It’s hard to admit, but as the years roll by, things can start feeling different. You probably can’t – or even don’t want to – eat like you did at 21, and many of the foods you’ve tolerated for decades might suddenly be causing issues.
A salty meal may cause puffiness, while your morning coffee may leave you anxious. And let’s not even pretend that a few glasses of wine don’t hit harder than they used to. It’s not in your head. As we age, everything from hormones and digestion to metabolism and sleep all change, as does the way your body responds to food.
“When you’re younger, you can push through poor sleep, rely on caffeine, eat in a more chaotic way and your body absorbs it. By midlife, that buffering capacity narrows and your cells don’t respond with the same resilience,” says Melanie Murphy Richter, a registered dietitian and Director of Communications at L-Nutra. “Your body becomes more sensitive to inputs that it used to tolerate.”
Shorts
Naveed Sattar, professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, adds that with age, things become slower, fat is stored in the wrong places, we have less muscle and a slower metabolism. “So often, the quality of the nourishment that you have to put in your body has to improve. It’s like an older engine needs better quality fuel.”
