Meals Prepared For The Elderly

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There are two kinds of prepared meal programs for the elderly:

* Congregate Meals - inexpensive nutritious meals served in group settings
* Home Delivered Meals - meals prepared and pre-packaged off-site for delivery in-home

About 1,600 congregate meal sites across the country offer hot lunches to seniors over 60 years old. These sites are often located in senior centers, churches and synagogues, schools and apartment buildings. Many offer transportation and some activities along with lunch. Some places may ask for a small donation.

Home Delivered Meals are usually one hot meal a day on weekdays, are mostly for homebound seniors. Meals on Wheels isn't the only program, but it's certainly the most well known. Unfortunately, the need in many communities is greater than the funding, so an elder who qualifies may have to go on a waiting list. Besides delivering meals, another advantage to a meal delivery program is that volunteers who deliver meals to seniors are usually trained to spot and report problems.

Regardless of where the meal is prepared for an elderly loved one, the point ...
... is to eat right. Ask the doctor about healthy weight averages. Women who gain just twenty pounds double their risk of heart diseases. Include five servings or more of fruits and vegetables in the daily diet. Limit the amount of salt, sugar and high-fat foods. Take advantage of community home and group meal programs, nutrition websites and food banks. You may also consider contacting the agency on aging and the local senior center to sign up for prepared meal programs.

Usually, poor eating habits stem from limited finances (look into food stamps) depression, poor mental health, difficulty with grocery shopping and cooking, improper dental care, diminishing taste buds, and foods that cause stomach upsets. Simple dehydration, which is the loss of the body's water supply, can also bring about mental confusion, disorientation and other problems.

Lately, more and more prepared home meal delivery companies are getting into the senior segment. As seniors continue to be the fastest growing population, those with disposable income can often get every meal they need delivered every day. Or, you can also look into weekly or monthly prepared meal delivery programs, where you can have a selection that you choose on a daily basis to prepare, without the interruption or inconvenience of answering the door for your meal delivery.

Many of today's prepared meals for seniors incorporate a better selection of tastes, as well as the nutrients that senior needs to stay healthy. These meals are usually low in fat, low in sugars and salts, but are still tasty enough to break through the taste buds to make the meal tasty and enjoyable. You can either look online for these companies, or when you see a diet commercial advertising, contact them to see if they have a senior prepared meal delivery program available - chances are these days that they do, and are more than willing to have you as their customer!