Are you a lover of swallow meals? Has it ever occurred to you that you need to have an understanding of the best swallow meals you should consume as you age?
Not all swallow meals are healthy for all ages. If this is not true, why do you avoid giving a baby swallow at that tender age?
Yes! Their intestine is not mature enough to handle the breaking down of these meals. The same thing happens to old intestines.
Digestive System And Ageing
The older you get, your digestive system slows down in its process of digesting food.
According to a study, as an individual ages, there are alterations in gut function that have particular implications for oesophageal, gastric, and colonic motility.
The study says older individuals are particularly susceptible to malnutrition, postprandial hypotension, dysphagia, constipation, and faecal incontinence (1).
As a result, you need to adjust to meals that will offer you more nutrients. They will also slow down the alteration in your gut.
Unfortunately, most people carry on with their swallow options beyond their middle age.
This is the reason people develop pot belly, and gain excess weight around their waist line.
In most African countries where men love swallow, you will find most of them that are above 40 with pot belly. Their meal option is one of the major causes.
They eat foods like Semo, fufu, eba (garri) and pounded yam at night.
Those are processed foods and are very low in nutrients for people of middle age and above.
As your digestive system slows down in function, more of what you eat store up as fat.
Also, your sedentary behaviour plays an important role in this activity.
However, once you understand the best swallows for you as you age, several things will happen.
1. Increase In Nutrient Level
Most importantly, one thing you need always is enough nutrients drawn from the food you eat.
These best swallows that we will recommend here are rich in nutrients that your body needs as you age.
2. Reduce Amount Consumed Per Time
These best swallows are also rich in fibre because they are whole grains. This makes you eat less while digestion takes a slower pace.
It will help you stay full for long and also ensure that much of your meal is not stored up as fat.
They are amazing meals that will help you control the weight gain that goes with middle age.
3. Lower Risk Of Certain Diseases
Above all, one thing your meals should do for you is to help keep diseases away. In Ezekiel 47:12 the scriptures emphasise this.
“…and the fruit thereof shall be for meat and the leaf thereof for medicine.”
If your meal is not meeting up with this proclamation, then you should make adjustments.
Therefore, to help you make the switch, we offer you foods that will help keep diseases away, slow ageing and its effects.
4. Give You A Good Health
Also, these meals will give you a great health and keep you healthy.
They are not only rich in nutrients, they are full of antioxidants that will help lower inflammation and oxidation in the body. They will prolong your life by some years, studies show (2).
Now, let us look at the best swallows that you should switch to, as you age.
1. Amala
This is one popular food among people from western Nigeria. It is made out of yam and/or cassava flour.
We are adding it here because it contains dietary fiber, which helps lower bad cholesterol in the body.
Basically, bad cholesterol contributes to heart issues and other diseases.
Also, amala is safe for diabetics, supports a healthy digestive system, rich in vitamins B and C.
Amala is also good for women in their menopause or those about entering menopause.
2. Water Yam Swallow
This is one of the other amazing swallow meals that people just avoid because it does not stay together when you pound it.
However, you can use natural binders to make it stay together.
You can slice it, dry it and turn it into powder for easy use.
That said, water yam swallow made our list because it is rich in resistant starch. This is a type of fiber that causes food to be slowly absorbed from your gut. It does not digest easily.
Interestingly, this food contains other health benefits, including prevention of metabolic disorders – diabetes, cancer, and coronary heart disease.
A study says it is loaded with nutrients that your body needs (3).
3. Sorghum Swallow
This is one of the best swallow meals people beyond middle age should switch to.
It is rich in phenolic compounds, many of which act as antioxidants. It is a superfood because it does not contain gluten.
Also, sorghum is good at reducing some forms of inflammation due to its antioxidant properties.
Several of the phenolic compounds in sorghum have been linked to anti-cancer effects.
A study says sorghum is great for diabetics, prevents heart diseases, improves fertility, promotes good digestive system because of its high in dietary fibre (4).
All you need to do is get to the market and buy it. It comes in different species, but we recommend that you buy the wine-red colour.
Take it to the mill and grind to powder. Prepare the same way you prepare your amala or other swallow.
4. Red Rice Swallow
This red rice swallow is amazing. This swallow is made from a specie of rice that is wine red in colour. It is rich in antioxidants and high in fibre too (5).
Red rice is low in glycemic index and higher in iron, magnesium, calcium, and zinc content than white rice.
Interestingly, the powder of this rice is available and you can find it here.
It is one of those foods that boost brain function and lower how much swallow you consume.
When you add this to your diet, controlling your weight becomes easy.
5. Brown Rice
This is also another form of rice converted to swallow by degrading it to powder.
Brown rice contains high levels of magnesium, which can help make you less vulnerable to heart disease and stroke.
According to studies, eating more whole grains, including brown rice, could reduce your risk of heart disease by up to 22% and your risk of stroke by as much as 12% (5).
These are some of the diseases that could come with old age.
6. Plantain Sallow
Here, again is another swallow that is high in antioxidants.
Plantain is also a good source of dietary carbohydrates, fibre, antioxidants (phenols), vitamins A and C and minerals K and Fe.
It is a good food for diabetics and people who want to keep weight away.
Also, taking this swallow will help control your blood pressure, improve your digestive health, prevent anemia and stay healthy and strong through pregnancy stages.
7. Fonio
This is one of our latest addition to our swallow recommendations. In fact, if you love semo so much, here is one food that you can replace your semo with.
After preparation, this meal is like as semo in texture. However, the nutrients fonio offers your body is way higher than what processed semo gives you.
Fonio is an amazing food that is low in glycemic index (6).
This is another whole grain meal that will help control weight and improve your gut health.
This grain also helps lower your risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and colorectal, pancreatic, and stomach cancer.
Turn your fonio grain to powder or flour and prepare the same way you prepare your semo.
You may also prepare your fonio the way it is without grinding or degrading it to powder.
However, if you want something smooth and close to semo, explore the ground fonio.
We are hopeful that this will help you replace or switch your swallow as you advance in age.
8. Millet Swallow
This is one of the best swallow meals you can add to your diet. Its glycemic index is low and it also contains other nutrients.
A study says, millet is also recognised for their health beneficial effects, such as anti-diabetic, anti-tumerogenic, atherosclerogenic effects, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties (7).
You see, when you prepare millet in its powder form, it still contains fibre and that helps slow down how fast it digests.
This is one of the reasons it is great for diabetics.
Bottom Line
The idea is not to focus on one of these best swallows, but to explore them all.
You can get small amount of each of these grains and grind them to powder.
We have also explored mixing these ground grains and preparing them together as a meal.
Small amount of each of them, brings in a specific nutrient that your body needs.
If you love your swallow that you are taking now and you are not thinking ‘switch’, remember that the more you reduce your movement level, the less carbohydrate-rich foods you should consume.
Also remember that processed foods are degraded so much in terms of nutrients.
Studies have shown that people who eat healthy increase lifespan by over 10 years.
Starting earlier is even better.
If you find this helpful, kindly share with your friends and loved ones to enable them know their best swallow options as they get older.
Thank you for reading and remember that our goal is to see a healthier world population.