Soft foods are very beneficial to the elderly who may have a hard time swallowing and chewing. They allow them to continue taking nutritious and balanced meals. Soft food recipes for the elderly are usually moist and softly naturally.
Also, they can be mashed or pureed and then have some added moisture so as to make them much easier to swallow. It is important to ensure that the elderly lead a completely healthy lifestyle. So if you are wondering, what is a soft diet that’s your answer.
Ideas of soft foods
There are some guidelines that can help you to come up with the best soft food diet list for seniors. These include around 5 servings of vegetables and soft fruits. Make sure that the vegetables are cooked well. You also need to give them proteins. Make two servings of tender meat, fish, and poultry. It helps to have the bones removed first.
If the elderly person happens to be a vegetarian, you can go with lentils, beans, or eggs. Dairy products should also be included in the elderly person’s diet and these should be 2 servings. This can be milk or soy that is calcium fortified.
Rice milk is also a great option. Potato, pasta, rice, cereals, and bread should also be included in the diet. An elderly person also requires a lot of fluids most especially water so as to keep all the systems running well. There are a wide variety of soft foods for elderly.
Some helpful tips
You should choose foods that are soft and moist. You should mash, puree, grind, mince or chop foods to the kind of texture that you can be able to chew easily.
Bread and crackers need to be softened using tea, milk, or soup. You can also opt to use hydrogenated margarine, honey, or syrup. Cream, milk, or broth can be used to mask your carrots, squash, yams, potatoes, and other vegetables.
You can also blend melon, bananas, or other frozen fruits into smoothies or milkshakes. Sauce, broth or gravy can also be used so as to moisten your fish, poultry, or meat. Rice, noodles, or vegetables can also be moistened using cheese sauce.
So as to enhance flavors and moisten foods, you should make use of sour cream, salad dressings, oils, margarine, and butter.
Planning a menu for persons with difficulty chewing
Oral health surveys show that many people lose their teeth as they age. Around 30% of the elders who are in institutions don’t have any teeth. A great number of the elders have chewing difficulties and most have some discomfort eating.
Tooth loss and conditions such as stroke weakness, issues related to chewing are quite common where elders are concerned. Because of this fact, food intake is highly limited and this can impact the nutritional status of the seniors.
There are many other factors that are detrimental to the status of nutrition of the elderly and this can include foods that are not appealing, foods that are not well balanced or monotonous meals.
It is important to plan a menu well, so as to meet all the needs of the seniors nutritionally speaking, especially when they have chewing difficulties and poor dentition.
When you use a well-planned menu and selecting good ingredients, you will always have something interesting to present to seniors. Healthy cooking methods should also be practiced so that the food is nutritious and also palatable.
The planning concepts
You should always plan a menu that is within principles of healthy eating. It emphasizes the proportion, balance, and variety. Make sure that all food groups are represented in dishes meant for the elderly.
Ingredients used to make food for the elderly should be healthy and you should minimize the fat. Foods that have high fiber should also be included. This can include dried beans, fruits, vegetables and even oatmeal.
Dried beans, fish, skinless poultry and lean meat are also a great choice. Do not use meat that has a high fat like fatty pork cuts or even chicken wings.
For purposes of seasoning, it should be kept natural. Make sure that the seasoning has low levels of sodium. You can use garlic, green onions, or even ginger.
Do not use foods which have high salt content such as condiments, preserved vegetables, and processed meats. Avoid shrimp paste, fermented soybean curd, salt mustard root, and salted fish among others.
The elderly should not be fed with food that has high fat and sugar concentration like cookies and cakes. When cooking, low-fat cooking methods should be applied. Braising, boiling and steaming are some of the best ways of preparing food for the elderly.
So as to help the elderly with their appetite, you should try to combine different dishes so as to enhance the variety and taste. You can use the ingredients that are available and in season. These are fresh and they cost very little as compared to others.
You should try to plan meals ahead. Make three meals and some two snacks in between all through the day.
Steps that can be used to plan a menu
Plan your dishes well starting with the main ones; i.e. dinner and lunch. You should then prepare your breakfast, soups, and end with snacks and fruits. Different dishes require different ingredients.
For the main dishes, you need to make the meat choices first. You can then make choices based on the meat. Choose your vegetables as they will enhance the attractiveness and appeal of the whole meal.
Soup: the procedure is the same. When you make your meat choice, you need to select your vegetables so as to complement it.
As for breakfast, you need to select grains and also add some meat and vegetables. You can also include some dairy products to go with the grains selected.
There are a wide variety of fruits and snacks that you can choose from. It is always important to avoid repeating, too much or the elderly person will get bored with the same meal over and over again.
