Char­maine Dais­ley

One pop­u­lar fit­ness ex­pert likens the ag­ing process to a plane flight. Nu­tri­tion and di­et con­sul­tant for Good House­keep­ing mag­a­zine, Jim Karas, ex­plains that at birth the in­di­vid­ual is in lift off mode, equipped with enough en­er­gy to give the air­craft that push to take off and in­crease speed and progress at a mag­nif­i­cent­ly rapid rate. This con­tin­ues to some­where around ado­les­cence. At adult­hood he says, the per­son is in full cruis­ing al­ti­tude and the 20–some­thing and 30–some­thing years are marked by ef­fort­less fly­ing un­af­fect­ed by im­prop­er di­et, lack of sleep, or lack of ex­er­cise. There were no en­gine trou­bles what­so­ev­er! Then out of the blue the per­son hits the air­space of the big Four-O and they're no longer cruis­ing. There's tur­bu­lence caused by hor­mon­al and meta­bol­ic changes and the plane be­gins to lose al­ti­tude. At this point, it's time to turn off au­topi­lot and take the con­trols, ex­plains Karas. Asha Al­lick, lo­cal Hu­man Nu­tri­tion and Di­etet­ics Stu­dent (Se­nior) at UWI, St. Au­gus­tine, puts the ag­ing process for women and the re­lat­ed di­etary con­cerns in­to per­spec­tive, and of­fers nu­tri­tion­al ad­vice that can help guide the 0ver-40 fe­male plane through tur­bu­lent times - to ex­pe­ri­ence a smoother ride through it.

"There are var­i­ous the­o­ries on the fe­male ag­ing process, and no sin­gle the­o­ry can elu­ci­date the process­es of ag­ing in women," says Al­lick. "Gen­er­al­ly, the hu­man growth pe­ri­od draws to a close near­ing age 30, when senes­cence be­gins." She ex­plains that Senes­cence is the or­gan­ic pro­gres­sion of grow­ing old­er and dis­play­ing the ef­fects of in­creased age, a list­less me­tab­o­lism and de­creas­ing lev­els of ef­fi­cien­cy and func­tion­al­i­ty. "Women over 40 are in­her­ent­ly prone to health is­sues which, if not dealt with cor­rect­ly, can lead to lifestyle dis­eases such as Os­teo­poro­sis, Type 2 Di­a­betes, Vary­ing Can­cers and Car­dio­vas­cu­lar Dis­ease," says Al­lick.

She con­tin­ues that women at this age should lessen their caloric in­take over­all pri­mar­i­ly be­cause at this age and in­to Menopause they re­quire few­er calo­ries to main­tain their body weight. "Calo­rie needs are the high­est dur­ing the mid-20s, and the dai­ly calo­rie needs, as women age, are re­duced at about 2% to 4% for every 10 years added," she ex­plained. "In light of this, it may be nec­es­sary to cut calo­rie in­take by 10 to 15 per­cent while at the same time in­creas­ing the lev­el of ac­tiv­i­ty or ex­er­cise," she added. Al­lick al­so ad­vised that it is crit­i­cal to prac­tice 'por­tion con­trol' and cau­tions women to steer clear of fad­dism di­ets which on­ly en­cour­age star­va­tion and ul­ti­mate­ly on­ly serves to make you gain more weight. Al­lick pro­vides some in­sight on the foods women should be em­brac­ing and avoid­ing dur­ing the 40-some­thing years.

In­clude in the di­et

Cal­ci­um. Whether tak­en in through the di­et or via nu­tri­tion­al sup­ple­ments. Women, es­pe­cial­ly those over 40, are at a greater risk than their male coun­ter­parts for de­vel­op­ing Os­teo­poro­sis, there­fore con­cern for bone health is im­per­a­tive. Some sources of Cal­ci­um are dairy prod­ucts, milk and cheese but due to the high an­i­mal fat and pro­tein com­po­nents which ac­cel­er­ate bone loss, a plant de­riv­a­tive can al­so be an op­tion. Some plant-based sources of cal­ci­um are broc­coli, beans, brus­sel sprouts and spinach

In­creased min­er­al and vi­t­a­min in­take. Vi­t­a­mins and sup­ple­ments that con­tain vi­t­a­min and min­er­al com­bi­na­tions with vi­t­a­mins C, E, B-com­plex, be­ta-carotene (prefer­ably nat­ur­al), gar­lic, omega-3 fish or flax seed oil, Mag­ne­sium, CoEn­zyme Q10 and Zinc. All of these, with the in­clu­sion of Cal­ci­um men­tioned above, can im­prove gen­er­al qual­i­ty of life and health and sig­nif­i­cant­ly re­duce the risks of Car­dio­vas­cu­lar Dis­ease and oth­er heart re­lat­ed is­sues

An­tiox­i­dant-rich foods. These are al­so key to the over 40 di­et for women. An­tiox­i­dants are known to pro­tect ex­ten­sive­ly against free rad­i­cal dam­age and min­imise the risk of Car­dio­vas­cu­lar Dis­ease and vary­ing Can­cers. A well bal­anced di­et en­com­pass­ing whole grains, low fat, low sodi­um, oily fish, dairy and plant based prod­ucts, raw fruit and veg­eta­bles. Vi­t­a­mins and min­er­als are cru­cial to op­ti­mal health in women over 40.

Stay away from

Caf­feine and caf­feine-rich foods and prod­ucts. Caf­feine is a stim­u­lant and can in­crease heart rate and blood pres­sure re­spec­tive­ly re­sult­ing in car­diac and blood pres­sure-re­lat­ed health is­sues.

Re­duce the lev­els of sodi­um and re­fined sug­ar in the di­et. High lev­els of sodi­um in­take can lead to hy­per­ten­sion, wa­ter re­ten­tion and heart re­lat­ed is­sues.

Re­fined sug­ar should be avoid­ed as this can lead to the de­vel­op­ment of di­a­betes, and will ex­ac­er­bate ex­ces­sive weight gain, and pos­si­bly obe­si­ty.