The Importance Of A Balanced Diet As We Age

Whatever your circumstances, I think we can all agree that following some form of diet can help us achieve more of what we want out of life.

Whether it’s looking better, feeling better, having more energy, being more physically able, or more importantly, preventing a whole lot of medical issues.

But, the word diet comes with many negative connotations.

Eat this. Don’t eat that. This has high cholesterol. That has too much sodium.

It seems like today, there’s a million and one diet styles, choices, plans, issues, benefits, concerns, etc.

And, with each passing week, one form of research disproves a diet that was supposedly beneficial only the week before.

 

We know we have to eat healthily.

We know that as we age, more care and consideration should be given to our food choices.

But, with so many “diets” to choose from, how can you know for sure what you should and should not be consuming?

Well, today we aim to remove the myths around “fad diets” and give you EXACTLY what you need to know, so you can make the RIGHT changes in your food choices and live out your lifestyle in the way YOU want to.

 

What do we mean by “Diet”?

First, we start by taking some consideration of what a “Diet” actually is.

The formal definition of diet has two meanings:

1. The kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually
2. A special course of food to which one restricts oneself, either to lose weight or for medical reasons.

In many ways, these two definitions are opposing and even mutually exclusive because the latter is a regime, a restricted plan, that is difficult to maintain and sustain.

Follow-up studies conclusively show that 95% of people who “went on a diet” could not maintain it after just one year.

This has been known as “yoyo dieting” when people on a weight-loss diet not only regained their pre-diet weight but even gained weight beyond their starting point.

Everyone knows that it is easy to lose weight, but the real challenge is to maintain it after losing it.

So, my answer to the question in the topic is: Yes to diet, but not to diet, or in other words: don’t eat food that you cannot habitually eat as part of your every-day life.

This means that restricting yourself is counterproductive and we need to find ways to make our diet a good habit that is sustainable.

 

Macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients

The composition of our diet is essential to meeting the needs of our body, in order to grow, develop, function and repair.

The food we eat contains the body’s building blocks and energy sources.

Macro-nutrients are those that we need in large amounts (carbohydrates, proteins, and fats) and micro-nutrients (vitamins and minerals) are those we need in small amounts.

Let’s look at each of these in more detail, because over the last decade specifically, carbohydrates and fats continue to come under the microscope as the culprits for gaining weight.

 

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are the primary source of energy and they are broken down to sugar (glucose), which all cells can use.

Typically they can be found in plant food (fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, seeds, etc.).

However, carbohydrates have a limited capacity to be stored in the body as such, and when consumed in excess (beyond our energy requirements) they will be stored as fat, and unfortunately, this storage form is unlimited.

 

Fats

Fats or oils that we eat are broken down to fatty acids which are used as structural building blocks of all body tissues (cell membranes) and some organs which have a high-fat content (like the brain and nerves).

Fats also serve metabolic functions, by providing building blocks for steroids and some hormones or serve as solvents for hormones and fat-soluble enzymes.

They are further divided into saturated fats (meat, egg yolk and dairy products), unsaturated fats (fish, certain oils, nuts, and seeds), and trans-fats which are mostly artificial (i.e. resulting from an industrial process to increase the shelf-life of goods).

Over the last decade, there has been a tremendous change in our understanding of the role of fat in our diet and how bad it is for our health.

In general, unsaturated fats provide substantial health benefits, saturated fats are good, but in moderation, and trans-fats (or hydrogenated oils) are the “bad guys”.

 

Proteins

Proteins in our diet are broken down to amino acids, which serve as the structural elements of every cell, tissue, and organ in our body.

They also facilitate many vital processes of body maintenance and repair (enzymes, antibodies, DNA, and neurotransmitters).

Proteins are therefore essential for repairing and regenerating body tissues and cells, a healthy functioning immune system and manufacturing hormones.

They can be found in poultry, fish, meat, dairy products, as well as plant sources (beans, greens, seeds, and nuts).

 

Micro-nutrients

Micro-nutrients include vitamins and minerals.

Vitamins are organic compounds made by plants and animals and minerals are inorganic, exist in soil or water.

Vitamins and minerals are vital for growth, immune function, brain development, and many other important functions, and must be consumed from food, as the body is unable to produce them.

All diets contain a combination of these macro- and micro-nutrients in different proportions.

 

Healthy diets

Now that we have a good understanding of what’s IN the foods we eat, how does all of this translate into a healthy diet?

A healthy diet is one that helps to maintain or improve overall health.

A healthy diet provides the body with its essential nutrition: fluid, macro-nutrients, micro-nutrients, and adequate energy (calories)

FROM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_diet.

Diets have been intensively investigated for their effects on human health, by following large groups of subjects who kept daily records of what they ate for several years.

These subjects also weighed themselves regularly, took routine lab tests and were monitored for the development of a large myriad of diseases (cardiovascular, metabolic, dementia, cancer, etc.,) and the occurrence of disease-related deaths.

