What can a Realtor do for you?: Meal Planning And Nutrition For

Meal Planning and Nutrition for the Elderly

Meal plannng for the elderly becomes more important as their health declines due to illness or age. Eating a balanced diet rich in whole grains, low in fats, with sufficient servings of fruits and vegetables offers a sound basis for good health in the elderly. Creating a healthy meal plan for the elderly is not so different than meal planning for any family. If your senior is not on a special diet such as a diabetic diet or mechanical soft or something else the guidelines are pretty similar.

You should study the food guide pyramid to gain an understanding of the basic food groups. You will notice that the base of the pyramid offers the most food choices. These foods are bread, cereal, rice, and pasta. You need 6-11 servings every day of these foods.

Moving up the Pyramid you will find the vegetable group and the fruit group. You need 3-5 servings of vegetables daily, and 2-4 servings of fruit every day.

Now, move up the pyramid again and you will find the Milk, Yogurt, and Cheese Group of equal importance to the meat, fish and poultry dry beans, eggs, and nuts group. You will need to include 2-3 servings from each group. Cheese is commonly considered a protein and is interchangeably with your meat, fish, poultry, dry beans and nut group.
At the top of the pyramid you will find fats, oils, and sweets. These are foods you will want to keep to a minimum in your meal plan.

If your senior needs to manage their weight it is important to first learn about portion control. Eating the right portion will help to ensure adequate nutritional balance and help with the over all food management plan.

Using a portion control plate can be helpful in learning how to serve smaller portions but it is not necessary. Take your plate and draw an imaginary line down the center and across the middle dividing your plate into four sections. Your portion should be no larger than each portion and should include foods from each food group.

Here is a handy list of regular serving sizes for one serving:
Meat, fish, or poultry: 3 0z or the size of a deck of cards
Vegetables: 1/2 cup
Dry beans and peas: 1/2 cup
Fruit: Raw small apple, orange. If large eat half orange, apple, etc.
large piece of fruit equals 2 aervings
Fruit: Canned 1/2 cup
Bread, tortillas, dinner roll, etc.: slice bread/1 tortilla/small roll
Pasta: 1/2 cup can be counted like a slice of bread. Calories are similar

The first time you get a look at proper food portions for one serving can be a shock. Do not go into denial and refuse to learn about portion control. Try to help your senior through this stressful experience. You never get to old to learn something new in spite of the old adages. We are accustomed to seeing large servings that are much more than we need to eat. Muffins in the past were half the size that we purchase today. It can be quite a shock to discover how small portion sizes are supposed to be. As you can see from my pictures there are many food pyramids and some are a little bit different. I recommand the USDA FOOD GUIDE PYRAMID at My Pyramid.Gov.

In spite of your best efforts to create a healthy meal plan for your elderly family member, you may need to give them additional drink supplement drinks� such as Ensure� or Boost. These drinks are creamy, come in several flavors and can be purchased at your local grocery store. Do not be distressed if your first attempts at creating a healthy meal plan for the elderly runs into barriers. People can be difficult but it is important to find new ways to tempt the appetite! Health is important and we are what we eat. Try to reinforce this simple saying: �� EVERYTHING I EAT TODAY AFFECTS MY HEALTH TODAY!

My Pyramid.Gov

Healthcare Lady

How to Lose Weight by Changing Your Habits

Written by Smireles-1951