Guide to health care for the elderly-dietary rules
1, a small amount of meals, with snacks to supplement nutrition.
Middle-aged and elderly people can't eat much at one meal because of their poor chewing and swallowing ability, and the interval between two meals is very long. It is suggested that middle-aged and elderly people eat 5 ~ 6 meals a day, and supplement some snacks between meals, such as miscellaneous grains porridge and oatmeal, or a combination of soybean milk and small pieces of fruit.
2. Replace some animal proteins with bean products.
In the process of human aging, protein's catabolism is enhanced, its synthesis becomes slow, and its utilization rate is low. Therefore, middle-aged and elderly people need to supplement more protein. As the intake of meat must be limited, some protein sources should be replaced by beans and bean products. Nuts such as peanuts, walnuts and almonds also contain high-quality protein.
3. Add vegetables to the staple food and cook together.
If middle-aged and elderly people often take porridge or noodle soup as their staple food, they can add 1 ~ 2 kinds of vegetables to cook together every time to ensure that they eat at least half a catty of vegetables every day. Try to choose soft vegetables, such as tomatoes, loofah, wax gourd, pumpkin, eggplant and tender leaves of leafy vegetables, and cut them into small pieces or plane them into filaments before cooking.
4. Eat two servings of fruit every day.
Fresh fruit is an important source of vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber in the diet, which plays an important role in regulating metabolism in the body. It is suggested that middle-aged and elderly people eat 2 servings (200 ~ 400g) of fruit every day. Some soft fruits, such as bananas, watermelons, peaches, papayas, mangoes and kiwis, are suitable for middle-aged and elderly people. They can slice or scrape fruit paste with a spoon. If you want to make juice, you must pay attention to controlling the amount, and you can add more water to dilute it when making juice.
Step 5 supplement b vitamins
Diseases, drugs or surgery can lead to a large loss of B vitamins. For middle-aged and elderly people who are sick, special attention should be paid to supplementing B vitamins. Whole grains and nuts are rich in B vitamins. Therefore, when preparing three meals for middle-aged and elderly people, you might as well add some brown rice and white rice to cook porridge, or you can put a small amount of nuts into a blender and break them into powder, and add oatmeal to cook oatmeal.
Step 6 limit oil intake
Middle-aged and elderly people should mainly eat vegetable oil, avoid fat and animal fat (lard and butter), and fry and cook food less. In addition, desserts and cakes are also high in oil, so try to eat as little as possible. Change polyunsaturated fats, such as corn oil and sunflower oil, monounsaturated fats, such as olive oil and peanut oil, and take in various fatty acids in a balanced way.
7. Make good use of other seasoning methods
Middle-aged and elderly people who are not sensitive to taste often feel tasteless when eating. Making good use of the unique aroma of certain foods can make foods delicious with less salt. Some fragrant vegetables, such as coriander, mushrooms, onions, etc., can be used to stir-fry or cook soup and porridge. The use of white vinegar, orange juice or pineapple can also change the taste of cooking. Adding a little strong-smelling Chinese herbal medicine, such as angelica, cinnamon, spiced, star anise or medlar, red dates, etc., also helps to arouse the appetite of middle-aged and elderly people.
8. Eat less spicy food.
Although spicy spices can arouse appetite, eating too much of these foods is easy to hurt yin, leading to imbalance of water and electrolyte in the body, dry mouth, irritability, poor sleep and other symptoms.