 

Low-carbohydrate versus low-fat diets

For many years we used to advocate low-fat diets as the healthiest diets, believing that the fats we consume are the major contributors to body fat and obesity-related morbidity and mortality.

While there is some truth in that “bad fats” can contribute to atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases, it is not the fat we eat that makes us gain body fat, for the most part, this is the excess of sugars and carbohydrates in our food.

A landmark study followed 218,000 participants from 1000 communities, across 21 countries and 6 continents, with multiple ethnic groups and cultural diversity, examined the diet constituents that promote heart health and longevity globally.

This study, named PURE (Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiological) and published in 2017, noted that higher carbohydrate intake is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, whereas total dietary fat and types of fat (except trans-fats) are not associated with cardiovascular disease or mortality.

It also noted that dietary saturated fat (the “old-time enemy”) had an inverse relationship with stroke and all-cause mortality; meaning that higher intake may be protective.

Many other studies have since similarly suggested that the long-running war on fat turns out to be a case of “friendly fire” (i.e., we have been shooting our aid and not the enemy).

 

Keto Diet and Intermittent Fasting

Ketogenic or Keto diets are characterized by very low consumption of carbohydrates (less than 20-30 gram of carbs/day) and relatively high consumption of fat (70% of daily calorie requirements) and protein (25% of daily calorie requirements).

These diets change your metabolism or the way in which the body processes energy.

In a keto diet, the body is deprived of glucose derived from carbs, so it starts using fat as an alternative source of energy.

Fat breakdown (mainly in the liver) results in the production of ketones, which are excellent alternative energy sources.

The keto diets have been shown to have health and anti-aging benefits, and have been associated with brain protection and lower cognitive decline. This is partly explained by the fact that ketones (resulting from fat breakdown) are the more efficient energy source for the brain than glucose.

Fasting has been shown for years to be an effective nonpharmacologic strategy for fighting a large range of disorders (metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, cancer and epilepsy), as well as promoting “detoxification” (cleansing) and longevity (anti-aging).

Intermittent fasting (IF) is not a diet, but rather a dieting pattern.

In simpler terms: it’s making a conscious decision to skip certain meals on purpose.

Intermittent fasting generally means that you consume your calories during a specific window of the day, and choose not to eat food for the larger part of the day.

They come in various shapes and forms:

• Alternate Day Fasting (ADF) is the strictest form of IF besides religious fasting, which involves 24-hours complete fasting followed by a 24-hours non-fasting period. There is an alternate day modified fasting (ADMF) which allows the consumption of approximately 25% of daily calorie needs on fasting days instead of full fasting.
• Whole-day fasting (WDF) involves regular one or two fasting days per week. As an example, 5:2 diets requires five non-fasting days and 2 fasting days in a week. During the fasting days, it allows approximately 500 to 600 calories or about 25% of regular daily caloric intake.
• Time-restricted feeding (TRF) involves eating only during a certain number of hours each day. An example can be 16:8 diets which advocate 16 fasting hours cycled by 8 non-fasting hours.

FROM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermittent_fasting

Clinical studies suggest that intermittent fasting is effective for weight loss, reversal or improvement of type 2 diabetes, hypertension and abnormal lipids (elevated cholesterol or triglycerides).

There are also anecdotal accounts of improved cognitive skills in people with dementia or pre-dementia.

However, there are no good, long-term human studies that have examined the effects of IF on human cognition and its ability to prevent cognitive decline or dementia.

 

Brain-healthy diets

Many diets were initially investigated for their protective effects on cardiovascular health.

Considering the role of cardiovascular disease in cognitive decline and dementia, it makes sense to advocate a heart-healthy diet for brain health.

However, over the last several years a lot of research has come out which informed us about those diets which also protect our brain.

 

The Mediterranean diet

The Mediterranean diet is a diet inspired by the eating habits of people who lived in the olive-growing regions of Italy and Greece, who in the 1960s had a very high life expectancy and low rates of coronary heart disease and certain cancers.

It has repeatedly shown positive effects for general and cardiovascular health by numerous studies, and it also tops the list of best diets for brain health.

It is typically low in saturated fats and is characterised by a high intake of whole grains (cereals), fruits, vegetables, legumes (peas, beans, lentils), nuts, healthy unsaturated fats (mostly olive oil) and fish; regular and moderate intake of alcohol (usually wine during meals); and low intake of red meat, poultry and full-fat dairy.

A large body of evidence supports that the Mediterranean diet has a protective role against cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and its early stages (MCI).

Of particular importance, the recently completed PREDIMED (PREvención con DIeta Mediterránea) study is the first clinical trial that compared the effects of a long-term Mediterranean diet (MeDi) intervention to a control diet (advice to reduce dietary fat).

