Eating Well As We Age

As we age, eating isn't always as easy as it should be.  Seniors who have physical issues may have a hard time obtaining, preparing, eating or digesting food.  If these are issues that you have with getting proper nutrition, you are not alone.  You can ask for help.  You will probably be surprised that most people really enjoy helping others.  People are at their best when they are helping other people.

Here are some common problems and some suggested solutions:

Cannot get to the store

1) If the problem is simply a matter of being able to drive or handle heavy bags of groceries, consider asking family, friends, and neighbors of you can join them when they go to the store.

2) Ask neighbors to do a bit of shopping for you.  If you spread this around between two-three people, it is not a burden to anyone.

3) Ask the store to make deliveries.  Not all stores do this and you may find that those who do, don't advertise the fact.

4) Talk to someone at your church or synagogue about obtaining assistance.  Some churches already have volunteer assistance programs set up.

5) Consider paying someone.  Home care companies are springing up all over the place and this kind of activity and daily household tasks are largely what they do.  A few hours every couple of weeks is often enough to shopping, a few errands, and maybe even a few hard tasks around the house and it costs far less than owning and running a car.

6) Talk to a county social worker to see if there are any other country run services or volunteer programs.

Cannot physically cook food

If it is hard for you to hold or move pans or handle utensils or cannot see very well, cooking can be a huge problem.  If you seem to get sidetracked or forget things, it could be dangerous.  Here are some suggestions:

 1) Buy large handle utensils with soft foam grips.  These are made for people who have a hard time with small handles and you don't have to squeeze them hard.  There are several manufacturers now and you can find them at most home or kitchen/bath stores.

2) Use prepackaged dinners that are meant for the microwave. That way, even if you do forget, it won't burn anything.  Just reheat the food.

3) Consider congregate meal programs or having food delivered.  You can search for such services right here on MealCall.

4) Move to a place like an assisted living center where this is done for you.  By doing so, you also take away the necessity and problem of getting to a store.

No Appetite

There are three common reasons why people sometimes don't have the desire to eat.  These are very real and can affect people with similar situations of all ages:

1) Loneliness - People enjoy eating together.  If you are alone, it is natural to see your appetite go down.  Get together for lunch with friends and your appetite will probably improve.  Another alternative is to find a congregate meal program that serves dinner and/or lunch to seniors.  Not only will you get a nutritious meal and start to enjoy it more, you can meet new friends.

2) Lack of exercise can also cause a low appetite.  You need to burn up some of that food and keep things moving through.  There are now many new programs that you can buy on video tape or CD that are low impact and meant for older folks.  Other places such as the Y have programs that you can join.  Don't expect the appetite to kick in right away.  It can take a few weeks.

3) Low or poor taste - Some medications can reduce or change the flavor of the food you eat.  But as we age, our ability to taste food diminishes as well.  If your food tastes odd, talk to your doctor about the medications that you are taking to see which if any may be the culprit.  Otherwise, experiment with spices (not salt and sugar) to bump the taste.

Trouble chewing

Bad teeth or poorly fitting dentures can be just a few of the issues here.  All can contribute to  problems eating fresh fruits and vegetables and meats.  Try these alternatives:

Instead of fresh fruits, eat canned fruits, applesauce and some of your softer fruits like mangos and bananas.  If front teeth are the problem, consider cutting the fruit off the [core, stone] and into smaller pieces.

Instead of raw veggies, try vegetable juices and cooked veggies.  Even a hard carrot becomes very soft when cooked.  If it is still a problem, consider whipping them much like you would mashed potatoes - why not, right?  Potatoes, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and rutabagas are served whipped, why not carrots?

Meat is particularly hard to chew when you have such eating difficulties.  Try more ground turkey and chicken, eggs, milk, cheese, peanut butter, and soups and you can take away the necessity of working with meats that are tough to eat.

Gastric issues (upset stomach, gas)

In most cases, you can switch foods and get this back on track again.  Sometimes, staying away from a certain kind of food for a month or two can take away the problem.  No matter what it is that you enjoy, you can find other foods that you will enjoy just as much without causing the gastric issues.  You should always eat a balanced diet or you could be missing out on some important nutrients like vitamins and minerals, fiber and protein.

Here are some ideas:

Milk/dairy: Try some of the new soy milk products.  These used to taste pretty bad but have actually turned into some pretty tasty foods.  They simply aren't the original.  But if you can't eat the original anyway, what's to fuss about.  Right?

Cabbage, broccoli, etc. - Choose others like green beans and some of your dark green leafy veggies for the same or more calcium.  Replace fiber with cereals.  All Bran has some of the most fiber, but there are others that may be more to your liking.  Some people will sprinkle some All Bran on a lesser fiber cereal like Cheerios to mix the flavors.

Fresh fruit - switch to fruit juices, but watch those sugars.  Most fruit juice contains added sugar which is a problem for diabetics.  Alternatively, there are some good juice machines available now and creating different juices can actually be a fun activity.  Have a juicing party where everyone tries different kinds or brings their own fruits and veggies to share a juicer.

Meats - many people do not do well with certain kinds of meats, particularly beef or pork.  The answer is simple.  Keep the portions low, switch to poultry, or simply replace meats in your life with other meats like chicken and turkey or go to the eggs, peanut butter, cheese, and soy milk route.  All are good sources of protein.

No money

It can be hard to bring in more money, so the alternative is to stretch what you have further and here are some great ideas:

If you have a lot of cost in medication for chronic conditions and this is chewing up a good chunk of your budget, take a good look at medications from Canada.  They can be a significant savings.  

Stay away from convenience foods.  For what you spend for a single microwave dinner, you can feed yourself 3 meals per day for 3-4 days when you fix things like soups, pastas and rice, bean dishes, etc.

Start being a coupon cutter - just be sure that you don't use them to buy stuff unless you would buy it anyway.

Buy store brands and shop the sale circulars.  If you buy twice as much as you would eat that week and freeze the rest, you can build up a pretty nice stockpile of frozen low cost foods to draw from in your freezer.

Take part in congregate meal programs.  These are very low cost and always nutritious.  If these are out of the question, consider forming your own group of friends that brings a dish to one location... the ol' pot luck dinner shines again!

Call the food stamp office in the blue pages of your telephone directory.  If money is tight, chances are that you may qualify.