Providing Senior Home Care in the Baltimore and DC Metro Area, with offices in Pikesville and Gaithersburg.

Senior Care News

How To Help A Senior Parent Change Their Diet

Helping a senior parent change their diet is crucial for managing health conditions, and senior home care providers can assist with grocery shopping and meal preparation.
Senior home care can help seniors adopt healthier eating habits.
Senior home care can help seniors adopt healthier eating habits.

One of the hardest changes for seniors to make for their health is changing their diet. Often, seniors have had the same diet for decades. But if your mom or dad has been diagnosed with medical problems like obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, or other conditions that are impacted by diet, they will need to make changes.

Eating healthy foods is critically important for seniors because they often can’t exercise to maintain their health. However, seniors may not want to cook healthy meals just for themselves, or they may be unable to. Many seniors struggle with grocery shopping, so getting healthy food in the house can be a challenge.

If you are working with your senior mom or dad to change their diet but don’t know where to start, these tips should help you and senior home care providers get your mom or dad to start eating better and enjoying the benefits of a healthy diet:

 

Get Senior Home Care

Senior home care provides a wide range of support services for seniors. Among the services that a care provider offers are cooking meals, cleaning up the kitchen, shopping for groceries, and meal planning to ensure that meals and snacks are balanced and healthy. A senior home care provider can also share meals with your senior parent so that mealtimes are more social and enjoyable.

If your parent can do some cooking but need assistance, they can help cook healthy meals. With the help of a senior home care professional, they may enjoy learning how to prepare new foods and try new flavors.

 

Lead by Example

Show your commitment to healthy eating by making nutritious choices yourself. Cook and eat meals together and emphasize the importance of balanced nutrition for overall health. Even if you can only make it your senior parent’s home once or twice a week make sure that you’re sharing healthy meals with them.

 

Educate and Inform

Provide information about the benefits of a healthy diet, particularly for seniors. Explain how certain foods can help manage chronic conditions, maintain energy levels, and support overall vitality.  You may want to sign your senior parent up for a nutrition class online or have a nutritionist come to the house and explain how food impacts your mom or dad’s medical condition and overall health.

 

Involve Them in Meal Planning

Invite your parent to participate in meal planning and grocery shopping. Ask for their input and preferences and involve them in choosing healthy recipes and ingredients they enjoy. If they have senior home care, the care provider can sit down with your senior parent and find out more about foods they’d like to try, cuisines they might be interested in, or changes your senior parent wants to make for their health.

 

Make Small, Gradual Changes

Encourage small, manageable changes rather than drastic alterations to their diet. Start by introducing healthier alternatives to favorite foods or gradually reducing the portion sizes of less nutritious options. Making radical changes in diet usually ends in failure, so small, gradual changes are the best way to move forward. Start by introducing one more vegetable at each meal or cutting the portion size of desserts.

 

 

If you or an aging loved one are considering Senior Home Care in Dundalk, MD, please contact the caring staff at A+ Personal Home Care. Call (443) 660-8757, After Hours: (443) 796-5241

A+ Personal Home Care is a Trusted Home Care Agency serving the Baltimore and DC Metro Area, with offices in Pikesville and Gaithersburg.

Timur Yusufov
Latest posts by Timur Yusufov (see all)

Recent Posts

Categories

Contact Us About Home Care

Skip to content