“I don’t feel like eating” you hear, no, it is not your kid but your parent who refusing once again to eat. With age many elderly feel a loss of appetite along with a loss of taste, you may find them refusing meals or demanding only a particular type of food every day. Some may lose their teeth and hence need to only consume soft food while others due to their various ailments have many restrictions on their diet. Thus overall, diet for the old in general is limited with reduced intake.
However Dr. Shweta Iyengar believes that “though the elderly may reduce their overall intake, we have to make sure that their total intake contains all the nutrients like carbohydrates, protein, fats, vitamins and minerals. Only eating one food will prove unwise.” We give you a list of options which are nutritious, easy to make and tasty so that your parents are never grumpy about food.
Soups- Soups can come to your rescue to provide nutrients at the same time are healthy and tasty. Soups are made from boiling vegetables in water which makes the nutrients easily available to the body without much digestion as well as the addition spices like ginger, garlic, black pepper made it more nutritious. Soups are excellent for diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and asthma.
Some soup ideas- Onion soup, Cream of tomato soup, Spinach soup, Mushroom Soup, Mixed vegetables.
Vegetable juices- Fruit juices are not recommended due to their extra sweet nature but vegetable juices are highly beneficial to the elderly. Vegetable juices provide the anti-oxidants, vitamins, fiber and minerals in one go and since elderly tend to take in more liquid items, juices can take place of some solids which they may pass on.
Some Vegetable juices ideas- Wheat grass juice is an excellent juice idea- it has cancer fighting properties along with plenty of vitamins. Other juice ideas are tomato, celery, parsley, broccoli and cucumber juice, carrot juice with ginger, garlic and onion etc.
Salads- Salads are easy to prepare and can be made from almost anything and can give you many nutrients. Remember to use freshly cut vegetables only and minimum of salt or sugar to it. Season your salad with fresh herbs and lemon juice rather than fattening dressings like mayonnaise or cream.
Some Salad ideas- Paneer salad, cucumber-tomato-onion salad, raita, Bean salad, sprout salad are good choices.
Flax seed chutni- Flax seeds or alsi as they are known in India are rich in magnesium, vitamin B, fiber and contain essential omega 3 fatty acids. You can eat it raw by roasting it and sprinkling it on different recipes or you could made a chutni to get the benefits of this special food.
Curd and Buttermilk- Milk or milk products are the richest sources of calcium and you can add calcium in your diet by including curd and buttermilk or chaas made of low fat or skimmed milk. Drinking a glass of chaas gives calcium, probiotics, vitamins as well as aiding digestion.
Khichdi: You may find that your parents denying everything except a bowl of rice for dinner, in this case, what you can do is prepare Khichdi. Khichdi is nutritious because it is made of moong dal giving protein and rice which has carbohydrates. When you add vegetables in it, you give fiber as well as vitamins to the meal. This way you get a wholesome, tasty meal which is soft on the palate too.
Vegetables to add: Onion, tomato, capsicum, potato, peas, carrot etc.
Supplements- The amount of nutrition that elderly need may not always be provided through food, so doctors may recommend supplementing your diet with calcium or multi vitamin supplements as per the individual’s requirement. However the absorption of these nutrients isn’t much through the supplements, hence the focus should always be on getting a balanced diet containing all the nutrients.
Some Tips to make your parents eat healthy!
- Even if low in quantity, remember to serve your parents all types of foods.
- Drinking water is the key to avoid health problems so insist that they frequently drink water even if it leads to frequent urination.
- Eat with them, if you are not living with your parents; try to get them to eat with some of their friends or a helper. Eating with others, makes for better conversation, better mood and thus better digestion.
- Shop for them, when they refuse to eat the things that are healthy, shop for these items personally and fill them in the cupboards. Removing unhealthy options and making healthy options available will make all the difference.
- You can start adding healthy foods without focusing on eliminating the unhealthy foods, this way they will have a better attitude towards the changes.
- If they have to exclude many of their favorite food items from their diet, start slow and gradually reduce the quantity.
By making these changes, your parents are sure not to avoid meals rather look forwards to them!
