather began to forget things. He missed appointments and misplaced objects like his keys or reading glasses. His appetite decreased, and he started losing weight.

One day, he suffered a bad fall. He required hospitalization, and his confusion and disorientation worsened during his stay. It was a low point for my family. A professional medical assessment determined that it was no longer safe for him to live independently at home. He got placed on a waiting list for a long-term care facility.

My grandpa’s diet had been poor for some time. I knew he was living mostly on canned soup, chocolate milk and the occasional banana—not nearly enough calories and not a lot of nutrient-dense whole foods. I wondered what effect that was having on him, so I did some detective work.

After running some blood tests, we discovered that my grandfather was very deficient in a range of B vitamins, particularly vitamin B1, or thiamine. The signs of thiamine deficiency? Low appetite, fatigue, memory loss and confusion.

I suspected that correcting these deficiencies might help my grandpa function better, so I put him on a high-quality senior multivitamin and recommended a few simple changes to his diet.

A week later, my grandfather was transformed. His appetite increased, and he became clear-thinking and lucid. He was released from the hospital, and his medical team approved his ability to keep living independently.

My grandpa’s experience is proof of something many people aren’t aware of: Simple nutrition and lifestyle changes can dramatically improve quality of life—even in older adults.

That’s why, in this article, we’ll explain what we know about optimal lifestyle and nutrition for seniors, how these habits affect aging, and how to implement healthy changes for yourself, clients or loved ones.

It’s not just the number of years you live; it’s how you live them.

Modern medicine can help us live longer, so what’s the point of eating the right foods and taking the right supplements?

Well, we don’t want to just live longer. We want to live longer and live well.

Life span: How long you live.

Health span: How well you live.

When we talk about longevity, most of us don’t dream of living for a thousand years in a cryo chamber hooked up to a bunch of wires that artificially maintain our basic functions.

In addition to a long life span, we also want a long health span—a high quality of life for as long as possible—a state that allows us to travel and enjoy our retirement, to run around with our grandchildren without aches and pains, and to generally enjoy life feeling good in our bodies, minds and hearts.

Good nutrition and lifestyle habits are our best tools to improve health span.

And while these habits can have a major effect on health span if you start them young, making nutrition and lifestyle changes can make a difference even after you’ve noticed signs of aging.

Now these changes aren’t going to turn you into an ageless bionic superhuman, but they can certainly help you age better and become more resilient.

Seven habits that can help you age well

Luckily, we now have research on the specific factors that can help you live a healthy, enjoyable, meaningful life, longer. In a variety of large-scale population studies, these seven lifestyle habits are consistently correlated with lower disease rates, better mood and well-being, and increased longevity.

The earlier you start, the better, but these habits can make a difference no matter your current age. Practice these habits consistently and transform the experience of aging.

  1. Keep moving

For relatively little cost or time (about 30 minutes a day), exercise is one of the most impactful things we can do for our health. As we age, our metabolism declines and our bodies don’t use nutrients as well.

Movement signals the body to:

Regular exercise is correlated with lower rates of:

Additionally, exercise improves mood and well-being. This is especially true if exercise is social, like walking with a friend or attending group classes.

Common challenges seniors face with exercising

Action steps that can help

  1. Eat healthy meals

The foods we eat literally make up our bodies. If we are missing important nutrients, our bodies are more vulnerable to damage or illness.

Although all nutrients are important, two get are critical during the older years:

Antioxidants protect our body from free-radical damage and slow down the aging process. With a regular supply of antioxidants through wholesome meals abundant in colorful plant foods, we’re less vulnerable to cataracts, arthritis, cardiovascular disease, cancer and more.

Aim for five servings of vegetables and fruits a day—and choose a variety of colors! Different colors (red, purple, green, orange, etc.) often relate to different nutrient compounds, so the more colorful the “rainbow” you’re consuming, the more nutrients you’re getting.

