By Linda Fodrini‐Johnson, MA, MFT, CMC
Founder & Chairman, Eldercare Services
Healthy choices for seniors can be hard, just like everyone e.se Have you ever gone grocery shopping after a stressful day or an argument with someone? It seems we gravitate towards sweet or salty things on those days.
Much of the overeating we do as a nation is “emotional eating” and not just the fueling of our bodies with good fresh nutrients. This emotional eating is what adds those inches to our waistlines.
When my granddaughter was in kindergarten, they had a teaching unit on choosing good foods – and most foods were either “green-light” for go to foods or “red-light” not so good for us foods.
Not that an occasional sweet treat or a salty snack is necessarily bad, but why are we eating it? We think we are hungry but if we took the time to process that “hunger” it is coming from our brain and not from our stomach! Try to test yourself as you reach for that bag of chips or those chocolate covered blueberries (we tell ourselves this is healthy – right)!
What you want to do is survey your body, and if you truly feel hunger in the gut, then choose a “green-light” food. That would be the best choice as they tend to keep our blood sugar in safe zones and stay with us longer. But, if you choose a “red-light” food, in the sweet and salty category, can you stop after a few bites – usually not. However, if you choose the carton of yogurt or a piece of string cheese – you most likely will be satisfied.
As we age, we need about 10% fewer calories for each decade of our life, but we need more nutrients – so food choices become even more important in later life. That diet you ate at age 40, which included ice cream and a few cookies, will probably put 10-20 pounds on you at age 70. Especially if you have not increased your exercise and decreased your processed foods, sweets and salty snacks!
So, the next time you have a “bad day” and go to the grocery store on your way home, buy yourself a bouquet of flowers. In some stores, like Trader Joes, a bouquet can cost less than a package of cookies. The bonus of buying flowers is that you can enjoy them much longer than you would have enjoyed that candy bar.
Bon Appetite!