What is healthy aging?
Aging is inevitable for everyone. Life evolves daily. When we fail to keep up with life’s changing pace, problems begin to arise.
Aging well means living with good mobility, flexibility, mind-body sync, and love. Nowadays, dementia and schizophrenia are becoming common among the aging population worldwide. So, what is at the heart of healthy ageing? If you haven’t guessed it, it’s a good digestive system.
Influencing healthy aging through well-planned strategy
Although our genes and environment play a significant role in the way we age, there is enough scope for improvement. A few symptoms associated with ageing are:
- Slowing metabolism
- Muscle loss
- nervous disorders
- Dry skin and hair
- Constipation
- Loss of balance & coordination
This is not an exhaustive list and symptoms may vary across cultures, countries and even sexes.
But by and large, the symptoms remain in this spectrum with varying degrees of seriousness.
There are a lot of factors tht decide aging,
I am talking about the role of having a good digestive system in this article.
What is the plan of action for healthy ageing
By healthy aging, I mean the years of our life where we live disease-free, both physically and mentally. Additionally, being able to contribute to society with our experience, knowledge, and give back to the world at large is a well-lived life.
According to Ayurveda, all diseases begin in the gut and rightfully so. As we progress through life, we must monitor what is on our plate daily. We are not just what we eat, but also what we digest and how we eliminate. Consuming processed foods, simple carbohydrates, caffeine, substance use, smoking, and inadequate hydration significantly impact our digestion.
Eating a largely plant based diet can take care of lots of issues arising from poor digestion. Let us list down a few here:
- Eating Organic fruits and vegetables on a regular basis keeps the gut healthy
- The fiber in plant-based foods creates the perfect environment for the microbes to flourish in the gut
- Gut microbes are the key to good digestion.
- The antioxidants present in a whole foods plant-based diet keep inflammation in check.
- Inflammation is a major cause of all pains and aches in old age. This can be managed by eating fruits like pomegranates, strawberries, blueberries, and cranberries.
- Proteins is another major factor to be considered while planning your healthy aging.
- But not animal proteins, rather plant-based proteins like kidney beans, butter beans, chickpeas, lentils, peanuts, tofu….
- Proper hydration with good quality filtered water, alkaline water, green teas, herbal teas keeps the gut healthy
Conclusion
I get very pissed when I hear old people cribbing about their health all the time.
One thing we will have to understand is that whatever happens to us is all our doing.
If we decided to live with the wrong notions about health, vitality and longevity, then its our problem. There are still places in the world where people are living beyond 100 years of age with health & enthusiasm! so, its very much possible.
AGEING IS AN EXTRAORDINARY PROCESS WHERE YOU BECOME THE PERSON YOU ALWAYS SHOULD HAVE BEEN