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Submitted by aarbee on 25 August 2016

When your loved ones age, it becomes vital to address the right diet for them, because more often than not, improper food intake causes a lot of stress and discomfort. Dr Bhuvaneswari puts together some simple tips from her experiences as a primary caregiver for her parents.

Changing the diet patterns for the elderly in the Indian context needs a proper looking into as it addresses a few common problems that the elderly tend to face :

1.  Loss of teeth: 

This naturally takes away the capacity to chew and grind most food products. Therefore, take care to provide only easily chewable food to the elderly, suffering as they are from lack of teeth. Please try and restrict food such as murukku, bony meats, fruits like sathukudi, oranges as well as fibrous vegetables such as bush beans. Sometimes, teeth can break while eating such food, and even swallowed, causing problems. Mashed food, vegetables in soup forms and juices are the ideal food products.

2. Weakened muscles for swallowing: 

This causes a problem of regurgitation, especially if one takes more food in one mouth or gulp down liquids too fast. Therefore please ask them to eat slowly with a spoon. Also tell them that instead of gulping the food, they should finish swallowing one mouthful before taking another.

3. Reduced digestive capacity: 

Do not serve them spicy food, excessively oily food and also see that they do not over eat. Instead, try and see that they go for frequent, small, easily digestible food portions. The ideal way would be to pressure cook rice and vegetable and lentils, so that there is no frying and the food is also soft and easy to digest.

Soft Food Recipes For Lunch and Dinner

Soft Food Snack Recipes

4. Existing medical conditions: 

Please pay strict attention to medical conditions of the people concerned and diet restrictions should be imposed accordingly. Make sure salt is restricted for people with hypertensive and heart issues (avoid papad, pickles and other namkeen food items), fat intake for persons with atherosclerotic heart disease and and also fried sweets and savouries, especially during the various festivals  that our country celebrates. Restrict protein intake for people with kidney disorder and water and liquid intake for persons with kidney problem and heart failure.

Related Reading:

Diet for Chronic Kidney Disease

Diet for people with hypertension and heart issues

5. Digestive disturbances due to medicines:  

Commonly prescribed drugs can cause gastritis, irritable bowel movement and even diarrhea, especially in the elderly. In these cases , please be sure to reduce excess chillies, pepper and ginger  in the diet. which may aggravate the symptoms.

6. Nutritional deficiencies due to certain conditions:

Restriction in food intake and inability to chew can lead to lot of nutritional deficiencies in the elderly. 

  • Protein deficiency: Supplement with milk/cheese, egg white, meat soup and protein shakes.
  • Calcium deficiency: Try and fulfill the need by milk products and til(sesame) powder.
  • Iron deficiency: Supplement the need by date syrup, unsweetened if needed.  You can also supplement the need for greens with curry leaf powder, sprouts and sundals.
  • You can also use readymade nutritional powders for the preparation of kanji which are easily digested.

7. Fruits and fibres: 

Elderly need their daily fibre, but too much of it can cause abdominal distension and discomfort. Softer fruits are okay and even juices, but give it to them without straining so to retain some fibre. Sometimes even pediatric fruit supplements have been seen to be pretty good. But you must take care about the sugar content, because food for kids are usually very high on sugar.

Keep the food tasty, provide variety and let them indulge occasionally. 

But perhaps the most important and invaluable service that one can extend to the elderly is to give them company during mealtimes, so that they feel wanted and can be coerced into eating better.

Read here: Elder friendly dining tips and home modifications