The modern lifestyle can be a challenge to maintain as you grow older. This is partly because elderly people’s nutritional requirements change as per their health conditions. A healthy elderly person may become a patient with dementia. Therefore his nutritional needs would change. Caregivers and nurses must understand that the nutrition for elderly patients is not uniform and must be catered to as per the recommendation of doctors and nutritionists.
To mitigate the challenge of providing proper geriatric nutrition, Anvayaa has nutritional care plans for the elderly living alone. Our trained and efficient home care attendants for the elderly operate in major metro cities and tier 1 towns of India. They coordinate with nutritionists and understand the importance of nutrition and health requirements in the elderly.
Why do elderly people need proper nutrition?
One of the significant challenges faced in elderly care is the rapid emergence of malnutrition or the lack of proper nutrition provided to them. With age, one’s food habits and daily lifestyle patterns change. The body becomes less active because of mobility restrictions and exhaustion.
Elderly people cannot cook food daily and must depend on their family or domestic help to prepare it. Maids and cooks often need to be guided and do not know the nutrition required for elderly patients with diabetes or high blood pressure. They usually prepare meals late, disrupting their routine and scheduling time for medicine intake. In case maids are absent, elderly people either starve or eat whatever is available at home. These factors lead to severe malnutrition amongst the elderly.
Understanding the importance of nutrition in elderly care is a rudimentary requirement of caregivers and nurses attending to senior patients. To cater to the diverse nutritional needs, Anvayaa offers customized diet plans for the elderly.
Our home care attendants for the elderly operating in tier 1 and metro cities of India supervise maids and cooks to prepare meals that align with the senior patient’s dietary habits.
Types of meals elderly people require
As one age, their body needs less food but more nutrients. As a result, the number of calories elderly people consume should also decrease. Elderly people require timely meals that are easy to digest and help build their immunity and bone strength. Let us look at the types of nutritional meals necessary for the elderly.
1.Vegan and fibre-rich vegetarian meals
A vegetarian diet is the most suitable for elderly people. The diet should be vegetable-rich and include a variety of grains, pulses and legumes. This can be supplemented with milk products like milk, cheese and yoghurt; eggs; fish and pulses to provide proteins necessary for the normal growth and maintenance of muscles in body tissues.
Anvayaa’s home care attendants of the elderly across India coordinate with the nutritionists to ensure fibre-rich meals are prepared to improve digestion and bowel movements for seniors living alone at home.
2.Vegetables in the meals
Vegetables should make up at least 75% of your daily intake. They have fewer calories than any other food group but provide essential vitamins, minerals and fibre, which help keep you healthy. Vegetables are also low in fat, making them ideal for low-calorie diets or weight loss programmes. They are also high in water content, so they help flush out toxins from the body through urination which prevents kidney damage due to excess sodium build-up within cells due to eating too much salt/sodium chloride.
3.Inclusion of fruits in the meals
Eating more fruits is recommended for most people, but it is especially important for the elderly. Fruits, such as oranges and kiwi, must be given to elderly people as they are rich in vitamin C, which helps build immunity and iron absorption. Fruits and vegetables are low in calories but high in nutrients. They’re also good sources of vitamins, minerals, and fibre. In addition to providing essential nutrients like potassium that can help control blood pressure and antioxidants that protect against cancer-causing free radicals, fruits and vegetables provide other benefits such as lowering your risk of heart disease or stroke.
4.Intake of calcium and minerals
With age, our bodies make fewer bone-building cells than they did when we were young. This leads to elderly people having weaker bones which may increase their risk of falls and fractures.
Home care attendants for the elderly must ensure they get enough calcium in their diets. Calcium is important because it helps build strong bones that can withstand fractures due to falls during ageing or osteoporosis. After surgery, calcium and vitamin D-rich meals are important for the elderly to regain bone strength and body balance.
Anvayaa’s nutrition specialists thoroughly understand if the elderly person has any food allergies or taste preferences before allocating a weekly diet plan. All the meals suggested by the nutritionists are prepared scientifically for the recovery and healthy living of elderly people.
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