Is Your Senior Snacking Too Much?

Track Meals and Snacks

If you and your elderly family member aren’t sure whether she’s snacking too much or not, it can help to keep a food log for a few days or even a couple of weeks. In-home care professionals can help to make this a lot easier. What you’re looking for here is just a general idea what and how often your senior is eating. This isn’t about making any judgments about the foods she’s eating. What you’re looking for here is information.

Hungry or Dehydrated?

So, say you’ve kept the food log and your senior is noticing that she is snacking a lot. Is she hungry when she grabs that snack, or might there be more going on? Lots of times when people think they’re hungry and need a snack, what they really need is some water because their body is letting them know that they’re thirsty. It’s really easy to confuse hunger and thirst, though, especially when your senior is only a little bit dehydrated. Grabbing water first and then assessing whether she still wants the snack can help her to narrow it all down.

Unhealthy Snacks Are Often Easier to Grab

It’s no secret that less healthy food choices are often a lot easier to grab than healthy choices are. There is often some prep work that goes into grabbing something healthy, especially as a snack. Home care professionals can make quick work out of preparing healthy snack options in advance and making them easily available for your aging family member.

Portion Sizes Get Out of Hand Easily

Another common problem with snacking is that it’s really easy for portion sizes to get out of control. Having a few nuts might not seem like a big deal, but nuts are high in healthy fats. Too many of these tasty snack-sized treats might mean that your elderly family member unintentionally gets way more fat in a day than she really wanted or needed to get. Keeping tabs on snacks can help with this.

Boredom Is Another Big Cause of Snacking

If your elderly family member is finding herself bored a lot, she might be turning to snacking without realizing it. This is especially true if your elderly family member is spending a lot of her time alone. In-home care providers offer companionship and can help your senior to avoid boredom which could lead to other bad choices.

Getting a handle on out-of-control snacking is an important way for your elderly family member to stay on top of her health goals. With your help and the help of in-home care professionals, that’s a lot easier for her to do.

Source
https://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/what-to-know-about-malnutrition-in-older-adults

If you are considering in-home care in Xenia, OH, for an aging loved one, please contact the caring staff at Touching Hearts At Home of Dayton today at 937-870-2015.