It’s Summer, Seniors! – Eat Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Senior Health  |  July 12, 2021

What Every Senior in Edmonton, AB Needs to Know About Healthy Eating During the Summer Season

Eat Fresh Fruits and Vegetables | At long, last summer is here! And that means fresh fruits and vegetables straight from the garden, food co-op, roadside stand, or local grocery. As a caregiver, you can help the senior in your life eat well, enjoy the best of the season’s bounty, and reap the benefits of healthy eating.

How to Eat Well During the Summer Season

Eating well this season is about fresh, colourful food, and on many occasions, eating out of doors with family and friends which adds to the pleasure. For older adults, there are particular benefits of healthy eating. They include increased mental acuteness, resistance to illness and disease, higher energy levels, faster recuperation times, and better management of chronic health problems. Eating well can also be the key to a positive outlook and staying emotionally balanced.

Eat Fresh Fruits and Vegetables: Healthy Senior Portions

MyPlate for Older Adults, developed by Tufts University researchers to replace the USDA food pyramid, continues to emphasize the importance of fresh fruits and vegetables in the senior diet. Included among the recommendations of MyPlate are eating bright-coloured vegetables such as carrots, zucchini, summer squash, and broccoli, and deep-coloured fruit such as plums, berries, and melon.

Hydrating Foods for Seniors

Foods with high water content such as lettuce, garden fresh tomatoes, watermelon, homemade fruit, and vegetable juices are good for seniors to add hydration, especially during the heat of summer. Soups, such as gazpacho, which can be made from fresh vegetables and served chilled during warm weather are ideal and healthful, too.

Be Creative with Food for Seniors

Be creative in the kitchen. Making small changes in the way you prepare food can often help overcome the challenges of adding fresh fruits and vegetables to your senior’s diet. They can help him or her enjoy meals more, and assure that he or she gets the nutrients and energy needed for healthy, active living as well.

If your senior doesn’t feel like eating because food no longer tastes good, you can enhance the flavor of food by cooking meals in new ways or by adding different fresh herbs such as basil, dill, thyme, mint, or chives. Be sure to check with a doctor or registered dietitian about foods to include or avoid.

Eat Fresh Fruits and Vegetables: What They Do for Disease

Does your senior have cardiovascular disease, suffer from poor circulation, or have challenges with eye health such as macular degeneration or cataracts?

Antioxidant-Rich Foods for Seniors

Antioxidant-rich fruits are plentiful this time of year and are outstanding foods for protecting cardiovascular and eye health. Blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, mulberries, cherries, black plums, and even grapes – but especially fruits with dark purple pigments — fight inflammation and improve blood flow, and also help prevent blockages to the arteries.

Superfoods for Seniors

Superfoods like spinach, the king of the green leaves, and other good greens like kale, Swiss chard, turnip, mustard, and collard greens are rich in lutein, a carotenoid compound found in colorful fruits and vegetables that protect cells from damage.

A diet rich in spinach helps shield the macula, the center of the retina, from cell damage that can cause both age-related macular degeneration and cataracts. If your senior already has macular degeneration, he or she should be loading up on that vegetable.

Orange bell peppers are the best dietary source of the carotenoid zeaxanthin, the other carotenoid that concentrates in the back of the eye. They have a lot of vitamin C and more zeaxanthin per mouthful than any food on the planet.

Other orange vegetables such as pumpkin, squash, sweet potatoes, and carrots are also chock-full of vitamin A, which boosts night vision. They also contain carotene which helps lower the risk of cataracts.

Healthy Dessert Options for Seniors

Nothing harkens us back to our youth like the smell and taste of fresh fruit pies, tarts, cobblers, or crumbles. Adding fruits like peaches, mangoes, and berries to smoothies or homemade ice cream is a perfect way to get calcium, too.

Look for ways to combine foods from the different food groups in creative ways.

For instance, salsas or relishes made from a mixture of fresh fruits, vegetables, onions, and spices are ideal accompaniments to grilled fish or meats. You can do this while continuing to eat familiar foods that reflect your cultural, ethnic, or family traditions. Experiment with ethnic foods, regional dishes, or vegetarian recipes. Try new recipes from friends, newspapers, magazines, television cooking shows, or cooking websites.

Eat Fresh Fruits and Vegetables: Healthy Options this Summer!

Older adults can feel better immediately and stay healthy for the future by choosing healthy foods and the choice is never better than in summer. But as always, before you make any dietary changes for your senior, be sure to consult a doctor or a health care provider.

Comfort Keepers® in Edmonton Can Help with In-Home Elder Care!

If you are concerned about the health and well-being of your aging loved ones we can help with retirement care, 24-hour care, respite care, senior care, companionship care, end-of-life care, post-surgery care, palliative care, personal care, senior living transition services, and much more! 

Comfort Keepers®’ are trained caregivers who help provide senior clients with the highest quality of life possible to keep them happy and healthy at home. 

Companionship Care and Interactive Caregiving™

Our Interactive Caregiving™ provides a system of care that addresses companionship, safety, nutrition, mind, body, and activities of daily living (ADLs).

Moreover, our trained caregivers are selected with one specific quality: empathy. Empathetic care is care that starts in the heart, and it allows us to meet our client’s exact needs. 

Home Care Edmonton

To learn more about senior care in Edmonton, contact the Comfort Keepers® office to discuss our unique service offering. If you live in Devon, Edmonton, Sherwood Park, or Stony Plain and surrounding areas, contact Comfort Keepers at 780-465-4665.

Is Invoicing Modelling and Client Direct Home Care the Right Option for You?

Comfort Keepers® Edmonton is an Approved Service Provider for the Client Directed Homecare Invoicing (CDHCI) Program Offered by Alberta Health Services. Read more about the program HERE.

Comfort Keepers® Edmonton is here to help you and your loved ones get the best care possible. Recently awarded the “Accredited with Exemplary Standing” seal by Accreditation Canada, our Edmonton location has achieved the highest available certification in Canada for Home Care services, clearly demonstrating Comfort Keepers’ commitment to offering safe, high-quality home care to its senior clients in Edmonton.

References

‘Eating Well As You Get Older’, published by National Institute on Aging on NIH Senior Health

‘MyPlate for Older Adults,’ Published on Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy

‘Foods for Your Anti-Aging Diet’, By Peter Janet, Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD

‘20 Common Foods with the Most Antioxidants’, published by WebMD

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