In your role as a family caregiver, you know how important it is for your aging parent to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet. What they eat makes a tremendous difference to their health and well-being, and their quality of life as they age in place. May 24 is Eat More Fruits and Vegetable Day.
This is a wonderful opportunity for you to focus on helping your parent eat a more diverse, healthy diet and introduce more forms of produce into their daily eating. For many elderly adults, changing up their diet dramatically can be intimidating. By approaching the process carefully and making changes thoughtfully, however, you can help your parent experience the benefits of a healthier diet enjoyable.
Use these tips to boost your parent’s nutrition on Eat More Fruits and Vegetables Day and beyond:
-Have a routine of trying a new type of fruit or a new vegetable each week. Explore options together and visit farmer’s markets and ethnic stores to find new options. Even trying a new type of apple can broaden your parent’s horizons.
-Explore recipes together and encourage your parent to research recipes that appeal to their tastes or that interest them, such as dishes from a different culture or culinary tradition.
-Change up your favorite recipes in simple, but effective ways. Adding more vegetables to pasta sauce or serving peas rather than corn at dinner is easy, but can add up to a big difference.
When you purchase vegetables and fruits, prepare them as soon as you get them back to your parent’s house.
Wash and dry fresh produce and store them so that they are easily accessible by your parent for snacks and inclusion in meals. Having raw vegetables chopped up and stored in the refrigerator beside dip such as hummus makes it easy to choose this for a snack rather than chips or other unhealthy options
Starting home care for your aging parents can be a fantastic way to help them enjoy a higher quality of life as they age in place. The highly personalized services provided by an in-home senior care services provider can allow your parent to pursue a lifestyle that is more independent, active, and fulfilling, while also ensuring they have the support and care necessary to manage their individual challenges and limitations.
Even if your aging parent is largely independent and has only mild to moderate needs, the personalized support and attention from a home care provider can be valuable. This assistance can help your parent to stay more active, enjoy more time out of the house, save time and energy, and experience more physical, mental, and social activity throughout their later years. As their family caregiver, this can give you peace of mind knowing that they will be in good hands both when you are able to be with them, and when you are not.
If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring Senior care in Morgan Hill, CA, contact the friendly staff at Home Care Professionals today.
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