What Are The Nutrition Needs For Your Age?

As we get older, nutrition rules change -- or at least get stricter. Some vitamins, such as B12, become even more important with time. But at what age do we need to make changes?

"These recommendations should be addressed at different stages of life, and it's probably safe to start thinking about them in your 30s," says Helen Rasmussen, Ph.D., a registered dietitian at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, in Boston. "Why wait until it's too late?"

Here's how -- and what -- to eat in your 30s, 40s, 50s, and beyond.

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Seek Out Vitamin B12

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Vitamin B12 is often overlooked. Needed to make blood cells and improve cognition, vitamin B12 gets into the body along with animal proteins like eggs or meat. Most young people who aren't vegetarians easily get it in their diet. But for the body to use B12, it needs to dissolve it away from the protein. This gets more challenging with age, as the body's level of stomach acid decreases. B12 not bound to protein is found in fortified cereal and supplements and is more readily absorbed by the body. Starting at age 50, you should get most vitamin B12 from these types of fortified foods. More from Health.com: 14 Facts About Healthy Bones 10 Ways to Have Great Posture As You Age 12 Ways to Get Your Daily Dose of Vitamin D

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Vitamin B12 is often overlooked. Needed to make blood cells and improve cognition, vitamin B12 gets into the body along with animal proteins like eggs or meat.

Most young people who aren't vegetarians easily get it in their diet. But for the body to use B12, it needs to dissolve it away from the protein. This gets more challenging with age, as the body's level of stomach acid decreases.

B12 not bound to protein is found in fortified cereal and supplements and is more readily absorbed by the body. Starting at age 50, you should get most vitamin B12 from these types of fortified foods.

More from Health.com:
14 Facts About Healthy Bones
10 Ways to Have Great Posture As You Age
12 Ways to Get Your Daily Dose of Vitamin D

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Old news. Great advice!

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Comments

[Palitra Pitania]

01:11 AM on 08/02/2011

There are so many good advises what when to eat. It seems like for every illness, every disease, every age etc. there is something special. This just makes people forget what is key. Key is just to eat healthy and live a healthy live. Eat fruits, vegetables etc. and this will take care of most of the issues and you can ignore all these ideas. http://www.palitra-pitania.ru/2011/03/news-070-exhibition-mother-and-children_eng/?lang=en

[bracken]

10:30 AM on 07/20/2011

Soybean and canola oil are highly processed TRANS fats. Saturated fat is NOT associated with heart disease. This kind of misinformation and deception is toxic.

[Dan Minardi]

02:32 AM on 07/19/2011

Ah, yes, we must avoid those evil unhealthy saturated fats. You'd almost think that our body didn't store palmitic acid naturally. Funny, excess calories from carbohydrates and proteins are stored as...palmitic acid and other saturated fats. Just how stupid is it to think that we shouldn't be eating this directly when our body naturally produces it to store energy?

[bettyhatcher19]

02:57 AM on 07/18/2011

Major brands giving out samples on their favorite products search online for "123 Samples" I received my samples. No credit card required.

[caoyi]

11:20 PM on 07/17/2011

Before I read the article, I just the Vitamin is necessary to our bodies. But I don't know how much should I replenish in every age until now. I will pay more attention to my bodies.
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[alahnar]

08:10 PM on 07/17/2011

Shame, shame. You say "seek out B12," and you put a picture of a boxed food on there? What, you didn't feel like putting up the ACTUAL sources of B12 found in nature, in good, whole, forms? You'd rather put sugar-laden over-produced crap as the spokesmodel for B12?

[time1910]

05:33 AM on 07/18/2011

What are natural sources of B12?
"vitamin B12 gets into the body along with animal proteins like eggs or meat. "

"But for the body to use B12, it needs to dissolve it away from the protein. This gets more challenging with age, as the body's level of stomach acid decreases.
B12 not bound to protein is found in fortified cereal and supplements and is more readily absorbed by the body."

Where else do you find B12 not bound to protein?

[docholiday2571]

01:35 PM on 07/17/2011

Get your blood tested for 25 hydroxy vitamin D. I went to an antiaging doc, was very low, and have been taking 7,000 IU/day for the past couple weeks, and I can really feel a difference.

[Pat Adkison]

10:44 AM on 07/17/2011

I'm confused. I thought that low body weight was bad for osteoporosis because you're not putting enough stress on your bones to keep them healthy. But this says gaining weight causes osteoporosis?

[rpr]

03:03 AM on 07/17/2011

A box of industrial junk on the first picture under "nutrition"?
Fail.