1. Eat more rice and supplement nutrition with snacks.
Because of poor chewing and swallowing ability, the elderly often can't eat much at a meal and eat for a long time. In order to get enough calories and nutrition for the elderly every day, nutritionists suggest that the elderly eat 5-6 meals a day, and prepare some simple snacks between meals, such as low-fat milk biscuits (or nutritious oatmeal), low-fat milk oatmeal, old people or tofu pudding, soybean milk and eggs, or mix small pieces of fruit or fruit paste with yogurt.
2. Replace some animal proteins with bean products; The elderly must limit their meat intake, and some protein sources should be replaced by beans and bean products (such as tofu and soybean milk). In the diet of the elderly, each dinner should contain at least 170g of high-quality protein (such as lean meat, fish, eggs, tofu, etc. Vegetarians should get high-quality protein from beans and nuts (peanuts, walnuts, almonds, cashews, etc.). ).
3. Add vegetables to the staple food and cook together. In order to facilitate the elderly to chew, try to choose soft vegetables, such as tomatoes, loofah, wax gourd, pumpkin, eggplant and tender leaves of green leafy vegetables, and cut them into small pieces or plane them into filaments before cooking. If the elderly usually take porridge or noodle soup as their staple food, they can add 1 ~ 2 kinds of vegetables to cook together every time, and ensure that they eat at least 500 grams of vegetables every day.
Eating 350 grams of fruit every day is a food that the elderly often ignore.
Some soft fruits, such as bananas, watermelons, peaches, papayas, mangoes and kiwis, are very suitable for the elderly. You can slice the fruit or scrape it into mud with a spoon. If you want to make juice, you must pay attention to controlling the amount. You can add some water to dilute it when making juice.
Vitamin b supplement.
Recent studies have gradually shown that vitamin B is closely related to cardiovascular diseases, kidney diseases, cataracts, brain function degradation (cognition and memory) and mental health that are prone to occur in the elderly. No matter getting sick, taking medicine or after surgery, it will cause a lot of loss of vitamin B, so for the sick elderly, special attention should be paid to vitamin B supplementation. Raw grains and nuts are rich in vitamin B, so when preparing three meals for the elderly, you might as well add some brown rice and germ. You should cook porridge with white rice, or break a small amount of nuts into powder in a blender and add them to oatmeal to cook oatmeal.
Restrict oil intake
The elderly should mainly eat vegetable oil, avoid fat, animal fat, lard and butter, and cook less food. In addition, the fat content of desserts and cakes is also high, and the elderly should try to eat less such high-fat snacks. Polyunsaturated fats (such as corn oil and sunflower oil) and monounsaturated fats (such as olive oil and peanut oil) are best eaten alternately to absorb various fatty acids in a balanced way.
7. Add less salt, monosodium glutamate and soy sauce, and make good use of other seasoning methods. Old people who are not sensitive to taste often feel tasteless when eating. When food comes up, salt is suddenly added, which is easy to ingest too much sodium and bury the hidden danger of high blood pressure. You can make more use of some fragrant vegetables, such as coriander, mushrooms and onions, to scramble eggs or make soup and porridge. The use of white vinegar, fruit vinegar, lemon juice, orange juice or pineapple can also change the taste of food. Use some Chinese herbal medicines, especially strong-smelling angelica, cinnamon, spiced, star anise or sweet wolfberry and red dates, instead of salt or soy sauce. The strong taste will help to arouse the appetite of the elderly.
8. Eat less spicy food
Although spicy spices can arouse appetite, eating more of these foods can easily lead to imbalance of water and electrolyte in the body, dry mouth, irritability and poor sleep, so it is advisable to eat less.
9. Add more water during the day
Many elderly people don't drink much water all day because they are worried about urinary incontinence or often run to the toilet at night. In fact, the elderly should be encouraged to drink more boiled water during the day, or make some herbal tea (try not to put sugar) to change their taste, but drink less sugary drinks. Drink less water after meals to avoid going to the toilet at night and affecting sleep.
10. There are great differences among the elderly who take a multivitamin supplement every day, and different elderly people need different nutrients after taking the medicine for a long time. It is the most basic and safest way to strengthen nutrition for the elderly to take a variety of vitamin supplements every day, especially vitamin B supplements, antioxidant vitamins C and E, calcium to maintain bones, zinc to enhance immunity, etc. Don't take high-dose single supplements without authorization, especially fat-soluble vitamins A, D and E. If you eat too much, it will accumulate in the body and even cause toxicity.
Dietary taboos of middle-aged and elderly people
1. Avoid too much.
Eat less and eat more, and avoid overeating. Overeating will lead to acute dilatation of the gastrointestinal tract, causing gastrointestinal digestive and absorption dysfunction. Some studies show that eating less and eating more meals is a good way to prevent obesity.
Avoid being tough
When people are old, their teeth are loose and their digestive function is low. Chop and cook vegetables, and use tender leaves. Avoid eating hard and fried or dry food.
Avoid partial eclipse
The diet of the elderly should be diversified, food should be reasonably matched, and some foods rich in iron and calcium should be supplemented, because iron is the main component of synthetic hemoglobin; Calcium deficiency is prone to bone colloid calcium and osteoporosis.
Avoid catching a cold
Old people have more yin deficiency and hate cold. Eating hot food can warm the stomach and strengthen the body, especially in cold winter.
Avoid obsolescence
The elderly have low resistance, decreased secretion of digestive glands and weak gastrointestinal peristalsis. If the food is not fresh, it is easy to cause indigestion and malabsorption in the digestive tract.
Step 6 avoid long-term vegetarianism
The elderly are forbidden to eat vegetarian food because of reduced calorie consumption, loss of appetite, or in order to lose weight and prevent hypertension. This is actually unwise and harmful to physical and mental health.
People's aging, hair turning white, tooth loss, osteoporosis and cardiovascular diseases are all related to insufficient manganese intake.
Manganese deficiency not only affects bone development, but also causes bone pain, fatigue, hunchback, fracture and other diseases. Lack of manganese can also lead to dull thinking and ineffective feeling.
Manganese contained in plant food is difficult to be absorbed by human body, while manganese contained in meat food is less, but it is easy to be used by human body. Therefore, eating meat is an important way to absorb manganese. Therefore, the elderly should not be vegetarian.
7. Avoid using aluminum tableware.
The main cause of Alzheimer's disease is the deposition of aluminum in human body, especially in cerebral cortex. Mainly manifested as mental retardation, mental disorder, gait ataxia, confusion, speech inversion and so on.
Therefore, the elderly should try not to use aluminum or aluminum alloy tableware, especially aluminum tableware to store salty, sour and alkaline foods and dishes for a long time to reduce aluminum intake. ? Click here to learn more exciting? Nutrition and diet knowledge of middle-aged and elderly people?