Thirty-six-year-old Aditi walked into my clinic on a Tuesday evening and asked me which collagen supplement she should take. Her mother had just been diagnosed with osteoporosis, and Aditi figured a jar of powder would protect her too.
Before I answered, I asked her a question instead. "What did your mother eat in her thirties?"
She thought for a second. "Pretty much what I eat now. Roti, sabzi."
And there's your answer. A plate of roti-sabzi or dal-chawal, eaten the exact same way for three generations, is precisely why none of us is ready for what ageing has in store. Aditi wanted collagen. What I wanted to give her was something completely different.
So before I said a word about supplements, I made her do something. You can try this too, right now, wherever you're sitting. Sit down cross-legged on the floor. Now stand back up without using your hands, your knees, or the nearest chair for support. And no, someone pulling you up doesn't count.
Aditi needed one hand to get up. She laughed it off, the way everyone does. But it told me plenty about her joint health.
Go on, try it. If you got up smoothly with no support, you're in decent shape for your age, whatever your age is. If you had to think about it, or push off something, that's worth noticing.
This is called the sitting-rising test. A 2012 study out of Brazil followed over 2,000 adults aged 51 to 80 for six years. People who needed more than one hand or knee to get off the floor had death rates 2 to 5 times higher than those who did it in one clean motion. Aditi needed one hand. Not high risk, but a clear sign she had work to do.
The protein plate that shrinks exactly when it should grow
Somewhere past forty, a lot of my clients start eating "lighter." And lighter usually means less dal, less egg, less paneer, because we grew up believing heavy food gets harder to digest as we age. It's actually the opposite of what the body needs.
As we get older, our body gets a little less efficient at using protein to build and repair muscle. Scientists call this anabolic resistance. In plain words, you need more raw material to get the same result you used to get with less. So cutting back on dal, eggs, paneer, fish, or chicken as you age is one of the most common mistakes I see, and almost always made with good intentions.
Here's a simple rule for anyone in their forties and fifties: eat protein at every single meal, the same way you would if you were recovering from an illness. A glass of milk, a boiled egg, or a paneer sandwich instead of just chai at breakfast. Dal, curd, grilled chicken, fish, or rajma at lunch.
Roasted chana, sprouts, or Greek yoghurt when that four o'clock hunger hits. And a dinner where eggs, paneer, tofu, fish, or chicken is planned in, not thrown in at the last minute because the plate looked bare.
Sounds simple. The hard part is remembering to do it on the days you're too busy to think about food at all.
The real reason to lift
Every time I tell a woman in her thirties to start lifting weights, I hear some version of the same thing. "I don't want to get bulky, I just want to stay fit." It's a fair worry, but it comes from thinking about muscle the wrong way.
What you're actually building, one squat and one dumbbell at a time, is the strength to carry your own groceries up three flights when the lift breaks down. To pick up a sleepy toddler without your back filing a complaint. To sprint for a train without gasping for breath at the other end.
And it does more than make daily life easier. Muscle is where most of your blood sugar gets used up. The more muscle you carry, the easier it is to keep blood sugar in check. People with weak muscles and high blood sugar are, more often than not, the same people walking through my clinic door.
You don't need a gym membership you'll cancel by March. Two or three sessions a week, bodyweight squats, a resistance band, a pair of light dumbbells sitting under your bed, done consistently for years, will do more for your ageing than anything you'll ever buy at a pharmacy.
The blood test Aditi never thought to ask for
Somewhere in that same conversation, I asked Aditi when she'd last checked her vitamin D, calcium, or B12. She hadn't. Not once. Nobody books a test to prevent something that hasn't happened yet. Her mother's diagnosis came from a scan taken after a fracture, not before one. Aditi had never thought to get checked before there was a reason to.
A basic yearly panel, vitamin D, B12, calcium, thyroid, blood sugar, lipid profile, kidney and liver function, catches problems while they're still cheap and simple to fix. Wait until your sixties, and you're no longer preventing anything. You're managing damage.
Vitamin D deficiency is oddly common in a country that gets as much sun as India does, mostly because our lives now happen indoors, in cars, and under office tube lights. Fifteen to thirty minutes of sun on your arms and legs, between 11 AM and 2 PM, a few times a week, genuinely helps. Fatty fish, egg yolks, and fortified milk help too. B12 comes almost entirely from animal foods like poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy, which is why vegetarians usually run low. If your test shows a deficiency, tell your doctor. Don't just start popping a tablet you saw on an ad.
One more thing before I let you go
You can eat everything right and still undo it in one bad night's sleep. When you're stressed or sleep-deprived, your body releases more cortisol. And cortisol does two things you don't want. It breaks down muscle for quick energy, and it pushes your blood sugar up. That's why protein and strength training work even better once your sleep is sorted too. You don't need eight perfect hours every single night. But if you're consistently running on five broken hours, no supplement on the shelf is going to undo what that's doing to you.
What Aditi is doing now, and what you can do today
Four weeks have passed since that Tuesday evening. Aditi now does three strength training sessions a week. She slips an egg into breakfast instead of just her morning chai. She's found that a bowl of tangy soya chaat handles her 4 PM hunger better than biscuits ever did. Her bone density scan is booked for next month, the same test her mother never got at this age.
If you've been waiting for the right time to start, here's your reminder. The right time usually shows up long before the problem does. You don't need to redo your whole life this week. Add the protein source missing from your plate. Try two short strength sessions, even fifteen minutes each. Book that blood test you've been postponing since March.
You don't need to do it all at once. Start with one thing. The rest will follow.
The version of you that climbs stairs without pausing, picks up a grandchild without wincing, and lives independently well into your 80s is being built right now, one small choice at a time. Give her something to thank you for.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK.