Foods to choose and foods to avoid
You should remember that elderly people may have several dental issues and so you should concentrate on giving them foods that are very soft and very easy to chew. As you prepare the meals, ensure that you chop them into nice bite sizes. They should not be more than one inch in size.
Avoid the coarse, stringy, hard, and dry textured food. If you have to feed an elderly person with such, ensure they are moistened with something that is appropriate for the meal. Also, avoid the sticky foods and foods that tend to crumble easily. They give the elderly a hard time, which is not necessary.
Make sure that the vegetables are cooked well and that they are soft too. You can consider cooking carriers and wax gourd; leafy greens should also be included in the diet. Ensure that they have tender shoots and leaves.
Spinach and amaranth leaves are some of the best choices. Do not go for the stringy, rubbery and hard vegetables such as corn, celery, lotus root, and kale.
Dried beans, eggs, fish, poultry, and meat should be on an elderly person’s diet. Concentrate on things like boneless and skinless meats like shredded chicken, minced pork, and small chunks of beef, soft tofu, eggs, and flaked fish.
Avoid the meats that are very tough, with bones, or chewy. This includes spareribs, squids, and beef chin among others.
Fruits should be the soft ones cut in small pieces such as papaya and banana among others. Dry, fibrous, and hard fruits should not be included. You can, however, blend them.
Great ideas for main dishes
There is a wide variety of the kind of foods that you can prepare for the elderly so as to give them an appetite and also make it easy for them to eat while getting great nutritional value from the meals. Some of the best meal ideas that you can try out include, but not limited to:
- Mashed potatoes with minced beef
- Minced pork, broccoli, and steamed egg
- Cabbage hot pot and meatballs
Creating an attractive menu
When you come up with foods that are attractive visually and tasty too, they can actually stimulate an elderly person’s appetite and make them feel better. This leads to a great nutritional status.
Make meals as appetizing and visually appealing as possible. Use different foods so as to have different colours on the plate. Aromatic ingredients make the food smell good.
Consider combining different colours. You can do this by using colourful ingredients so as to increase the visual appeal. Cooked carrots are appealing and tasty and when you shred some carrots on leafy greens, you get a colour combination that is quite inviting.
As for the aroma, you can make use of some natural forms of seasoning like garlic, green onions, and ginger. Aromatic vegetables can also be used such as fruits, onions, mushrooms, turnip, and leafy greens so as to enhance flavor and reduce the use of sodium condiments.
Snacks in between meals
Elderly people may have some issues with chewing and therefore they may not reach the recommended nutritional level by taking main meals only. When you plan for some nutritious snacks, you can easily increase the whole intake of food, thereby meeting the needs of your body.
Some healthy snacks can include lettuce sandwich with tuna and served together with milk. You can also serve steam chicken burn together with soy milk that is calcium fortified.
Desserts can include sweet potato soup and soybean dessert. You should consider the different needs of the elderly when you are picking a dish.
It is important to note that every elder has got his or her own tolerance level when it comes to different textures of food. So as to be sure, you could consider calling a health professional who can then recommend the best texture and consistency for an individual.
Because of different health issues and diseases, some elderly people are warned not to take certain foods. For this reason, you should be aware of all the social needs of a senior before you feed them on just anything.
Meals for the elderly
Our nutritional needs change very fast as we grow older. The way food tastes also changes with time and it can be a bit difficult for older people to smell and taste food. This means that all needs should be considered without necessarily sacrificing the flavor and the taste.
It is very possible to create tasty meals for the elderly. They don’t have to be boring and tasteless. Having many meal ideas helps you to always create meals that the elderly can always enjoy.
Nutritional needs of older people
The needs of older people differ from other age groups. As we age, our bodies change and some specific nutrients become more useful to us than others. Changes like health issues mean that the older person needs to be more cautious about the food that they eat.
There are dietary changes that you can make so as to handle chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes. There are different benefits that you can enjoy when you make the necessary changes to diet.
When it comes to meals for the elderly, there needs to be a special section that has all sorts of fluids and water. When seniors don’t take enough water, it can lead to dehydration, which is never a good thing.
An older person’s plate should also have a dairy product on it. However, sometimes you can separate dairy products from the dish and include them in another category.
Older people require different amounts of food and they also have some very specific needs nutritionally speaking. In most cases, an elderly person may be having a vitamin B12 deficiency.
This is needed so as to create red blood cells. It is therefore important to include food that is rich in this or prepare foods that have already been fortified with it.
Vitamin D and Calcium are important nutrients for the purposes of healthy bones as we age. It is therefore recommended that seniors should consume around 3 cups of low-fat milk every day so as to meet the minimum daily requirements of the important nutrients.
