Another easy at home meal choice. I love Hispanic-style food. Do these prepared enchilada meals measure up to my discerning taste standards? We will find out – there is a winner. Check out the humor and graphics add ins! Hurray for the microwave oven! Sometime soon let’s do a budget wine tasting to accompany our budget meals.
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Cooking for seniors is a big part of elderly care. But many family caregivers find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place when cooking for an elderly parent or relative. In cooking for older adults, it can be a struggle to follow healthy eating directives from doctors and health professionals. That’s especially true if your loved one’s taste buds are becoming less and less responsive to flavor, a common problem for the elderly. Healthy Substitutes When Cooking for Seniors
At Visiting Angels, our elderly care professionals are regularly called on to plan and prepare meals for our clients. Over the years, we’ve collected a number of tips for cooking for the elderly, including how to strike the right balance between health and flavor. Healthy Substitutes When Cooking for Seniors
Below, we’ve listed our top healthy substitutes when cooking for seniors.
Salt is a natural flavor enhancer, but high salt consumption is linked to cardiovascular problems. In old age, many seniors are told to cut back on their salt intake to prevent high blood pressure and heart disease risks.
This can be a challenge since salt is one of the first flavors that seniors lose sensitivity to. In response, many seniors add more and more salt to their foods to try to make them more flavorful.
If you’re cooking for an elderly loved one, we suggest choosing recipes that rely on fresh herbs and spices to enhance food’s flavor. This will ensure your loved one can taste the added flavor while avoiding the risks associated with heavy sodium intake. Get ideas for which herbs and spices to use here.
Along with salty flavors, seniors quickly lose their ability to taste sweeter foods. Like salt, sugar is a cheap and easy way to make food taste better. And like salt, sugar is linked with an array of health issues.
One solution to this issue is to shift from recipes that focus on sweetness and instead choose dishes with a more citrusy and acidic profile. You’ll still want a little bit of sweetness in these dishes, so rely on naturally sweet foods like fruits, peppers, and sweet potatoes.
Fats are an essential part of any diet, but it’s important to eat the right fats. Saturated and trans fats — such as those found in butter and red meat — can contribute to a range of health problems. But unsaturated fats can have a range of health benefits and often include healthy elements like omega-3 acids.
Some of the best sources of healthy fats include olive oil, canola oil, nuts, soy products, and fatty fish, such as salmon. These foods can contribute to healthy cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart disease.
If you’re having trouble cooking healthy foods for an elderly loved one, consider hiring a professional elderly care provider. Professional caregivers, like those at your local Visiting Angels, can attend to a range of elderly care needs, including meal planning and preparation. Contact your local Visiting Angels office today to get started.
Healthy Substitutes When Cooking for Seniors
It’s no secret that American nutrition is in something of a crisis. We live in the most plentiful time in history, with food easier to grow than ever before. But in this time of plenty, the majority of Americans have embraced a diet that is high in sugar, sodium, and processed foods and low in the foods that keep us healthy. Food Deserts Have an Outsized Impact on Seniors
That demand has driven the way food is made available to Americans nationwide. One unique consequence of this change has been the rise in “food deserts.” These are areas where it is considered near impossible to find healthy foods. It should come as no surprise that food deserts are particularly harmful to seniors, who bear the biggest burdens of poor nutrition.
A food desert is defined as a geographic area where access to affordable, healthy foods is practically non-existent. Typically, these are areas where there is no proper grocery store or fruit market within a convenient travelling distance. In these areas, residents often depend on fast food and the processed, pre-packaged foods that line the walls of the local convenience store.
You might think that there are only a handful of food deserts in America, but unfortunately, you would be mistaken. Today, more than 23 million Americans live in areas that are considered food deserts, and there are some who believe that this number is an underestimate.
Studies have shown that the majority of Americans suffer from a lack of fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and unprocessed foods in their diet. This is true even of Americans who live in areas with easy to access nutritious foods. Simply put, most Americans end up eating an unhealthy diet even when the option of a healthier diet is available.
But when you don’t have the option of healthier food, there’s almost no way to escape the effects of malnutrition. Of course, this is a condition that’s harder on seniors than anyone else. Since older Americans are more susceptible to illness, chronic conditions, and poor health, a lack of nutrition has an outsized effect on the older population.
Recently, efforts have been made to limit the number of Americans living in food deserts. Federal, state, and private outreach programs have been set up to bring nutritious foods into areas where they’re typically hard to come by.
But if you have an elderly loved one who lives in an area where it’s hard to find healthy food, you can take action on your own. You can offer to shop for groceries on their behalf, or simply bring a collection of healthier foods on each visit to their home. If you have the time to help them prepare healthy, balanced meals, that’s even better.
If it’s hard for you to be there for your loved one, you might also consider a home care service. At Visiting Angels, our care providers regularly help seniors with grocery shopping and meal preparation, helping clients ensure they receive the nutrition they need. Another way to get involved is through supporting organizations that combat poor nutrition and food deserts. To help, you might consider a donation to Feeding America or another similar charity.
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