Old Age

There seems to be two critical periods in every life - the ages of thirty and sixty. If the sixtieth year can be turned with good digestion, normal assimilation and excretion, it is fair to assume that with reasonable care the century mark may be easily reached. It is also reasonable to assume that experience will have taught most thoughtful people what to eat and what not to eat, but the mortality tables of nearly all civilized countries, of which the writer has made a careful study, prove that a majority of people do not reach their sixtieth year, and but a very small per cent of those who do are blessed with good digestion. Therefore an old age diet is quite as important to the student as infant feeding.

For purposes of convenience, I will put all cereal products, legumes, and white potatoes in the starch or bread class, and henceforth they will be referred to as such.

Necessity For Old Age Diet

The majority of disorders that mark the difference between youth and age may be traced directly to the over-consumption of meat and bread, especially cereal starch. The hardening of the arteries, the stiffening of the cartilage, the enlargement of the joints, and the general lack of flexibility throughout the body is due almost whollv to the over-consumption of these two staples.

Meat And Bread Produce Old Age

Uric acid is always present in gouty and rheumatic conditions, but it is there as Nature's defense against our sins, and not as a primary cause. Meat is not the cause of uric acid as has been popularly taught. Uric acid is one of the constituent elements of all animal bodies, and when the normal supply in the human body is supplemented by that which is contained in the body of the animal upon which we prey, we are oversupplied. This is as far as meat-eating contributes toward uric acid poisoning.

Uric Acid In Rheumatic Conditions

When the body is young and growing, it can consume and appropriate a considerable quantity of starchy or structural material, but when it is fully grown, or has turned forty, it can subsist healthfully upon a diet containing only from three to five per cent of starch, and as one becomes older the more soluble forms of starch should be taken, such as the starch contained in green peas, beans, and corn, which, immature, is readily soluble and assimilable. The starch in the banana is also easily appropriated and will not leave calcareous deposits in the arteries and in the joints, as does the mature starch contained in the cereals.

After the fiftieth year the diet becomes more and more a factor needing special attention in the daily regimen, both as to selection and quantity; and with advancing age the quantity of food should be gradually reduced until the minimum which will support life healthfully is reached.

Soluble Starches Desirable

In old age the diet should be governed by the same general rules as those of younger people; that is, elderly people should select, combine, and proportion their food according to temperature of environment, labor, and age. Those performing manual labor can use and eliminate food material which would produce uric acid and other poisons in the body of the sedentary worker.

Importance of diet with advancing age.

Three Periods Of Old Age

Old age may be divided into three periods. From fifty to sixty the diet should consist of a very limited quantity of bread products (not more than two per cent); fresh green vegetables, fresh mild fruits, nuts, a normal quantity of milk and eggs, a limited quantity of sugar, and a moderate amount of fats.

Diet From Fifty To Sixty

From sixty to seventy the amount of cereal starch should be reduced to one per cent, or not more than two per cent, while the other articles named may be taken as suggested from fifty to sixty, gradually eliminating starchy foods, and increasing foods containing proteids, casein, and albumin.

Diet From Sixty To Seventy

Between the ages of seventy and one hundred, the same general suggestions as those above laid out should be followed, eliminating entirely all cereal products. The more soluble forms of starchy or carbohydrate foods, such as potatoes, bananas, and green peas, beans, corn, etc., may be taken. (See Lesson XIII (Classification Of Foods And Food Tables), Vol. III, p. 632.)

The necessary amount of fats, albumin, casein, and proteids must be governed by activity and temperature of environment.

Diet From Seventy To One Hundred

The following are suggestions for one day's menu, in spring and summer, age between fifty and sixty. Choice of menus may be exercised, but each menu should be taken in its entirety.

In cases of constipation, two or three tablespoonfuls of coarse wheat bran (cooked, if desired) should be taken with the breakfast and the evening meal, and a spoonful just before retiring, taken in a glass of water. Such fruits as plums, peaches, or berries should be taken daily, just after rising and just before retiring.

The following are suggestions for fall and winter menus, for a person between the ages of fifty and sixty:

Breakfast

Oranges, apples, pears, or soaked prunes An egg and a small portion of either plain boiled wheat or rice

A very ripe banana, with nuts and raisins

Note: Sweet fruits may be taken instead of the acid fruits suggested, and milk instead of eggs.

Luncheon

One or two fresh vegetables, such as carrots, onions, turnips, cabbage, or beans Celery or any coarse plant A potato or a very small portion of corn

If not very active, the luncheon may consist of two glasses of buttermilk and a spoonful of wheat bran.

Dinner

Choice of two fresh vegetables A baked potato.

Choice of fish, eggs, or buttermilk Corn bread or a very small portion of coarse cereal.

All fresh, watery vegetables should be cooked in a casserole dish.

A sufficient quantity of water should be drunk at each of these meals to bring the moisture up to about sixty-six per cent of the meal - two to three glasses.

These meals are mere suggestions, and are therefore subject to many variations.

All green salads may be substituted for one another; all starchy products - grain, potatoes, and legumes - may also be substituted for one another.