Getting a senior parent to stay on a healthy diet can be challenging. There are many reasons seniors stray from the healthy meals they know they should eat. Seniors with mobility challenges may find getting to the store difficult, so they eat take-out or processed food from the corner store instead of going to the market. Or, if they don’t like to cook an entire meal just for one person, seniors may rely on snacks instead of eating regular meals.
Processed foods, junk foods, take-out, and other unhealthy foods are okay once in a while. But when your senior eats them daily, that can cause significant health problems like obesity, diabetes, and insulin resistance. If you’re struggling to try and get your senior loved one to eat better, there are some things that you can try:
Senior Home Care
Senior home care does more than help seniors with meals. But it can play a significant role in ensuring seniors eat healthy meals daily. With senior home care, your senior loved one will have a friend they trust coming to help cook meals, share meals with them, and help them clean up after the meal. So your senior loved one can enjoy good company, conversation, and a healthy meal. Senior home care increases the chances that your senior loved one will want to eat regular healthy meals.
Grocery Delivery
Indeed, getting groceries delivered to your senior loved one is an option if access to healthy food is part of the problem. You can shop local markets on an app choosing fresh vegetables and produce or frozen, healthy proteins and other foods your senior loved one should have in the house. You can even shop for healthy pre-made meals like bagged salads, deli-made pasta, or chicken. Pay with a credit card and a shopper will pick up all the items and deliver them directly to your senior loved one’s home. You can see and speak with the shopper in real-time as well. Grocery delivery is a great way to ensure your senior parent has healthy food in the house.
Healthy Meal Kits
You can also sign your senior loved one up for healthy meal kits. These meal kits are delivered with all the ingredients included and pre-measured for the number of meals ordered. So each meal will only serve the number of people you choose. Your senior parent won’t have to worry about leftovers. Also, everything they need for the meal, right down to the spices, is in the kit, pre-cut, and measured. Meal kits make assembly easy. Generally, most have healthy options like heart-healthy meals, low sodium meals, diabetic meals, and so on.
Home Cooked Meal Services
Support local small businesses by signing up for a home-cooked meal delivery service. Usually, other seniors themselves are the home cooks running these businesses. These businesses will cook home-cooked favorites that your senior parent may love but can’t cook anymore. Meals like meatloaf, pork chops, spaghetti with meatballs, and others are familiar to seniors, so they may prefer to eat those meals. Seniors enjoy the food. While you get the satisfaction of knowing they are eating a healthy, home-cooked meal.
If you or an aging loved one are considering hiring Senior Home Care in Carefree, AZ, please contact the caring staff at Home Care Resources at (602) 443-4700.
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