Is there a senior or elderly in your family? You’re probably having a hard time convincing him or her to eat healthy meals. You can put an end to this struggle even if you’re not a nutritionist or dietitian but you need tips, recommendations, and suggestions from the experts. Articles like this are helpful, too, so you can start making meal plans for your senior loved one’s healthy diet.
It may take a while to figure out the reasons your mom or dad, or husband or wife does not have the appetite to eat, let alone, eat healthy. However, once you’ve found out, you can already help make your loved one improve his eating habits. Before you start planning the senior’ meals, diet, and nutrition, experts share tips to guarantee the old adult in the family is getting all the nutrition he or she needs.
Techniques that Work for the Seniors’ Good Eating Habit
Whether you are a professional caregiver or a family member who provides personal care for a loved one, it is essential that you know how to help him eat healthy foods. Below are some of the techniques that really work, you can follow to encourage an elderly to eat healthily:
- When feeding the elderly or assisting him when eating, ensure to keep his meals in smaller amounts. Instead of giving him three large meals every day, you can distribute them into six smaller meals. Be sure to include healthy snacks.
- Also, add protein powder when making shakes or beverages, shredded or chopped vegetables to scramble eggs, powdered skim milk to add calcium to the pasta sauce, or some soybean paste also known as miso, as a to shakes or drinks, shredded veggies to scrambled eggs, skim milk powder for calcium to pasta sauce, or a soybean paste called miso as a soup base so that your senior loved one is getting all health benefits from the meal.
- Have the dentist check his teeth. This may be a possible reason why the elderly cannot eat. He probably cannot chew the food, or going through some pain, and this is affecting the eating. If this is the case, prepare soft foods for him.
- Let their hands be the authority. Ask them what they want to eat — foods that they can chew and swallow. If an elderly feels he is in control of the food he eats (with your supervision), he will surely enjoy the eating process more since he has input.
- Enhance his dining experience. Add soft music, relaxing discussions, consistent meal times and inviting garnishes–they all contribute to the comfortable eating routine.
Make a To-Do List for the Seniors’ Healthy Eating Habit
Eating different kinds of foods from the food groups contribute to the nutrients an individual needs as he gets older. A healthy eating plan puts emphasis on whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and fat-free or low-fat dairy. It also includes fish, eggs, lean meat, beans, poultry, and nuts, among others. It is also important that what your senior loved one help prevent illnesses like heart disease and high blood pressure, among others.
To eat healthy and right does not need to be complicated. All you have to do is make a list of things to do, and foods to eat as the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends:
- Eat fresh fruits and veggies. For vegetables, promote the dark green veggies like broccoli or leafy greens. Orange vegetables like sweet potatoes and carrots are also ideal for putting in your food list.
- Vary the choices of protein with more peas, fish, and beans.
- When preparing food, make portion sizes of at least three ounces of loaves of bread, whole-grain cereals, rice, crackers or pasta every day.
- Have at least 3 servings of fat-free or low-fat dairy like cheese, milk or yogurt that are all invigorated with Vitamin D to keep the bones healthy even if your loved one has already aged.
- Make sure the food you’re preparing contains only healthy fats. Also, avoid giving the senior process foods or edibles with added sugar.
Foods You can Give Your Elderly Loved One to Promote Eating Right
There are many different foods you can consider as healthy. However, not all of them are appropriate for an aging person’s consumption. Below are the ideal nutrients and specific foods you can give the elderly in your family.
- Fiber – These include fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain bread, and cereals and legumes. All of these encourage a good bowel movement.
- Protein – Guarantee that your loved one eats high-protein foods like soybeans, poultry, meat, fish, and nuts. Proteins in foods contribute to the healing of wounds, and this is essential as seniors frequently experience surgeries and inquiries.
- Vitamin D – This is also essential for healthy bones among older adults. Vitamin D primarily comes from sunlight and smaller amounts from foods such as cheese, margarine, oily fish, eggs, and dairy products, among others.
- Calcium – Serve your loved ones with foods rich in calcium like custard, cheese, low-fat milk, and yogurt. They help avoid or slow the development of osteoporosis. High in calcium include soy milk and fish that have soft and edible bones like sardines or salmon.
Guaranteeing that your elderly loved one is eating healthy is easy and simple. But if you don’t have the time to look after him 24/7, much as you’d want to, worry no more. Innovative Homecare Solutions, Inc. can do the work for you.
The dedicated, compassionate, and skilled caregivers of this company guarantee to provide your loved one with the proper care he needs, including food preparation. This means an assurance that your loved one gets to eat adequately, not to mention, healthy. Contact us today and see which among our services matches your elderly loved one’s care needs.
