The other day at work I received a consult to provide nutrition counseling to a patient on one of my floors. As you can imagine, this is a big part of my job and a standard practice. I love talking to patients and teaching them things they can do with their diet that can help them feel better.
Anyways, this patient happened to be 94 years old. I always get nervous when my patients are that old - will they be able to hear me? be “with it” enough to talk? on their deathbed? – you never know. But this lady in particular was definitely “A&O x3″, and calmly eating some fruit when I visited her after lunch. We talked about what she had been eating and I encouraged her to eat regular meals, snacks and some Boost here and there to make sure she got enough calories and protein. Her response was priceless:
“I’ve been watching my figure since I was 13, and now you’re telling me to eat more??”
Yes my dear, being 94 allows you to pretty much eat what you want. We laughed, but her comment made me think a little about all of the times we may say no to that cupcake, french fry or whatever else because of that old myth, “A moment on the lips leads to a lifetime on the hips.”
I don’t know about you, but I hate that saying, and I hate it when people confuse “healthy eating” with following a strict diet of any kind or depriving themselves of “bad” foods. I consider diet restriction to be just as unhealthy as excessive intake or soda drinking – all have negative effects not only on the body but the mind. There are so many different ideas of what “healthy eating” should look like, and a lot of them drive me crazy (I’m looking at you, juice cleanse and paleo fads). But I also think it is still somewhat of a relative term, because people like and need different foods to keep them healthy and happy. My own personal philosophy is something like “eat mostly plants, lean protein and low fat dairy but leave room for some cookies.”
and sometimes burgers and beer
Instead of providing my little old patient with nutrition counseling, I wanted to pull up a chair and ask her to school me on what she’d been doing for 94 years, because clearly it was working pretty well for her.
What about you? What’s your “healthy eating” philosophy?