No matter your age, making healthy food choices is the smart thing to do. Your body changes throughout your life and so do your nutritional needs. Eating a healthy diet is the best way to make sure you get the nutrients you need as you age.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans provides recommendations and guidelines for healthy eating across the lifespan. One recommendation is to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Despite this recommendation, the CDC reports that only 12 percent of Texas adults meets the fruit intake recommendation and 10 percent of Texas adults meets the vegetable intake recommendation.
Eating a variety of healthy foods from each food group can decrease your risk of:
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
- Heart disease
- Other chronic conditions
Texercise Prevents: Malnutrition in Older Texans
Nutritional health is an important part of healthy aging. However, according to Defeat Malnutrition, one in two older adults is at risk of becoming or already malnourished. Malnutrition in older adults is associated with decrease in quality of life, longer hospital stays and higher risk of death. Texercise developed an awareness campaign to educate people about the signs and symptoms of malnutrition in older adults and where there are available resources to help address it.
Provider Information and Resources
Professionals supporting older adults can help address malnutrition by identifying older adults at risk of malnutrition and connecting them to available community-based resources. Texercise offers professionals the: “Malnutrition in Aging” information brief, “What is Malnutrition” fact sheet, and “Nutrition at Any Age” postcard to help create awareness and understanding of this important health indicator. Download the Texercise Prevents resources and explore other topics through the Aging Well Resources Order Form. Choose “Texercise” in the program box.
Older Adults and Caregivers Information and Resources
Maintaining proper nutritional health is an important part of aging and living well. Knowing the risk factors for, and the signs and symptoms of, malnutrition can help you know if you are at risk of begin malnourished. Texercise provides older Texans, their families, and their caregivers with the “Nutrition at Any Age” fact sheet and postcard to learn more about this issue and resources that can help prevent malnutrition. Download these malnutrition resources and explore other topics through the Aging Well Resources Order Form. Choose “Texercise” in the program box.
Texercise Nutrition Fact Sheets
Texercise has over 15 nutrition fact sheets that educate on healthy eating for healthy aging. These fact sheets highlight various aspects of a healthy diet from portions to healthy eating on a budget. Download Texercise nutrition fact sheets and explore other topics through the Aging Well Resources Order Form. Choose “Texercise” in the program box.