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Has anyone ever told you that when you reach the age of 50, dinner choices become more cautious than when you were younger?
Has someone suggested you keep your dinner simple, for example, just eating corn while avoiding foods that might be detrimental to your health? Doesn’t that advice sound a bit unbelievable, even somewhat strange?
To help everyone understand easier and to make medical popularization more interesting, we will explain through a real clinical case. This can make the content more vivid and relatable.
Old Guan, who is exactly 52 years old this year, was originally an ordinary postal worker, and his life after retirement is relatively comfortable and peaceful.
In his lifestyle, he loves to eat spicy and greasy for dinner, believing that such a diet can make retirement life more “flavored.”
However, recently he has been experiencing frequent stomach discomfort, sometimes even having trouble sleeping at night due to stomach pain. His friends unanimously recommended that he see a doctor, but he always thought it was just a minor issue, until one day the situation seemed to get worse.
On this day, Old Guan accompanied his grandson, Xiao Jun, to the hospital for a physical examination. While waiting, he suddenly thought about his long-standing stomach pain issue. He decided to take this opportunity to consult the doctor to see if it really was his dinner habits that were problematic.
In the hospital’s internal medicine clinic, Old Guan met Dr. Li, who looked serious but friendly. He listened carefully to Old Guan’s description of his symptoms and then conducted a thorough examination.
“Old Guan, do you know? After 50, our digestive system and metabolic capacity decrease. At this time, eating greasy and spicy for dinner can add to the burden on the gastrointestinal tract, especially for someone like you who already shows symptoms of indigestion,” said Dr. Li.
As he spoke, Dr. Li brought up some research data on elderly diets from his computer for Old Guan to review.
“People over 50 should choose easily digestible and low-fat foods for dinner. For example, corn is a great choice because it is rich in fiber, which helps digestion, and it is low in calories.”
Old Guan was a bit surprised to hear this; he hadn’t expected that what he thought was enjoyment was actually harming his body. He asked, “Besides avoiding spicy and greasy food, is there anything else I should avoid?”
Dr. Li nodded and continued to explain: Besides spicy and greasy foods, you should also avoid excessive intake of high-fat meats and high-sugar sweets at night.
Moreover, high-fat and high-sugar foods also increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases, which is…
