It’s never too late to make smarter food choices. Healthy eating is an important part of staying healthy as you age.

Following these tips can help you maintain a healthy weight, get the nutrients you need, and lower your risk of chronic disease.

Try to eat and drink from these food groups each day: fruits, vegetables, grains, protein, and dairy. Variety is an important part of eating healthfully!
Cut back on foods and beverages that are high in calories and added sugars, sodium, and saturated fats. Shift to healthier options like fresh fruits and vegetables instead.
Instead of high-calorie snacks, such as potato chips, try nutrient-dense snacks, such as carrots.
Instead of fruit products with added sugars, such as fig cookies, try fresh fruit, such as a peach.
Instead of regular cola, try water flavored with fruits or vegetables.
Use a food diary to help you keep track of your total daily calories, carbs, protein, etc., and see if you are making healthy choices. Understand how many calories you need based on your level of daily activity.
Choose a variety of foods that are packed with nutrients and low in calories.
Check the food labels to understand what foods will meet your nutritional needs each day.

How Many Calories Do You Need Each Day?

Women:
Not physically active — 1,600 cal.
Moderately active — 1,800 cal.
Active lifestyle — 2,000-2,200 cal.

Men:
Not physically active — 2,000-2,200 cal.
Moderately active — 2,200-2,400 cal.
Active lifestyle — 2,400-2,800 cal.

The National Council on Aging (NCOA), a trusted national leader working to ensure that every person can age well, commends President-elect Biden for making older Americans a priority in his plan to combat the pandemic—but is calling for additional bipartisan action in the first 100 days to address their urgent health and financial needs.

“Older Americans—especially women and people of color—have been the hardest hit during this pandemic, yet they have remained largely invisible,” said NCOA President and CEO Ramsey Alwin. “COVID-19 has laid bare our nation’s long-standing inequities based on age, race, gender, and income. It has created an even greater urgency to enact solutions now that enable every American to age with health, security, and dignity.”

NCOA supports President-elect Biden’s call for a COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities Task Force to address these disparities, as well as a Nationwide Pandemic Dashboard that Americans can check for local transmission.

“These are important steps in the right direction, but much more is needed to keep our older family, friends, and neighbors healthy and safe,” Alwin said.

NCOA is urging incoming leaders to act on three priorities:

1. Ensure equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine

Eight out of 10 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have been people aged 65+, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Older adults—especially people of color and those with lower incomes—must be prioritized to get the vaccine safely as soon as it is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. NCOA will advocate for widespread education about the vaccine.

2. Expand job training and unemployment insurance

Unemployment rates for workers aged 55+ have remained higher than those of mid-career workers throughout the entire pandemic—the first time since 1973 that this has happened for more than 6 months, according to The New School Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. Older adults must have wider access to job training and placement programs to enable them to reenter the workforce quickly. NCOA will advocate for expanded funding for programs, such as the Senior Community Service Employment Program, as well as continued unemployment insurance for workers of all ages.

3. Strengthen the social safety net for all Americans

Even before the pandemic, over 25 million Americans aged 60+ were economically insecure, living at or below 250% of the federal poverty level. The economic impacts of COVID-19 have deepened this crisis, especially among women and people of color. NCOA will advocate for protecting and strengthening critical programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and others that provide the supports older adults deserve to stay healthy and financially secure in their own homes, not institutions.

“There is no time to waste because lives are at risk,” Alwin said. “We know there are solutions, and we look forward to working with the new Administration and Congress to make them a reality.”

The National Council on Aging (NCOA) is a trusted national leader working to ensure that every person can age well.

by Ramsey Alwin President and CEO of NCOA

It’s 2020, but a woman’s path to a secure retirement continues to be filled with obstacles.

There’s lower pay, time out of the workforce for parenting or caregiving, and plenty of gamechangers such as divorce or widowhood. Layer on the coronavirus pandemic, and planning for the future feels next to impossible, especially for women of color.

The systems are stacked up against us, and sometimes we don’t help ourselves. All too often, women put everyone else first. They set up 529 plans to save for the kids’ education, help adult children with their first home purchase, and lend a hand when mom and dad need home care.

As generous and giving as this is, putting everyone else first comes at the cost of putting herself last. As a result, many women are just getting by, unable to plan for their own long-term financial security.

Even in a pre-COVID world, women were worried about retirement. Last year, NCOA conducted a survey with Ipsos that found 60% of women aged 60+ were worried that health care costs will exceed their retirement income. That percentage jumped to 68% in households with incomes under $50,000 a year.

This issue is literally keeping women up at night. And it’s based in reality. Older women receive 80% of the retirement income that older men receive, showing the gender pay gap follows them as they age, according to the National Institute on Retirement Security. Women of color face an even deeper disparity. A full 60% of African American and Hispanic/Latina women age into economic insecurity.

According to a new report from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, one and four women say their confidence in their ability to retire comfortably has declined in light of the pandemic. Women are somewhat more likely to indicate they are “just getting by to cover basic living expenses” (33% women vs. 28% men). And only 40% of women cite saving for retirement as a financial priority, compared to 51% of men.

At NCOA, we believe it lies in empowering women with unbiased information, creating services that are responsive to women’s needs across the life course.

First is providing individuals with trusted information about how to plan for their own futures—whether that’s creating a budget, reducing debt, developing a retirement strategy, or navigating Medicare enrollment to maximize coverage. It also means encouraging open conversations and planning for the inevitable—that at some point, women are likely to be on their own carrying the full burden of household expenses on just one income stream.

Financial services and employers could work to better understand the needs and pain points of women, many of whom are juggling multiple needs. For instance, a woman may want to shore up her own financial security, maintain a nest egg to weather unexpected events, create a guaranteed income stream she won’t outlive, not be a burden to her children, and leave behind a legacy.

Let’s connect women to resources in their communities. There is an entire network available to help women age well and tap into programs that can make a significant impact on their daily expenses and health security. NCOA offers this kind of personalized help through our Benefits Enrollment Centers, as well as online through our tools such as My Medicare Matters, which helps women make informed decisions about their health security in later life.

Finally, we need to fight for equity at the public policy level. We need to shore up public and private sector policies that keep women coming up short—pay equity, caregiving credit, and paid leave would be a start. We also must work together to protect and strengthen the programs that we all depend on as we age—Medicare, Social Security, and the Older Americans Act. These programs are especially critical for women.