To Your Health
May, 2007 (Vol. 01, Issue 05)
Nutrition for Women
A Guide to Lifelong Health
By Chelsea Cooper
Nutrition In Your 20s:
In your 20s, you need extra calcium to keep bones strong, especially if you are physically active. Soy also has been shown to protect against cancer and heart disease. How a woman eats in her 20s will determine how healthy she will be later in life.
Nutrition In Your30s:
More women are putting off having children until their 30s. During this period of time, a woman needs extra vitamins and amino acids. Making sure she gets enough folic acid is a must. This can be done by eating green vegetables, such as kale, broccoli, asparagus, and collard greens. She should stay away from foods and lifestyle choices that could be harmful to her fetus.
Nutrition In Your 40s:
As a woman hits 40, her needs change dramatically. A woman's metabolism begins to slow down and, depending on her lifestyle choices in the past, she also could be losing important minerals and vitamins. To help speed up her metabolism, she needs to eat small meals every four hours throughout the day and incorporate daily exercise into her schedule.
Nutrition In Your 50s: and Beyond
Bone loss speeds up at this point, so calcium becomes particularly important. Calcium is important to maintain a normal heart beat and regulate blood pressure. Weight-bearing activity (resistance training) is very important in helping prevent osteoporosis and keeping bones strong. Once estrogen levels decline following menopause, a woman's need for heart-protective foods increases.
A variety of factors affect a woman's nutritional needs, including menstruation, pregnancy, breastfeeding, perimenopause and menopause. Due to these factors, extra attention should be given to a healthy diet and a few key nutrients, the most important of which are calcium, folic acid, fiber, iron and fluids.
Good Sources: low-fat milk, broccoli, turnip greens, yogurt/cheese.
The link between calcium and osteoporosis is well-established, yet many women still are not getting enough calcium to protect themselves. The most important time to get sufficient amounts of calcium is while bone growth and consolidation are occurring - a period that continues until approximately 30 to 35 years of age. The idea is to build up calcium deposits early on, as this may delay fractures that occur later on in life.