(And What to Actually Do About Them)
Here's something I've noticed after 20+ years of working with people:
The older we get, the more our relationship with food has to shift because our bodies are asking for something different than they used to.
I’ve worked one on one with 100s of women over 60, and increasingly women in their 70s and 80s. And the questions I get asked most often in this group come down to two things:
What does eating well actually look like at this stage of life.
What can we do nutritionally to protect our bones?
So let's get into it.
The Two Big Buckets I Look at With Every Senior Client
When I work with someone in their senior years, I'm always looking at two things simultaneously.
1. How is their digestion actually absorbing nutrients?
Our digestive power tends to weaken over time. Stomach acid may not be as strong, which means protein and minerals don't digest as efficiently. Some people are missing organs, like a gallbladder or an appendix, and that affects absorption too. Long-term stress also takes a real toll on the digestive system.
All of this matters enormously when we're talking about getting nutrients into the body, not just into the mouth.
2. What is their brain doing around food?
Most of my senior clients have lived through the worst decades of diet culture → the low-fat 80s to the low-carb 2000s. They've absorbed a lot of messaging about restriction, and often it doesn't even feel like diet culture anymore. It just feels like "how I eat."
So I'm looking at whether there are eating patterns that are quietly reducing calorie intake in ways that aren't serving them. I want to make sure they're eating enough! Enough fat, enough protein, enough carbs, enough food to sleep well at night.
The Basics I Come Back to Again and Again
When it comes to right-sizing eating habits for seniors, here's what I'm looking at first:
Sleep. Especially post-menopause, sleep is a window into everything. If someone tells me they're sleeping terribly and it's not a big deal, I push back on that. It is a big deal. Often when we balance diet and hydration, sleep improves and that tells me we're on the right track.
Eating regularly. Especially when digestion isn't as strong as it used to be, regular meals matter. Breakfast, lunch, maybe an afternoon snack, dinner. That rhythm supports the digestive system.
Chewing and dental health. Missing teeth or denture issues can affect digestion more than people realise. It's worth paying attention to.
Hydration. Both hunger and thirst signals tend to get weaker with age, so we can't always rely on "I'll drink when I'm thirsty." Intentional hydration matters.
Overall diet balance. Food doesn't have to be perfect. I genuinely do not care about the occasional cookie or bowl of ice cream as long as there are fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, and good protein sources showing up consistently. If you like what you're eating, you feel good, and you're sleeping well, then we're winning :).
Let's Talk About Protein
There's a lot of noise right now about protein, specifically about hitting 150 grams a day. I have some issues with that number. It's simply not achievable for most digestive systems, and for seniors, protein digestion and assimilation (meaning: does the protein you eat actually get into your muscles and bones?) can be weaker than it used to be.
Here's what I actually look for:
Aim for 60–80 grams of protein per day as a doable but still meaningful target. Minimum 50 grams.
15–20 grams per meal is a good rough guideline…but only if that's comfortable to digest. If it feels heavy, lower it. Protein you can't digest isn't doing much.
Are you feeling strong? That's my real test. If someone is eating enough protein but still feeling like they're getting weaker, I'm looking at whether their body is actually absorbing and using it…not just whether the grams are there.
Protein powder isn't my first choice, but for seniors who struggle with protein digestion, it can be a useful, easy-to-absorb option. Food first, always…but it's a tool.
Bone Health:
Osteoporosis and osteopenia are so common in women as we age, and yet the nutritional piece is so rarely part of the conversation. Exercise, especially weight-bearing and strength training, gets mentioned. But what you're actually eating? That tends to get glossed over. So let's get into it.
Your bones are a bank account.
They store both protein and minerals. For your body to make deposits into that account, you need to have enough of both and you need to send the signal to your bones that they need to get stronger. That signal comes from using your muscles.
Here's a simple way to think about it:
Every time you work a muscle, you create tiny, microscopic tears in the bone nearby, and that tells the bone to rebuild stronger. We can actually see this in things like tennis players, whose dominant arm bones are measurably denser than their non-dominant arm. Or string musicians, whose bowing arm shows the same pattern on bone scans. The body builds bone where it's being asked to.
Yes, you can actually build bone…not just stop losing it.
Most osteoporosis medications work by slowing bone breakdown (osteoclast activity). That's genuinely important, and if it's keeping the bone you have, that is absolutely worth celebrating. But there's also the building side (osteoblasts), and nutrition and strength training can influence that. I've seen osteopenia scores change. It's more individual than I can make sweeping claims about, but the potential is there.
The thing I'm most concerned about right now: fast weight loss.
It's everywhere, and it's my biggest worry when it comes to bone health. When you lose weight quickly, you're not just losing fat, you're often losing significant muscle. And with muscle loss comes bone loss. For a senior woman, staying at your weight and focusing on strength and muscle maintenance will likely do more for your longevity than dropping 20 pounds ever could.
What Bones Actually Need (It's More Than Calcium)
We tend to think of bone health as a calcium problem. It's not just that. Bones need:
Protein (bones have significant protein structure)
Calcium
Magnesium
Boron
Silica — this one doesn't get talked about enough. Silica is one of the most abundant minerals in our bones, and it's rarely mentioned as a supplement for osteopenia or osteoporosis. You can get it from horsetail tea or a silica supplement.
And more — bones are mineral-dense in ways that go well beyond the calcium narrative.
My Top Recommendations for Bone and Overall Senior Health
1. Manage your stress — seriously.
I know this feels off-script when we're talking about nutrition, but high cortisol is a mineral drain. Your body, under chronic stress, is spending every resource it has just to get through today. There's nothing left in the bank for your bones. You can be doing everything right nutritionally, but if your nervous system is running hot all day, your body doesn't have the surplus to build and maintain bone density.
This doesn't mean you need to be relaxed all the time (that's not actually healthy either). But you need recovery — regular windows where your nervous system gets to rest. Good sleep is the most important one. A meditation practice, yoga nidra, whatever works for you. If this is a struggle, it's worth prioritising before anything else.
2. Eat for nutrient density.
Bone broth — a long-simmered bone broth (24–48 hours) made from scraps is one of the best ways to get bone-building minerals into your body in an easily absorbable form.
Horsetail tea — a simple way to get more silica.
Protein at every meal — 15–20 grams if you can manage it comfortably.
Lots of fruits and vegetables, and especially cooked vegetables. As we age, our digestive system breaks down the cell walls of cooked vegetables more effectively than raw. Raw is fine sometimes, but if you're relying on 100% raw, you may actually be creating deficiencies.
Soups and stews are honestly some of the best senior foods. Easy to digest, mineral-rich, nourishing.
3. Look for individual clues.
Tight muscles, trouble relaxing? That can be a sign of magnesium deficiency, which is essential for bone building.
Frequent illness or slow healing? Could be zinc — connected to stomach acid production and overall immune health.
These are things I look at individually, not as blanket recommendations, but they're worth knowing about.
The Bottom Line
Strong bones (and strong health overall in your senior years) come down to this: a body that can absorb what you're eating, enough of the right nutrients to fill the bank account, and regular signals (through movement and muscle use) that your bones need to stay strong. Stress management isn't optional, it's foundational. And sleep is the canary in the coal mine for all of it.
Lisa Kilgour is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist (RHN), TEDx speaker, and author of the book Undieting. She has worked with approximately 2,000 people since 2007, with a specialisation in The Undieting Method, women's health, gut health, and helping people build a genuinely nourishing relationship with food.