Can Your Diet Reduce Your Medications

Many women over 50 end up on some form of prescription drugs or medications to help regulate their bodies and their health. What’s even worse is that sometimes it’s just seen as inevitable. Although our health degeneration is bound to happen eventually and is unavoidable, can our diet counter the effects of older age? Sometimes just one critical medication leads to many other medications to counter the side effects from the initial prescription.

Women over 50 are often on medications for type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol,  heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, and the list goes on. 

How important is your diet?

The truth is, our diet can be an element that has the biggest influence on our health. What we choose to eat can leave us inflamed, acidic, and create disease within the body. Our diet could rather be healing us and nourishing our bodies. Whole foods that stave off and in some cases even reverse preventative diseases.

Your diet isn’t prescribed by a doctor

You don’t need a doctor’s prescription to try something fresh from the produce aisle. There is no financial benefit for the doctors to advise on a holistic nutrition approach.  Consider finding a nutritional coach who would love to share tips with you. There are many women over 50 living healthily and full of vitality on zero medications. So is there a way that your diet can reduce your medications?

LivingBetter50 has some tips if you are looking to get off their meds. 

Recalibrate

Eliminate, then add. Start recalibrating your eating lifestyle by eliminating one health-sabotaging food such as sugar-laden bread, cakes, muffins, etc. Add one health-giving food such as a large,  mixed green salad every day. Raw veggies are packed with antioxidants, vitamins, and nutrients. Vegetables are also alkaline in pH rather than acidic. 

Organic coffee

Coffee is a superfood, coming from a nutrient-rich berry! The nutritional value and health benefits of drinking coffee are numerous. It’s rich in several powerful antioxidants, right up there with blueberries and dark chocolate! Antioxidants protect cells against free radicals. The free radicals are constantly attacking our cells causing oxidative stress. The stress from free radicals increases the risk of developing cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and other diseases.

Fun fact: coffee reduces inflammation, which is now widely considered to be the key to all chronic diseases.

Remove processed foods

Processed foods are lacking in quality nutritional value and often contain excessive amounts of sweeteners, bad fat, and salt. The manufacturers typically add these unhealthy ingredients to extend the shelf life of food products and make them taste good. These enhancements may encourage you to eat greater quantities of foods that have been stripped of valuable nutrients such as the fiber, healthy fats, and antioxidants your body needs to function optimally.

Our health and diets are really a chemical experiment. Some foods, even healthy ones, can make your medications less effective. Healthy eating is critical for patients battling cardiovascular disease. In fact, it can help reverse a condition or reduce the need for medication.

LivingBetter50 is a magazine for women over 50, offering an over 50 magazine free download for women with spirit!