Nutritious meals for the elderly

The core of nutritious meal matching for the elderly has never been the unified standard answer of "less oil, less salt, all-vegetarian and soft", but Taking the elderly's basic diseases, chewing and digestion ability, and dietary preferences as the core, we give priority to ensuring nutritional density and taking into account the pleasure of eating. There is no universal recipe that can be applied to all elderly people. The one that is suitable is the right one.

Don’t believe it, I have been doing nutrition education for the elderly in the community for three years, and I have seen too many elderly people who have fallen into the trap of the “uniform diet”. Let’s just say that Aunt Zhang, who I met two months ago, is 68 years old and has type 2 diabetes for 5 years. She used a health account to tell her that the elderly should eat a vegetarian diet to control sugar, eat boiled cabbage with brown rice, and dare not touch any meat. As a result, she fainted at the vegetable market due to hypoglycemia when she went out to buy groceries. She was sent to a community hospital for a checkup. Not only did her blood sugar fluctuate greatly, her albumin was almost 2 values ​​lower, and her immunity was so bad that she caught two colds in half a month.

It's interesting to say that there are two voices that are very loud about the diet of the elderly: one is the "health first" group, which believes that the elderly have poor metabolism and should strictly control oil, salt and sugar, preferably whole grains and boiled meat, and don't touch anything heavy. All recipes must be accurate to the gram.； The other type is the "emotion-first" group, who believe that the elderly have lived for most of their lives and can eat whatever they want. There is no need to wrong themselves, even if they eat something high in oil and sugar, happiness is more important than anything else. In fact, both of these statements are reasonable, but when taken to extremes, problems can easily arise.

There used to be a 72-year-old Uncle Wang who had high blood pressure for 20 years. He was a strict "health-first" executor. He ate so little salt in vegetables every day that it was almost tasteless. He only dared to eat meat once a week. He lost 12 pounds in half a year. He was the first to catch the flu in winter and was hospitalized for a week. Later, we adjusted the recipe for him. First of all, we didn’t let him completely avoid his food. His favorite sauce beef was leaner and less fat beef tendon, stewed in low-sodium soy sauce, and he ate 1 tael (about 2 thin slices) at a time, along with a large plate of stir-fried spinach. If he wanted to eat something sweet in the afternoon, we gave him half a piece of steamed pumpkin, which was much more fragrant than the boiled sweet potato he had eaten before. After eating like this for 3 months, my blood pressure is very stable, my weight has increased by 3 pounds, and my whole person's mental state is different.

Many people also have a stereotype: old people with bad teeth have to eat everything soft and rotten, all the dishes are stewed to a pulp, and the staple food is all pulpy porridge. In fact, it is not true. As long as the elderly can bite their teeth and have no stomach acid reflux, they can cook multi-grain rice softer and stir-fry vegetables until raw but not stewing them into puree. On the contrary, they can exercise their chewing ability. A previous study published in the "Journal of Gerontology" showed that maintaining an appropriate chewing frequency can reduce the risk of cognitive decline, which is much better than eating mush every day. There are also many family members who like to stew big tonic soups for the elderly, such as old hen soup and pork rib soup. They stew for several hours and feel that the soup is full of essence. In fact, 90% of the soup is water and fat, and the protein content is not as high as a mouthful of meat. The elderly drink it and occupy their stomachs, but cannot eat other nutritious things. The gain outweighs the loss.

As for the issue of "should the elderly be forced to drink milk to supplement calcium" that has been debated for many years, there is no unified requirement in the industry. Many guidelines say that the elderly should drink 300ml of milk every day to supplement calcium. However, many Asian elderly people are lactose intolerant and get diarrhea as soon as they drink it. Many family members force them to drink it, saying that "diarrhea is better than calcium deficiency", which is completely unnecessary. If you can't drink ordinary milk, you can certainly choose low-lactose milk or Shuhua milk. If you really don't like drinking milk, use low-sugar and high-calcium soy milk, 200g of green leafy vegetables per day, and a small spoonful of sesame paste. Your calcium intake can fully meet the standard, and there is no need to force the elderly to suffer.

The most common misunderstanding I have encountered is "the more cereals, the better". I once had a 70-year-old Aunt Li whose gastric mucosa was a little atrophic. She heard that eating cereals lowered blood sugar. Every meal of cereals, oats, brown rice, and quinoa together accounted for two-thirds of the staple food. She had acid reflux for half a month and couldn't sleep. Later, I adjusted it so that grains only accounted for one-third of the staple food. I soaked it for 2 hours in advance and then cooked it with rice. After eating it for three days, I no longer had acid reflux, and my blood sugar did not rise.

In fact, nutritional meals for the elderly don’t really have so many rigid rules. You don’t have to count calories every time until you get a headache, and you don’t have to eat blindly regardless of your health. The last time I had dinner with my grandma, she wanted to eat braised pork, so I chose the pork belly which is leaner and less fatty. I added less sugar when stewing it and used rock sugar to stir-fry the color without white sugar. She ate two or three pieces at a time, paired with a large plate of stir-fried broccoli. It was very delicious and her blood pressure and blood lipids have been stable. To put it bluntly, you should first take care of physical comfort, and then take care of your mental comfort. After all, eating happily is more effective than any expensive tonic.