It's getting colder and colder. How should the elderly adjust their diet in cold weather? The theory of TCM health preservation tells us that we should eat more warm food to nourish the five internal organs, enhance the body's resistance, cultivate vitality and promote the rise of yang in the body. This can not only make the body stronger, but also play a good role in keeping out the cold. According to the different nutrients contained in food, the winter diet should have the following characteristics: eat more staple food and eat some mutton, quail and sea cucumber appropriately. Protein, fat and carbohydrates are called thermogenic nutrients. Therefore, the intake of staple food and oil should be appropriately increased in winter to ensure the supply of high-quality protein. Dog meat, mutton, beef, chicken, venison, shrimp, pigeon, quail, sea cucumber and other foods are rich in protein and fat, generating a lot of calories. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that tonifying kidney and strengthening yang, warming the middle and lower temperature, benefiting qi and generating blood, and keeping out the cold have the best effect. Fear of cold is related to calcium deficiency and iron deficiency. People's fear of cold is related to their lack of intake of certain minerals. For example, the content of calcium in human body can directly affect the elasticity and excitability of myocardium, blood vessels and muscles; Iron deficiency in blood is an important cause of iron deficiency anemia, which is often characterized by low fever and hypothermia. Therefore, supplementing foods rich in calcium and iron can improve the body's ability to keep out the cold. Calcium-containing foods mainly include milk, bean products, kelp, seaweed, shells, oysters, sardines, shrimp and so on. Iron-containing foods are mainly animal blood, egg yolk, pig liver, soybeans, sesame seeds, black fungus and red dates. Kelp and laver can promote the secretion of thyroxine and generate heat. There is a thyroid secretion called thyroxine, which can accelerate the oxidation of many tissues and cells in the body, increase the body's heat production capacity, enhance the basal metabolic rate, accelerate the blood circulation of the skin, and keep out the cold, while foods containing iodine can promote the secretion of thyroxine. Foods rich in iodine are: kelp, seaweed, Nostoc flagelliforme, jellyfish, spinach, Chinese cabbage, corn and so on. Animal liver and carrots can increase cold resistance. The cold climate causes obvious changes in human vitamin metabolism. Increasing the intake of vitamin A and vitamin C can enhance the cold tolerance and adaptability to cold, which has a good protective effect on blood vessels. Vitamin A mainly comes from animal liver, carrots and dark green vegetables, while vitamin C mainly comes from fresh fruits and vegetables. Sesame seeds and sunflower seeds can provide essential elements for cold resistance. Cold weather will increase the demand for methionine. Methionine can provide a series of methyl groups necessary to adapt to cold through transfer. So eat more food containing methionine in winter. Such as sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, dairy products, yeast, leafy vegetables and so on. Eating spicy food can drive away the cold. Pepper contains capsaicin, ginger contains aromatic volatile oil and pepper contains piperine. They are all spicy. Eating more in winter can not only increase appetite, but also promote blood circulation and improve cold resistance. In addition, avoid eating or eat less sticky and cold food in winter, because this kind of food is yin, which is easy to damage the yang of the spleen and stomach. Keep warm: Keep your head warm: In cold weather, if you just put on warm clothes and don't wear a hat, heat will soon radiate from your head. Therefore, the elderly must wear a good hat when going out, even if it is a thin hat, its cold-proof effect is very obvious. Warm back: Chinese medicine believes that the back is the yang in the yang. If the back is not warm, wind-cold will easily invade from the back, damage the yang, cause diseases, or make old diseases relapse and aggravate. It is best to add a tight cotton or leather vest in winter to prevent the back from catching cold. Warm feet: people's feet are far away from the heart, with less blood supply, less foot fat, poor thermal insulation and more sensitive to cold stimulation. It is best to wear towel socks or thick cotton socks and shoes in winter. In addition, massaging feet and washing feet with hot water can improve the blood circulation of feet and have a good health care effect. Room temperature: In winter, most elderly people reduce their activities and stay indoors for a long time. When the indoor temperature drops below 16℃, it is easy to induce respiratory infection and hypertension, so the indoor temperature is 18-24℃ and the humidity is 40%-50%, which is most suitable for the elderly. Warm-up: the elderly should strengthen physical exercise in winter to enhance their disease resistance. The best way is to go outdoors to adapt to the change of outdoor temperature. Regular outdoor exercise, its cold tolerance is 5- 10 times higher than that of ordinary people. However, when exercising, we should pay attention to the temperature change, increase or decrease clothes at any time, don't catch cold, don't exercise vigorously, and do what we can. If you are at home, closing doors and windows in winter will reduce air convection and increase indoor