Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents 2022 | Dietary Guidelines for the General Elderly

As people age, especially those over 65, the characteristics of aging become more obvious. Physiological changes mainly include decreased metabolic capacity, respiratory function decline, heart and brain function decline, slow sensory responses such as vision, hearing and taste, and muscle attenuation. These changes affect the ability of the elderly to ingest, digest food and absorb nutrients, making them prone to insufficient intake of protein and micronutrients, resulting in emaciation, anemia and other problems, reducing the body's resistance and increasing the risk of disease.

On the basis of a balanced diet for adults, the elderly should be provided with more abundant and diverse foods, especially animal foods and soy products that are easy to digest, absorb and utilize, and rich in protein. The elderly should actively participate in family and social activities, actively communicate with others; eat with family or friends as much as possible, enjoy delicious food, and experience a happy life. The elderly should actively engage in physical activities, especially outdoor activities, breathe more fresh air, receive sunlight, promote the synthesis of vitamin D in the body, and delay the process of osteoporosis and muscle attenuation. It is necessary to pay attention to the weight changes of the elderly and measure them regularly; the body mass index is used to judge, and the appropriate range is 20.0~26.9kg/m2. It is not required that obese elderly people lose weight quickly, but should maintain a relatively stable range. When there is a significant weight loss without taking active measures to lose weight, you should take the initiative to seek nutrition and medical consultation. The elderly should go to regular medical institutions for physical examinations and nutritional status assessments regularly, and use this as a basis to reasonably choose food, prevent nutritional deficiencies, and actively live a healthy and happy life.

【Core Recommendation】

1. There is a rich variety of food, sufficient animal food, and soy products are often eaten.

1. Rich food variety and reasonable combination

(1) Diversification. In addition to commonly eaten staple foods such as rice and steamed bread, you can also choose various grains such as millet, corn, buckwheat, and oats; in addition, potatoes and sweet potatoes can also be used as staple foods.

(2) Try to have vegetables at every meal. Eat different kinds of vegetables as much as possible, especially dark leafy vegetables (such as rapeseed, greens, spinach, purple cabbage, etc.); eat different vegetables in combination.

(3) Choose different types of fruits as much as possible. Eat less of each type, but more of a variety; do not replace fruits with vegetables.

(4) Eat animal foods in a variety of ways. Try to eat animal meat (such as pork, mutton, beef, etc.), poultry (such as chicken, duck, etc.), fish, shrimp, and eggs in a variety of ways. When choosing fish, it is recommended to eat more fish belly (fish belly); it should be eaten with vegetables. (5) Eat different types of dairy products and beans.

2. Eat enough animal and soy foods

(1) The total amount of animal food intake should reach an average of 120g to 150g per day, including 40g to 50g of fish, 40g to 50g of livestock and poultry meat, and 40g to 50g of eggs. Each meal should have a certain amount of animal food. When eating livestock meat, try to choose lean meat and eat less fatty meat.

(2) Choose dairy products that are suitable for your physical condition, such as fresh milk, yogurt, milk powder for the elderly, etc., and consume them regularly. It is recommended to drink 300-400 ml of milk or dairy products with equivalent protein content every day.

(3) Ensure adequate intake of soy products, such as tofu, dried tofu, bean curd skin, tofu pudding, soybean sprouts and soy milk, to reach the recommended level of 15g of soybeans per day on average.

(2) Encourage eating together, maintaining a good appetite, and enjoying the delicious food.

1. Create a good atmosphere and encourage making and sharing food together.

(1) Preparing and sharing food helps maintain a positive and optimistic mood. Family members, relatives and friends should persuade and encourage the elderly to select, prepare, taste and comment on food together.

(2) When building dining halls and dining tables for the elderly, the government, elderly service agencies and relevant social organizations can promote the physical and mental health of the elderly through active publicity, effective organization and coordination, and the creation of a good atmosphere.

2. Try to increase your appetite and enjoy the delicious food.

(1) Encourage the elderly to actively participate in group activities, moderately increase their physical activity, and enhance their appetite.

(2) Use different cooking methods to enrich the color and flavor of food and increase the appeal of the food itself.

(3) Scientifically publicize the fundamental role of food in maintaining life, so that the elderly can experience the delicious taste of different types of food and enjoy their later years in a happy mood.

