A qualified vet who retrained and is now an award-winning Registered Nutritionist, Dr Lucy Williamson (http://www.lwnutrition.co.uk/) has put together some top tips as well as some handy myth busting facts, to help men look after their health through the way they eat.
She says: “When it comes to health, women will talk often to each other, but men tend to keep silent about their health concerns, which usually revolve around a determination to maintain muscle, energy levels, and performance as they age. What they eat can help with all of this. So, here are my tips for men to achieve a healthier lifestyle.”
1. Look after your gut health and it will look after you!
The 100 trillion or so good bacteria that live in your gut, impact your long-term health. From weight control & blood cholesterol levels, to mood, digestion and sleep quality, they have a big role to play. Adding more plants into what you already love to eat – think pulses in Bolognese, fresh herbs and spices in curry and grated carrot in lasagne – is a great way to start. Research shows that good quality meat and dairy can still be part of a plant-based, gut healthy diet. It’s also helpful to know that eating a ‘plant-based’ gut healthy diet translates as eating about 2/3rds of your food as plants (including fruit, veg, grains, nuts, seeds, spices, herbs and pulses). Try making my homemade ferment or kimchi with cabbage, apple and ginger and use as a side or condiment for any meal to kickstart your gut!
2. Red meat – yes, or no?
Contrary to what you might think, red meat can be a valuable part of a healthy diet (for both people and planet). It’s a great source of high-quality protein for muscle strength, iron for maintaining energy levels, and Vit B12 especially required with increasing age. Red meat has also been associated with increased risk of bowel cancer, however, it’s not necessarily red meat that’s the culprit; The World Cancer Research Fund advice is to limit as much as possible, processed meat like hot dogs, salami and pepperoni which are also high in salt. Instead, choose good quality mince for example and make your own burgers for the BBQ! Make sure you don’t burn it though, eating burnt red meat is associated with increased risk of bowel cancer, if consumed several times each week. Enjoying good quality red meat once or twice a week (roughly 400g total cooked weight) is a great choice. Poultry and fish are good lean alternatives to red meat. If you’re worried about meat and climate change, with my previous Vet hat on, we know that organic, 100% grass fed or pasture fed beef enriches our soils for better carbon capture too!
3. Dairy – yes, or no?
Whole milk is only about 5% fat, and we know from good research that these fats can really protect long term heart health and reduce risk of Type 2 Diabetes. The only time you really want to choose reduced fat dairy is if you have higher blood cholesterol levels. The natural sugar in dairy, lactose, is gut friendly and absorbed far slower than the sugars in oat milk for example. Being high protein, dairy helps to satisfy the appetite too. So, it’s a great choice in general. If you’re concerned about animal welfare, choose organic and then you know that the cows have to be out on grass for at least 200 days each year
Over the age of 60 it becomes harder to maintain muscle strength for men (and women). Protein-rich foods become very important – choose dairy, good quality meat as mentioned above, eggs or better still, fish and include lots of pulses like lentils in your casseroles!
4. Reducing your risk of Type 2 Diabetes/ Pre-Diabetes and supporting good blood Cholesterol
Taking regular exercise, just half an hour walking briskly each day, can have a big impact here. No intense gym workout required! Eating to look after your gut health as above ensures that you’re getting plenty of fibre and more unsaturated fats from plants too. This helps to keep blood sugar steady and balance cholesterol levels. A higher fibre, gut healthy diet can also really help with weight management as it reduces sugar intake from more processed foods. Reducing weight is vital in lowering risk of Diabetes.
5. Looking after Heart Health
According to the British Heart Foundation, twice as many men suffer from heart attacks every year. Choosing lower salt foods (cue unprocessed meat again!) including fish twice a week in your diet for its heart healthy Omega 3 oils, and eating plant-based (see above), are all of great benefit when it comes to healthy hearts! Interestingly, recent and very robust research shows that whole fat dairy foods like milk and yogurt help to protect against Heart disease, Stroke and Diabetes.
6. Cancer (bowel and prostate)
As mentioned above, taking care with how you enjoy red meat is important in keeping bowel cancer risk low. There’s no firm evidence on nutrition and prostate cancer but maintaining a healthy weight and reducing ultra processed foods are always of benefit.
7. Weight
It can be really hard to avoid extra weight around the belly with increasing age. This is because men are prone to weight gain here (vs women who are more prone to pear shaped weight gain) Top tips for maintaining a healthy weight are:
8. Look out for hidden sugar…
…in foods like ketchup, breakfast cereals, muesli bars and flavoured coffees for example. Check labels on packaging – sugar is always listed here – aim for no more than 30g every day. – limiting your intake to 6 glasses of wine or 6 or less pints of beer each week is a real benefit too as these are high sugar drinks.
9. Choose whole foods as much as possible
Low fat versions often have more sugar added in to improve the flavour, or sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners only make matters worse by priming our body to absorb more sugar from the next food that follows. Some plant drinks have been shown to give more of a blood sugar rise than just dairy milk. Whole fat dairy will satisfy the appetite far more than oat milk for example.
10. Opt for higher protein, home cooked foods
By choosing less processed, high protein, lean foods like fish and chicken cooked in your favourite recipe at home, our natural appetite mechanisms work very well. More processed versions eg breaded chicken also contain additives which upset our natural appetite mechanism and just leave us wanting more. Bolognese is a nice example of a staple British dinner which can be made with good quality mince beef and have extra veg added in for gut health. You can also adjust your eating to eat more protein (fish, meat, eggs, dairy and pulses) and less starchy carbohydrate.