24-Hour Home Care: March is National Kidney Month and it’s a time when seniors and their family caregivers should take a good look at what seniors are eating.
Diet is one of the best weapons that seniors have against kidney disease. Kidney disease affects half of all seniors over the age of 75. By making some healthy dietary changes now your senior loved ones may be able to avoid kidney disease or slow down how fast it develops. A 24-Hour Home Care Services provider can help with this.
Seniors who have medical conditions like hypertension and diabetes already have an elevated risk for developing kidney disease. Medications can play a role in getting kidney disease too, which is one of the many reasons why seniors need to pay attention to their diet. Along with taking their medication and exercising seniors should make sure that they are eating these kidney-friendly foods every day:
Fresh Vegetables
All adults should be eating six or more servings of fresh vegetables each day. Frozen or canned vegetables are good to eat if fresh produce isn’t available, like in the winter, but whenever fresh vegetables are available seniors should be eating fresh vegetables. They can even grow their own vegetables at home. Planter boxes and other accessories make it easy to grow fresh vegetables even if seniors don’t have a big yard. The kind of vegetables that are best for seniors who want healthy kidneys are: red bell peppers, cabbage, garlic, onions, and leafy green vegetables like kale or spinach.
Fruit
Seniors that want healthy kidneys should be avoiding salt and processed sugar. Processed sugar is fine in small amounts but there is so much sugar added to processed foods as a preservative that the number of sugar seniors eat can balloon quickly. Seniors who have a sweet tooth should enjoy fruits with natural sweetness to get their sweet fix in a kidney-friendly way. Apples and cranberries are particularly good fruits for seniors to eat.
Seafood
Heavy and fatty meats like beef and pork aren’t good for heart health. Seafood like salmon is the best type of protein for seniors to eat. But if your senior loved one doesn’t like seafood then they should eat lean meats like turkey or chicken and take a fish oil supplement for the Omega 3 fatty acids. If your senior loved one stays away from seafood because they aren’t comfortable cooking it a 24-hour home care provider that helps your senior loved one with meals can cook fish for them.
Follow the DASH Diet
What’s the DASH diet? The DASH diet is the only diet that is recommended for seniors by the National Kidney Foundation. The DASH diet can reduce a senior’s risk of developing kidney disease by lowering cholesterol, preventing hypertension or lowering blood pressure, and helping to stabilize blood sugar too. There are many books and websites dedicated to the DASH diet so you and your senior can find DASH-approved dishes that your senior will enjoy eating. A 24-hour home care provider can also help make sure that the meals your senior loved one is eating meet the DASH requirements.
If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring 24-Hour Home Care in Carefree, AZ, please contact the caring staff at Home Care Resources at (602) 443-4700
Source:
https://www.kidney.org/atoz/content/Dash_Diet
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