March is National Nutrition Month and it’s a fantastic time for seniors and their personal care at home providers and family caregivers to focus on making sure seniors are getting the right nutrition. Malnutrition is a common problem among seniors and it can make existing health conditions worse or increase a senior’s chance of developing new health problems. Seniors can become malnourished for many different reasons. Some of the most common reasons why seniors become malnourished is that they have little appetite, can’t shop as often as they need to for vegetables, fruits, and healthy food, or have trouble cooking healthy meals. If you’re worried about your senior loved one’s nutrition these solutions might help:
Grocery Delivery
A simple solution if your senior loved one has trouble shopping for healthy food is grocery delivery. To use the most popular grocery delivery services your senior loved one can use an app on their phone to select the items they want to buy then pay with a credit card. The grocery service shoppers will shop for the items and deliver them to your senior loved one’s home. Then a personal care at home provider or family caregiver can help your senior loved one put them away. A personal care at home provider can also help your senior loved one use the app to select the foods they want to buy.
Meal Kits
Meal kits are similar to grocery delivery except that the kits contain all of the ingredients needed for specific meals. All of the ingredients, including spices, are delivered to your senior loved one’s door. All they need to do is cook the meal. Everything is already portioned out and instructions for cooking come in the package too. Meal kits are surprisingly affordable and are made with high quality meats, fruits, and vegetables. There is very little waste and seniors can choose the meals they like.
Pot Luck Meals
Seniors can get the nutrition they need and the socialization they need by creating a pot luck dinner night in their neighborhood. All of the neighbors can get together to have a delicious meal that has a lot of variety so that your senior loved one can choose foods they like that are also nutritious but that may be too much for them to cook on their own. And getting all the neighbors together to share a meal will build strong bonds among the neighborhood residents.
Supplements and Nutrition Bars Or Drinks
Seniors shouldn’t rely on prepackaged foods or supplements as their primary source of nutrition but vitamins and supplements, protein drinks, and other prepared foods can fill in the gaps in your senior loved one’s diet. A protein shake that has a lot of healthy protein but not a lot of sugar is a fantastic way to make sure that your senior loved one is getting the protein they need without having to buy, cook, and eat a lot of meat or eggs. One protein shake can have almost an entire day’s worth of protein in it.