temperature, but the resulting air circulation is more harmful. According to experts, the human body will produce more than 500 kinds of chemicals in the process of metabolism, of which 149 kinds are discharged from the respiratory tract. In this way, the air contains a lot of bacteria, viruses, carbon dioxide and dust particles, which have an impact on the respiratory tract, so people who often sleep with the windows closed are prone to colds, coughs and pharyngitis. Therefore, people should not close the doors and windows all day because it is very cold outside in winter, but should always open the windows to keep the air circulating. Open the window 2 ~ 4 times a day in winter, each time lasting about 10 minute. Especially the patient's residence should pay more attention to frequent ventilation. High air conditioning temperature is prone to air conditioning syndrome. In winter, the wind is biting. Some families use air conditioning to keep warm. Quite a few people like to adjust the air conditioning temperature to above 27℃, so that the indoor temperature is like the turn of spring and summer. Indeed, it can make people feel very comfortable. Although high temperature brings a lot of convenience to work and life, people who have been in air-conditioned environment for a long time are prone to air-conditioning syndrome, with symptoms such as stuffy nose, dry throat, dry mouth, headache and decreased immune function. At the same time, if the temperature difference between indoor and outdoor is above 25℃, indoor people will easily catch a cold once they have something to go out; Some patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases are prone to myocardial infarction, stroke, facial paralysis and even death. Therefore, when the air conditioner is turned on in winter, you can put a humidifier or a basin of water indoors to keep the room moderately humid. Indoor temperature adjustment should be appropriate, and the temperature should be gradually increased. When the temperature is properly adjusted, the coat should be taken off; If you want to go out, you should gradually adjust the air conditioning temperature to 15℃ to make people's nasal cavity adapt to the air temperature. When sleeping at night, the indoor temperature should be between 65438 05℃ and 65438 08℃. Families with patients with colds or other infectious diseases should not use air conditioning. Wash your feet first in winter. Take a bath in winter and pay attention to some problems. You can't take a bath from scratch like summer, you should start washing your feet. Because the skin temperature in winter is lower than the bath water temperature, and the bath water temperature used in winter is often higher than that in summer, sudden hot water will make the heart unable to load. In addition, many people often raise the water temperature because they are afraid of cold, but too hot water will make the skin lose moisture, make the skin dry and even cause microvascular rupture. Therefore, it is best to wash your feet in the winter bath, let your feet adapt to the water temperature first, and then wash your body slowly. The suitable water temperature for bathing in winter is 37℃ to 42℃, and the temperature of bathing water is slightly higher than human body temperature. In addition, it is best not to take a bath for more than 15 minutes in winter to avoid catching a cold. First, daily life should be regular: go to bed early and get up late, and work and rest moderately. In winter, the elderly should not work or play at night, but work, study and play during the day. Second, pay attention to diet nutrition: it is advisable to eat nutritious and digestible food, and avoid eating cold and hard food. If the human body can improve its cold resistance, it must rely on the function of digestion and absorption to provide nutrients needed by the human body. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the spleen and nourish the stomach, and enhance the digestion ability of the stomach and the transport ability of the spleen. Third, adding clothes in winter is not suitable for adding clothes at one time, but gradually adding clothes as the temperature drops, so that the skin function can be exercised, and it can gradually adapt to the cold in winter and improve the cold resistance. Fourth, enhance the adaptive function of the skin: the skin can play a regulatory role with the changes of external temperature and body temperature. The winter climate changes from cool autumn to cold, so we should pay attention to skin care and strengthen exercise to make the skin adapt to the characteristics of winter climate change and enhance the adaptive function of the skin. This kind of exercise should start in autumn, and let the skin function "freeze" when it is cool in autumn. The coolness in autumn is getting heavier and heavier, and the transition from cool to cold in winter makes the skin's adaptive function adapt accordingly. Five, health massage: (1) strengthen exercise, you can do chest expansion exercises, you can do breathing aerobics; (2) Keep your back, nose and feet warm from the cold, and don't let these parts catch cold, because these are the ways for your lungs to catch cold. (3) you can rub your nose three times a day until you get fever, which can dispel the cold; You can rub Yongquan and Fenglong points on your feet and Shu Fei points on your back, all of which can dispel the cold; When rubbing, you can apply ginger juice first and then massage. This will have a better effect of dispelling cold.