Common challenges seniors face with eating healthy

Action steps that can help

  1. Achieve or maintain a healthy weight

According to research, there is a body mass index “sweet spot” for the elderly. Seniors with a BMI between 25 and 32 have the lowest rates of mortality and recover better from illness and infection. Being overweight or underweight can pose a risk.

Too much body fat can be harmful. In particular, visceral fat around our internal organs is associated with higher inflammation, insulin resistance and high blood sugar, eye problems like cataracts or blindness, kidney damage and cancer.

However, some fat can be protective. Having enough body fat helps a person recover better from wasting diseases like pneumonia, cancer, influenza and digestive issues. Having some body fat is also correlated with a lowered risk of fracture during a fall.

Common challenges seniors face with finding a healthy weight

Action steps that can help

If weight gain is needed:

If weight loss is needed:

In all cases:

  1. Get the right amount of sleep

As we age, it’s normal to need less sleep and to sleep less consistently. As a result, older people may have trouble falling or staying asleep and/or may wake early.

However, at any age, adequate sleep is essential and helps:

In the older years, getting anywhere from five to nine hours of sleep a day may be appropriate.

Sleeping enough helps keep us healthy, but sleeping too much can be a sign of illness.

If sleeping more than nine or 10 hours is becoming the norm, consult a physician. Excessive sleep can be a sign of nutrient deficiency (low iron and B12 can both cause fatigue), depression, infection or serious illness.

Common challenges seniors face with getting the right amount of sleep

Action steps that can help

  1. Reduce or quit smoking

To some it may be hard to believe, but many seniors grew up during a time when smoking was promoted as a healthy habit!

However, we now know smoking is undeniably linked to negative health outcomes—primarily lung diseases like asthma, emphysema and lung cancer and cardiovascular events like heart attack or stroke.

Smoking dramatically increases our exposure to free radicals, which increase inflammation, damage the arteries and advance physiological age.

The good news is: It’s never too late to quit and the body begins to regenerate immediately.

Common challenges seniors face with stopping smoking

Action steps that can help

  1. Moderate or eliminate alcohol

Wait a second—isn’t red wine supposed to promote longevity?

The research on alcohol consumption—even moderate consumption—is mixed. Most experts suggest that if you don’t drink already, don’t start.

Excessive alcohol consumption is linked to health problems in almost every part of the body:

The body can’t store alcohol, so it must prioritize clearing it. As the liver metabolizes that scotch on the rocks, the side effect is that it may delay or neglect other tasks—like digesting, absorbing and storing other nutrients like proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals.

We want to be careful not to overburden the liver so it’s free to do all the other important jobs it needs to do.

Common challenges seniors face with alcohol moderation

Action steps that can help

  1. Connect with others

When people are surveyed about the most meaningful aspects of their lives, they list good marriages, close family relationships, rich friendships and lively work relationships.

Often, it’s the presence of other people, to love and be loved by, that enhances our reason to live.

Elderly who live in isolation are also most at risk for physical and psychological problems. Living alone may mean that there is no one to help if you fall, no one to talk to about joys or sorrows, and no one to help prepare food. As a result, elderly living alone may be more prone to injury, loneliness and malnourishment.

All these factors reduce life span and, more important, quality of life.

Meaningful human interaction:

Prioritize and enable regular connection with family, friends and community members.

Common challenges seniors face with social connection

Action steps that can help

Reflect on your life, then take action.

There are lots of things we don’t have control over. But we do have control over many habits that have a tremendous impact on our health and how we age.

I don’t aim for perfection and don’t advocate anyone else does, but I do advocate for being proactive.

If you’re aging—and, ahem, that’s all of us—reflect on your family history and your current habits. Consult the above list and focus on one thing to promote your health span. Practice that habit and add more when and if you feel ready. All positive actions count, and no healthy step forward is too small.

A longer version of this article originally appeared on PrecisionNutrition.com.

Photo credit: Ljupco Smokovski, Adobe Stock