How Your Nutritional Needs Change as You Age (& Why You Should Care)

Aging is not something we like to speak about South of the Mason-Dixon. If anything, we’re raised doing just the opposite. Asking a woman her age is a faux-pas, and night creams are used to erase wrinkles. Many of us have stories about our grandmother’s once-a-week visit to the hair salon up she religiously made up until she passed. To put it simply, we know we can’t outrun aging, but we try our darndest to evade it. However, what if we pause and think about how to embrace aging instead of how to cover it up? What if we examine what nutrients, supplements and basic needs our bodies require to age gracefully? That’s where Dr. Nicole Avena comes in. An assistant professor of Neuroscience and a visiting professor of Health Psychology, Dr. Avena’s specialty is this very topic. She explains, “My lab studies nutrition and the brain. I’m interested in how our food choices are impacted by our food environment and how the brain plays a role.” To say she knows her stuff would be an understatement. RELATED: The Essential Skincare Routines for Every Age According to Dr. Avena, it’s not about waking up, realizing you’re 35 (or 45, or 55, or 65 … ) and modifying a lifetime of habits then and there. Instead, she suggests implementing slowly. “Make one small change and then make another and another. Eventually, you will get to where you want to be,” she says. In fact, she discourages us from any immediate shifts. Why? It’s stressful! “Trying to change too much at once will not work because it is overwhelming psychologically and too much to handle,” she asserts. Understanding how your nutritional needs change as you age is crucial to maintaining your optimal health. So how do we make adjustments to our […]

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