Eating for Your Age

Not all foods of the food pyramid are necessary for our optimal health.  But which ones and in what quantities are the best?  These are questions that must be tailored to our individual needs.  And the answers will benefit our unique needs.  Healthy for me, is not the same as healthy for you.  Everyone’s nutritional needs are different, and everyone’s level of calorie consumption is different based on age and for women who may be pregnant. 

We can examine some of the better foods, and offer advice as to what particular formulas make us the healthiest on average. The average person needs an hour of physical exercise. Grains should be kept to a minimum. No more than 100 grams per day, two to four servings of fruit, three to five servings of vegetables, two to three servings of meat, two to three servings of milk, and enough water to make it all work.  

The dietary needs for an eighty year old man, will differ from a growing fifteen year old girl. The recommended daily calorie intake from the Standard American Diet is just as vague and generalized as the daily food pyramid. Can you see how this might not work for either one?  When a guideline published is this general, it is up to the individual to determine what food regimen will keep them at their healthiest, provide the caloric intake necessary, but not excessive.

According to the guides published by the USDA, calorie needs vary from one age group to another, one gender to another.  So how do you determine what your individual needs are?  You can setup a journal for recording your daily caloric intake for about a month.  Make a note of your weight each day.  If you don’t gain any weight during the course of that month, you’re eating your recommended calorie level in order to maintain your weight.  This in conjunction with a primal adapted workout (I will discuss this further in another article) will be a baseline for what you need. Take both pieces of information, calorie intake and nutritional requirements, throw out the food pyramid and comprise a combination of foods that will help you achieve these recommended daily intakes, and still be enjoyable food. (I use a primal adapted diet) You now have an individualized healthy eating plan.

Once the importance of a particular food plan is understood by us, it is a simple as learning our multiplication tables.  We simply memorize the benefit, and incorporate it into our daily intake as needed.  As you take the time to incorporate a primal plan, don’t’ forget the necessity of exercise in our daily lives.  In order to keep our bodies healthy and functioning off of healthy food, we need to keep it fit.  This comes through sensible amounts of exercise

What those foods might be, are entirely dependent upon the unique guideline you have just established.  This guide will work for Cousin Bob, or Aunt Tilley, and it is the blueprint for optimal health. Maybe we need to incorporate these techniques into a class taught at school.  Maybe this would give our young people the direction and tools they need in order to begin a lifelong habit of healthy living. Make it a lifetime habit, and pass it along to their children.  Understanding that the Standard American Diet and the food pyramid are not guidelines to live by because they promote excessive carbohydrate consumption and excessive insulin production, will affect your overall health everyday.  Following these can bring on obesity and chronic illnesses. Find a health coach to discuss primal or Paleo to see how they can benefit you for a lifetime.
Contact me for more and better specifics on what eating for your age would look like for you.