Free guide · Scarlet Beast En español →

Healthy eating and staying active as you get older: food, fluids, salt, the five kinds of activity, and being good to yourself

For older adults, and anyone who cooks, shops or walks with one, who want to eat well and keep moving. It passes on, by name, what the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK, part of the NIH) says: the foods to have more and less of, drinking fluids when you feel less thirsty, eating on a fixed income, less salt, the vitamins it names, weight both ways, the five kinds of physical activity and how much, staying safe, when to check with your health care professional, and being good to yourself. It builds the words to say at your next visit, and prints a card. It is about your health, not the size of your body.

Your heart, blood pressure, blood sugar, thyroid or blood, and not sure this is the right page? The pages on this site for a heart attack or stroke, blood pressure, AFib, heart failure, cholesterol, diabetes and prediabetes, the thyroid, anemia, sickle cell and menopause, on one list.

This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No doctor, nurse or dietitian has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 19, 2026 on NIDDK’s (NIH) page Health Tips for Older Adults (last reviewed October 2019) and its Spanish page Recomendaciones de salud para los adultos mayores (October 2019), which say the same. The numbers (less than 2,300 mg of sodium a day, about a teaspoon of salt; vitamins B6, B12, D and folate; at least 150 minutes a week of moderate or 75 of vigorous aerobic activity; muscle strengthening at least 2 days a week; at least 3 days a week; five kinds of activity; three 10-minute walks) are NIDDK’s, and we add none. Ours: “chest pain or pressure that won’t stop, or if you believe it is an emergency, call 911” and 988 (NIDDK names neither on this page); that this page is about your health, not the size of your body; that not having enough food is not a habit to fix; that NIDDK’s activity numbers are a goal, not a test; the questions to ask; the links to our other pages; and the order of the steps. What we left out: NIDDK’s body mass index range and waist sizes (NIDDK itself says to ask your health care professional what a healthy weight for you may be); the section on clinical trials; and NIDDK’s links to other sites. Nothing you tick or type here is saved or sent.