Holiday Retirement residents boost their health with nutritious meals
As we age, our nutritional needs change—and a diet that once worked just fine a few years ago may no longer keep you healthy. Partly because of this, seniors are a particularly vulnerable group at risk of malnutrition, which is when the body doesn't get enough nutrients from the foods you eat to work properly.
Living alone doesn’t help either. Recent studies have found that compared to seniors who lived with others, seniors who lived alone were at an increased risk of malnutrition, eat fewer daily meals, and have less protein and fewer fruits and vegetables in their daily diet. Think it can't happen to you? Think again. Malnutrition can sneak up on anyone, no matter your weight or your background, which is why it's so important to make sure you’re eating a balanced diet as you age.
Not sure where to begin?
March is National Nutrition Month, making it a great time to evaluate your eating habits and bridge any nutrition gaps in your diet. Luckily, that's easy to do when you’re ordering from a nutritious and tasty menu at a Holiday Retirement community. Check out these transformation stories from two Holiday Retirement residents who once struggled to eat their daily recommended fruits and veggies, but whose health improved tremendously after moving to a senior living community.
Lorna lived alone after her husband passed away and she realized her eating habits had started to change, decline even. Each day she hardly ate anything—a cup of coffee and cereal for breakfast, a roll or muffin for lunch and an egg with snacks for dinner.
All that changed when Lorna moved to the Saginaw, Michigan retirement community. Lorna now enjoys a nutritional breakfast of oatmeal, grapefruit, oranges and toast along with coffee and tomato juice. She eats a full lunch complete with dessert, and dinner has become her favorite meal of the day thanks to the delicious, homemade soup that's available every evening.
Carol recalls the state of her health when she was living alone: "I was undernourished—both nutritionally and emotionally. I didn’t realize how badly my health was suffering."
As fate would have it, Carol was invited to lunch on picnic day at Ormond In The Pines. After sampling all the delicious food, it was a no-brainer decision for her move to the Florida retirement community. Carol now eats three nutritious meals a day, which she says have helped her energy, her physical health and her state of mind.
Ready to make a change? Download our free e-book for tips on how to eat and stay healthy at any age and contact us to learn more about a Holiday Retirement community near you!