(3) Engage in active outdoor activities to slow down muscle loss and maintain a suitable weight.

1. Proper nutrition is the main way to delay muscle decline in the elderly

(1) Generally speaking, the daily protein intake of the elderly is 1.0-1.2 g per kilogram of body weight. For the elderly who perform resistance training on a daily basis, the daily protein intake should be ≥ 1.2-1.5 g per kilogram of body weight.

(2) Animal foods should be included in all three meals a day. It is not advisable to consume a large amount of protein in one meal. The proportion of high-quality protein from animal foods such as fish, shrimp, poultry, pork, beef, mutton, and soy foods should not be less than 50%.

(3) Drink 300-400g of fresh milk or dairy products with equivalent protein (equivalent to 30-36g of milk powder) every day. Elderly people with lactose intolerance can consider drinking low-lactose milk or yogurt.

(4) Increase the intake of marine fish foods rich in n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and vitamin D, egg yolks, and eat a certain amount of animal liver.

(5) Encourage the intake of dark-colored vegetables and fruits, as well as foods rich in antioxidant nutrients such as beans.

(6) Under the guidance of a doctor or nutritionist, rationally supplement vitamin D and dietary supplements containing multiple micronutrients.

2. Actively participate in physical activities and engage in outdoor sports

(1) Determine the intensity, frequency, and duration of exercise based on your own physiological characteristics and health status.

(2) Take into account your own interests and hobbies as well as the availability of sports facilities and choose a variety of physical activities to exercise your entire body as much as possible.

(3) Try to choose slow and gentle exercise such as walking, brisk walking, Tai Chi, gateball, etc.

(4) Arrange appropriate exercise load. Counting heart rate is the simplest judgment method. (170-age) is often used as the target heart rate for exercise.

3. Reduce sedentary time

(1) Sitting still for a long time can lead to local muscle strain and induce various diseases (such as lumbar muscle injury, dizziness, brain swelling, etc.); it can easily aggravate the occurrence or onset of common diseases in the elderly such as hemorrhoids, and it is also difficult to breathe fresh air.

(2) Avoid sitting for long periods of time and reduce the time spent sitting and lying down in daily life.

(3) Try to reduce the time spent watching TV, using mobile phones, and other screens. Get up and move around for at least a few minutes every hour, such as getting up to pour a glass of water, stretching your arms, kicking your legs, bending over, etc.

4. Maintain a healthy weight

(1) Body weight should not be too low. A body mass index (BMI) of 20.0 to 26.9 kg/m2 is more appropriate.
Body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) = weight (kg) / [height (m)]2

(2) Do not take extreme measures that cause drastic changes in weight in a short period of time.

(3) Make appropriate adjustments in diet and physical activity to help your body weight return to a normal range.

(iv) Have regular health checks to assess nutritional status and prevent nutritional deficiencies.

1. Take part in standardized physical examinations and do a good job of health management

(1) Go to a qualified medical institution for regular health check-ups. You can have 1-2 health check-ups per year.

(2) Learn basic health knowledge from formal channels, such as newspapers and books officially published by the state and popular science lectures in community medical institutions, to improve your identification ability.

(3) Physical examinations can reveal harmful factors that affect physical health. By adjusting lifestyle, the impact of these harmful factors can be reduced. If more serious problems are found, you should go to a professional medical institution for further examination, where medical staff will make a professional diagnosis and carry out standardized treatment.

2. Timely assess nutritional status and correct unhealthy eating behaviors

(1) Encourage the elderly to pay attention to their diet and regularly self-assess their nutritional status.

(2) Weigh your body weight regularly to see if it is within the recommended normal range. If there is a large fluctuation in a short period of time, find the cause and make adjustments in time.

(3) Record your diet to see if the food you eat is rich in variety, and try to meet the dietary guidelines' recommendation of 12 types of food per day and 25 types of food per week.

(4) Elderly people who suffer from multiple chronic diseases and whose physical functions have significantly deteriorated should receive professional malnutrition risk assessment and evaluation, receive guidance from medical nutrition professionals, scientifically and carefully regulate their diet, and provide nutritional support during disease treatment and rehabilitation.