Call (760) 707-3038 to speak with a licensed insurance agent.

Call (760) 707-3038 to speak with a licensed insurance agent.

5 Ways to Better Health Through Nutrition

Posted by Mary Krebs, February 6, 2017

We can all develop health problems at any time, but serious concerns become more likely after age 60 or so. Your genetics and just plain luck will certainly influence your health, but your fate isn’t completely out of your hands. Your lifestyle also plays a role, meaning to some degree you do have control over your future (the part concerning your health, anyway).

In particular, doctors agree that diet is one of the most important determining factors to health. Follow these tips to increase your odds of a long, happy retirement.

Balance your diet. A healthy diet is more about balance, than about loading up on one dish or eliminating another. Visit My Plate to see what a balanced meal looks like, and which foods you should include in each meal for optimum health.

Choose foods that are close to nature. Remember, the more a food is processed, packages, and shipped around the country (or world), the farther it has traveled from its natural state. That usually means addition of preservatives, colorings, and other unnatural ingredients. It’s best to stick to whole foods as much as possible, like fruits, vegetables, eggs, seafood, lean meats, and so on.

Focus on important nutrients. Balancing your diet will point you in the right direction. But since your body needs extra nutritional support as you age, remember to watch your intake of vitamin D, calcium, and fiber in particular. You might need to take additional supplements to ensure you’re getting enough of these nutrients. Depending upon your doctor’s recommendations, you might want to choose foods that are low in sodium.

Learn to read nutrition labels. If you aren’t familiar with the FDA’s current required food labels, ask your doctor for a referral to a nutritionist. He or she can explain how to read these labels and determine the nutritional values of foods. In particular, watch out for serving sizes, which can be misleading and overall sugar and salt content.

Drink plenty of water. You’ve heard all of your life that drinking eight, eight-ounce glasses of water per day will keep you properly hydrated. Nothing has changed in that regard. Keep drinking that water!

As always, follows your doctor’s recommendations when it comes to your diet. He or she can give you advice more specifically tailored to your needs. Don’t be afraid to ask for detailed explanations, or a referral to a nutritionist if you need expert help with your diet.

Need more information?

Contact us online to learn more

Contact Us

Close Accessibility Tools
Accessibility Controls Reset
Content Adjustments
Font Size

Default

Line Height

Default

Content Scaling

Default

Highlight Titles
Highlight Links
Highlight Forms
Align Left
Align Center
Align Right
Focus Mode
Color Adjustments
Desaturate
Monochrome
Contrast

Default

Saturation

Default

Accessibility Statement

Despite our attempts to make this website accessible for everyone, there may still be some pages or sections that are not completely accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or do not have a suitable technological solution to make them accessible. Nevertheless, we are always striving to enhance our accessibility by adding, updating, improving its options and features, and incorporating new technologies.

We want to provide our users with the best experience possible, so we strive to support as many browsers and assistive technologies as possible.

If you wish to contact this website's owner, please use the contact form on the website.

Our User Interface Adjustment Options

Font adjustments - With this tool, users can modify font size, style, letter spacing, and line height for improved alignment and readability.

Color adjustments - Users can customize their color contrast profiles to light, dark, desaturated, and monochrome.

Content highlighting - Users can prioritize key elements such as links, forms, and titles.

Content focus - Users can enable focus mode to highlight the current page information based on their mouse movement.

Close