Best Diets for Seniors

Some expert advice for older adults choosing eating plans.

When a panel of health and nutrition experts ranked 35 diets for Best Diets 2015, they considered not only weight loss, but also whether diets were heart healthy, good for controlling diabetes and easy to follow. Now, two panel members discuss which U.S. News-ranked diets make the most sense for seniors.

Fewer Calories/More Protein

For Amy Campbell, a registered dietitian and diabetes educator, the DASH, TLC and Mediterranean diets stood out as smart choices for older adults, because they’re good for weight loss as well as controlling conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. 

As with anyone, overweight and obesity can be issues for seniors, Campbell says. “People are living longer, so we’re seeing more of it in older adults.” And, she says, “As we get older, our calorie needs go down. People don’t need to eat as much as they did when they were 20 or 30.” Older women generally need anywhere from 1,600 to 2,200 calories per day, depending how active they are, Campbell says, while younger women need about 1,800 to 2,200 daily. For older men, the range is 2,000 to 2,800 calories per day, compared with 2,200 to 3,200 calories for younger men.

Frail elderly people face different issues. “One concern for older people is getting enough protein,” Campbell says. “We need more as we age.” A lack of protein puts people at risk for lower immune function and osteoporosis. 

You don’t necessarily have to follow a specific diet, she says, “just a well-rounded diet with extra protein.” That means making the most of the calories you take in, she says, not just eating a bowl of cereal for dinner or making entire meals of toast and tea. “You don’t need animal protein in every meal,” says Campbell, who praises lentils, beans and chickpeas as great sources of inexpensive protein to round out meals. 

Campbell says a very low-fat plan like the Ornish diet might be less appropriate and harder for seniors to follow. Similarly, she says, the Biggest Loser diet would not be ideal, and the phases could be hard to comprehend. 

“For diets in general, it’s best to try and make it easy and fit comfortably into a person’s life,” Campbell says. “Ones that promote good health but are as easy to follow as possible." 

Simplicity and Balance 

Michael Davidson, ​director of preventive cardiology at the University of Chicago Medical Center and a Best Diets panelist, says Weight Watchers and diets with similar structures​ score well because of their simplicity. With Weight Watchers, for instance, foods are assigned different points, which you add up daily to stay at your personal target, which is based on your sex, weight, height and age. "You don’t have to do a lot of thinking about what type of balance of foods or menu plans,” Davidson says, which may be somewhat more challenging for seniors.

Long-term compliance was an important factor in ranking diets, Davidson says: “What can be a lifelong change instead of just a short-term fix for the patient?” Therefore, he says, “it’s really more about variety and food choices, as opposed to portion sizes, that are applicable to an elderly individual. So it’s the kind of diet I prefer for those patients.”  Click here to continue reading.