The trial, conducted in Spain, showed that greater adherence to the MeDi resulted in a 30% reduction of major cardiovascular events and superior cognitive performance over a period of 6.5 years.

Interestingly, a subgroup supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) had the strongest positive effect on cognitive function and was the only dietary component that slowed the onset of mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

 

The DASH Diet

The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet was developed from an initiative to examine dietary factors that affect blood pressure. The DASH diet is high in fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains (cereals), low-fat dairy products, fish, chicken, and lean meats, and therefore is designed to be low in saturated fat; moderately high in protein; and low in sodium (salt), sweetened beverages, and red and processed meats.

While some studies suggested that the DASH diet protects the brain against cognitive decline and dementia, other studies could not support this.

 

The MIND diet

The MIND (Mediterranean-DASH diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay) diet was based on the dietary components of the MeDi and DASH diets with modifications that highlight the foods and nutrients shown to be associated with dementia prevention.

Among the MIND diet components, there are 10 brain-healthy food groups (green leafy vegetables, other vegetables, nuts, berries, beans, whole grains, seafood, poultry, olive oil, and wine) and five unhealthy food groups (red meats, butter and stick margarine, cheese, pastries and sweets, and fried/fast food).

Hence, MIND diet uniquely specifies consumption of berries and green leafy vegetables and does not specify high fruit consumption (both DASH and MeDi), high dairy consumption (DASH), or high fish consumption (MeDi).

There is limited support for the protective effects of this diet on cognitive functioning.

 

So which diet should I choose?

As you can see from the components of all these diets there is a significant overlap in the characteristics of all diets that are associated with better cognitive function.

There is a general consensus that your diet should have a high consumption of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, whole grains, and fish as well as reducing consumption of red meat, sugars (sweets and sugary drinks), trans and saturated fats, salt, and highly processed or pre-packaged foods.

See the below recommendations:

 

Foods to include

• Consume predominantly a plant-based diet that is rich in vegetables and fruits. Choose local and seasonal fruits and vegetables when available, however, be certain to frequently include:
  • Raw leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables (eg, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, and radishes)
  • Fresh or frozen berries
• Include unsalted nuts, or all-natural nut butter, daily as a snack, cooking ingredient, or adding to salads
• Ensure that your diet is rich in whole grains, beans, and pulses
  • Routinely add beans, peas, and lentils to soups, salads, casseroles, and other main dishes
  • Select high-fiber cereals, brown rice, and whole-grain bread and cereals
• Consume fish frequently, with an emphasis on fatty fish such as salmon, sardines, and mackerel
• Use extra virgin olive oil as your main culinary oil.
• Select low-fat milk (skim or 1%), yogurt (0%-2%), and cheese (~22%)

 

Foods to limit

• Limit your intake of meat and poultry
  • More severely restrict your intake of red and processed meats such that they are only consumed occasionally
• Restrict your use of butter, hard margarine, cream, or high-fat dairy spreads
• Limit your intake of sweets and processed foods including:
  • Pre-packaged sides and meals (eg, canned soup, instant noodles, frozen appetizers, and TV dinners)
  • Salty snacks (eg, potato chips and fries) or fried food
  • Store-bought dairy desserts (including ice cream, frozen yogurt, puddings, and custard)
  • Baked goods, especially store-bought (eg, cookies, muffins, scones, croissants, doughnuts, cakes, and pie)
  • Candy, chocolate, bonbons
  • Pop, sweetened fruit juice, or any other sugary drinks

We hope these tips provide you with some insights and assistance to living your most brain healthy life.

If you enjoyed reading this blog, and want to see more of our articles relating to nutrition and brain-healthy foods, check out the links to some of our other articles below:

• Understanding Belly Fat and What To Do About It
• How Iron and B Vitamins Improve Brain Activity
• Apricots: A Daily Nutrition Booster
• Can Vitamin C and E Help Prevent Dementia?

 

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References:

• Dehghan M, Mente A, Zhang X, et al. Associations of fats and carbohydrate intake with cardiovascular disease and mortality in 18 countries from five continents (PURE): a prospective cohort study. Lancet 2017;390:2050-2062.
• Zhu Y, Bo Y, Liu Y. Dietary total fat, fatty acids intake, and risk of cardiovascular disease: a dose-response meta-analysis of cohort studies, Lipids Health Dis. 2019 Apr 6;18(1):91.
• Wu L, Sun D. Adherence to Mediterranean diet and risk of developing cognitive disorders: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. Sci Rep. 2017;7:41317.
• Loughrey DG, Lavecchia S, Brennan S, Lawlor BA, Kelly ME. The Impact of the Mediterranean Diet on the Cognitive Functioning of Healthy Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Adv Nutr. 2017;8(4):571–586.
• Greenwood CE, Parrott MD. Nutrition as a component of dementia risk reduction strategies. Healthc Manage Forum. 2017 Jan;30(1):40-45. doi:10.1177/0840470416662885.