Food concerns
When you are making food for an elderly person, don’t think about nutrition alone. Most often than not, an elderly person may give some very specific concerns that may end up altering the kinds of foods that they are allowed to eat and what they want to eat.
Changes in smell and taste can make it hard for adults to really enjoy the food. There are those who compensate these losses by adding some salt to the meals. This is not safe as too much salt leads to a high risk of developing high blood pressure.
Instead of the salt, you could try out some dried or fresh herbs or natural spices to the food. Make the food as colourful and fresh as possible so as to help the elderly person to enjoy it.
There are other occasions when a senior person may have some serious trouble swallowing or chewing their food. This could be because of dentures or some missing teeth. When this is the case, there are some foods that need to be avoided by all means possible.
Dental issues should be addressed as soon as possible. Soft foods for elderly with no teeth are available. You can access the different list of soft foods.
Diet dos and don’ts for the elderly
As we age, the nutrition needs keep on increasing because our bodies start to degenerate. The way tissues and cells grow is very slow at a certain age. The repair of the tissues happens at a much higher rate.
An older person also suffers from poor digestion, low immunity, weak muscles, weak bones, and even fatigue. The body activities also happen to be greatly reduced and an older person can be attacked by different disorders that are metabolic like high cholesterol, blood pressure, arthritis, osteoporosis, and even diabetes.
Just because you have such issues doesn’t necessarily mean that you should eat less food. It is all about eating the right meals for senior’s combinations so that you can get all the dietary requirements of the body.
As we age, we have different requirements for carbohydrates, fluids, minerals, proteins and even vitamins. These are meals that should be created in a way that they are soft and easy to absorb and digest. Elderly people require soft foods to eat frequently and spread well all through the day.
Aging means that there are lots of free radicals all over the body. It is also what is referred to as cell oxidation. Some of the symptoms of oxidation include lack of enough energy, susceptibility to coughs and colds, skin tone reduction, faking or greying hair, as well as weak muscles.
We all need important vitamins such as vitamin A, C, and E. Minerals should also be provided in correct amounts so as to dampen the ill effects that free radicals have on our bodies.
Food is important for older people and it should be made as soft as possible to ensure that we give them as much of the essential nutrients as possible. It is important for women to mind their diet as they age.
When menopause comes knocking, our bodies are not able to absorb calcium well and that is why older women get fractures more easily as compared to the younger women.
Important tips
Colourful soft food diet recipes are always a great idea. Make sure you have enough fruits since they help in digestion and they have antioxidants too.
You should include egg whites in the diet as they are an amazing protein source. Protein is needed so as to repair any worn out tissues within the body. If your elderly person is a vegetarian, then you should go for paneer which is made using low-fat milk.
When cooking food for the elderly, you need to use good cooking mediums. Olive oil and mustard oil are great for cooking. They help prevent high cholesterol. They also help in improving the cholesterol that is already within the blood.
You should give an elderly person around seven meals within a single day as it makes it easy for them to digest and absorb. It also helps in the prevention of fatigue.
If you want an elderly person to have a healthy supper, you can consider giving vegetable soup that doesn’t have any thickening agents or cream. This is a meal that is totally adequate.
If an elderly person has to step out, they should always bring a healthy snack with them. This eliminates the need for eating out which is highly unnecessary and unhealthy especially at an older age.
Old people should avoid all sorts of processed food that have got preservatives and any artificial colour.
If you can, you should add foods that are rich in proteins such as coconut water, fenugreek seeds, sweet limes, and cumin seeds as well. Potassium helps with muscular flexibility and prevents water retention. Swellings are also kept low and the blood pressure is maintained.
When you want high nutrition, you should add some curd to rotis dough. This helps in improving the biological value of the food and it keeps it soft.
When you are planning meals for the elderly, do include oats porridge as it is great for older people.
It is important to stay hydrated at all times. Take at least 15 glasses of water every day so as not to get dehydrated. The muscle density usually reduces as we age and therefore the older people happen to be prone to dehydration especially during the summer months.
It is not a good idea to overcook your food as a means of making it soft. Doing so ends up destroying very important nutrients. Select soft food ideas that don’t require too much time to cook.
For the overall health of the elderly, it is important to do regular exercises. Yoga and stretching are amazing ways to ensure that your body is able to absorb all the nutrients in the correct manner.
Soft meals
We have established how important it is for seniors to take balanced meals and why such meals need to be soft and easy to eat and digest. You should always seek more ideas regarding the kind of soft foods recipes that can be cooked for seniors in your area. Make it possible for them to enjoy meals as much as possible.
