It is never too late to eat right and exercise the smart way! The authors of Food & Fitness After 50 take a common sense approach to food and fitness to lead to active, healthy lives that can be balanced with a rewarding career or happier retirement. They translate competent scientific research into simple actionable steps and help readers learn what it takes to control food choices and fitness strategies at age 50 and beyond.
Inside you’ll find real life stories from adults over 50 describing how they overcame challenges along with self-assessments to help you pinpoint where you can improve your food and fitness decisions. Common myths about aging, healthy eating and fitness are debunked to clear up confusion. You’ll learn tips—from the authors themselves and from other nutrition and fitness experts from around the globe—that you can use every day to eat health and stay active.
The book is divided into three sections: Eat Well focuses distinctly on healthy dietary patterns and foods choices that supply the right balance of nutrients for optimal aging, Move Well focuses on all dimensions of fitness from building muscle to enhancing endurance and maintaining balance, and Be Well focuses on how to eat the foods you like to support your body weight and fitness goals. By providing the “bottom line” up front, it’s easy to quickly grasp the most important takeaway messages contained in each chapter.
The topics addressed in this book are so important for aging people living in their 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond who need effective tools to fight against weight-creep and prevent fitness-decline. “After all, our ability to be well is directly affected by eating well and moving well”, the authors write. Readers will learn how to choose a healthy, nutrient-rich dietary pattern with enough fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, protein-rich foods and healthy fats and oils. Recognizing that there is no one-size fits all dietary approach, recommendations rely on the tenants of four science-based eating approaches: Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), the Flexitarian Eating Plan, a Mediterranean-style eating plan and the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND). Sample meals, containing 30 grams of protein, demonstrate how protein can be spread evenly throughout the day. Next, the authors share current Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans coupled with manageable ways to avoid inactivity, maintain strength and preserve muscle mass. “While it is true that physical fitness declines as we age, we do have control over the rate of decline. Staying physically active throughout life may be one of the most important factors in living a long, happy and healthy life.” Lastly, the authors address optimal aging by emphasizing right-sized portions, eating mindfully, sleeping adequately, managing stress and hormone imbalance, maintaining social connections and keeping good balance, flexibility and agility. In addition, they address physical fitness in cases of illness and injury with strategies for preventing and dealing with chronic disease and cognitive decline (including popular dietary supplements).
This is one of the most well-organized, evidence-based health-help books that I’ve seen. It’s packed with practical, usable content geared specifically for its targeted ‘aging’ audience. Readers will be truly be able to set a personalized road map for getting healthy and staying healthy and embrace aging, accept the challenges, and gain the confidence to Eat Well, Move Well, and Be Well—it’s never too late!
Food & Fitness After 50 is available for purchase on Amazon in paperback for $16.34. I would love to hear your thoughts on this book. Feel free to comment or share your thoughts below, tag me on Facebook/NutritionConnectionsLLC, or tweet me using #FoodNewsReviews and @karenbuch.
The author received a review copy and was compensated to review the book for publication on Nutrition411.com. Opinions are the authors own.