Proper nutrition is key to living a long and healthy life. If you provide elderly care for your senior parent, meal planning requires many considerations, including changing nutritional needs and health conditions. Here’s how you can ensure your loved one maintains a rich, balanced diet.

A Guide to Proper Nutrition for Seniors

1. Reduce Salt & Sugar

High blood pressure and diabetes are both common in older adults. Along with maintaining a healthy weight and an active lifestyle, cutting back on sodium and sugar intake can lower your parents’ risk of developing these conditions. Sugar can be replaced with natural sweets like fruit, while salt should be swapped out for herbs and spices.

2. Choose the Right Nutrients

Preparing balanced meals is an important part of elderly care, so make sure your parents are getting the nutrients they need. Meals should include fruits, vegetables, lean proteins like seafood and beans, whole grains like whole-wheat bread and brown rice, and low-fat dairies such as skim milk and fat-free cheese. Always read nutrition labels on packaged food before buying.

3. Look for Healthy Fats

Not all fats are bad for you. In fact, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats promote a healthier heart, body, and mind. Replace the trans fats and saturated fats in your parents’ diets with healthy fats like olive oil, fish, avocados, and nuts.

4. Scale Down Meals

As elderly adults age, their appetites decrease. This makes it more difficult for them to finish large meals and obtain all their daily essential nutrients. Focus on preparing smaller, more nutrient-dense meals that will fulfill your parents’ dietary needs. The quality of the food is much more important than the quantity.

5. Drink Plenty of Water

Staying hydrated is important at any age, but it becomes easier to forget to drink water as you get older. Make sure the seniors in your care are drinking plenty of water throughout the day. If they don’t want plain water each time, they might enjoy flavored water, coffee, tea, juice, and foods that naturally contain water.

Providing nutritional meals for your parents every day can be challenging. When your loved ones are in the care of Mount Washington Care Center, in Cincinnati, OH, they’ll receive balanced meals rich in nutrients catered to their dietary needs. For over 30 years, this rehabilitation center and nursing home has offered exceptional full-time elderly care to Cincinnati seniors. Their compassionate staff is qualified to provide the medical, social, emotional, and spiritual care each patient needs in a safe, loving environment. Visit their website to find out what your loved ones can expect from their stay. If you have any questions, call (513) 231-4561 to speak with a friendly staff member.