Elderly people may experience different health problems in winter, so they should pay more attention to their diet during this season. The supplementation should be based on different conditions.
1. How to Supplement for Diabetic Patients?
Diet principles: Diabetic patients must control their daily energy intake and choose foods with a lower glycemic index (GI). The GI of the staple foods chosen by diabetic patients should be mostly below 55, and they should also choose some staple foods with a GI between 55 and 70, while avoiding those with a GI above 70. Foods with a GI around 10-20 include barley, soybeans, broad beans, frozen tofu, dried tofu, peanuts, low-fat milk powder, cherries, plums, fructose, and potato vermicelli. Foods with a GI between 30 and 50 include lotus root powder, sweet potatoes, milk, apples, pears, grapes, oranges, and mung bean noodles.
Therapeutic diet:
Spinach Root Congee: Wash and chop 250g of spinach roots, add 10g of jinqi (a Chinese herb), and simmer in water for half an hour. Then add washed rice and cook it into a porridge. Take it once a day. Spinach root congee can benefit the internal organs, quench thirst, and lower blood sugar.
Chinese Yam and Pumpkin Congee: Slice 30g of Chinese yam and dice 30g of pumpkin, then cook them with glutinous rice to make a congee. Take it 2-3 times a day. Chinese yam and pumpkin congee can tonify the middle, quench thirst, and lower blood sugar.
2. How to Supplement for Poor Lung Function?
Compared with normal individuals, patients with chronic lung diseases have increased energy expenditure. If their intake is insufficient, it can lead to malnutrition over time.
Diet principles: Patients with chronic lung diseases should consume low-carbohydrate foods, especially avoiding monosaccharides like glucose and disaccharides like sucrose, as well as high-fat diets. This is because carbohydrate metabolism produces more carbon dioxide, which needs to be expelled from the body through the lungs. This is not beneficial for patients with pulmonary heart disease. High-fat foods produce less carbon dioxide but have higher calorie content, which can provide the required energy for patients. To avoid the side effects of high-fat foods, it is necessary to reduce the intake of animal fats and consume more foods rich in monounsaturated fatty acids, such as olive oil and tea oil. It is also important to maintain the moisture of the respiratory tract. Additionally, increasing calcium intake can enhance the expansibility of the respiratory tract and reduce the severity of asthma.
Therapeutic diet:
Therapeutic Diet for Tracheitis: Boil 250g of white radish, 65g of rock sugar, and a suitable amount of honey with a bowl of water over low heat until the liquid is reduced to half a bowl. Eat the radish and drink the soup twice a day continuously. This has a good therapeutic effect on chronic bronchitis.
Therapeutic Diet for Asthma: Boil 500g of pumpkin, 15 red dates, and a suitable amount of brown sugar. Remove the pumpkin skin and cut it into pieces. Remove the pits from the red dates. Boil them until soft, then add brown sugar and consume. This recipe has the effect of nourishing qi and relieving asthma.
3. How to Supplement for Osteoporosis?
In winter, due to reduced sunlight exposure, the elderly are prone to vitamin D and calcium deficiencies, leading to osteoporosis.
Diet principles: The elderly, especially those with osteoporosis, should eat foods rich in calcium and vitamin D, such as egg yolks, animal liver, soy products, dried shrimp, dried scallops, seaweed, sesame paste, and walnuts. Milk and soy milk are the preferred foods for calcium supplementation. Drinking a cup of skim milk or a bowl of soy milk in the morning and evening is beneficial for the elderly in winter and for calcium supplementation.
Therapeutic diet:
Bean Paste with Peach Flakes: Boil 150g of lentils for 30 minutes and remove the skins. Steam the lentils until they are soft and make a paste with water. Stir-fry the sesame seeds until fragrant and grind them into powder. Heat oil in a pan, stir-fry the lentil paste until most of the moisture evaporates, add sugar and mix well, then add sesame seeds and walnut kernels and mix well.
Pork Rib, Tofu, and Dried Shrimp Soup: Boil 250g of pork ribs, 400g of tofu, 1 egg, 50g of onions, 1 clove of garlic, 25g of dried shrimp, yellow wine, ginger, green onions, pepper, salt, and MSG to taste. Boil the pork ribs in water and remove the foam, then simmer with ginger and green onion until well cooked. Add tofu, dried shrimp, onions, and garlic, and simmer for a few minutes. Season with salt and MSG and bring to a boil. Regular consumption of this soup can strengthen the tendons and bones, moisturize the skin, nourish the internal organs, and clear heat and detoxify.
Sesame Paste with Brown Sugar: Take 25g each of brown sugar, black sesame seeds, and white sesame seeds, and 100g of lotus root powder. Roast the black and white sesame seeds, then add the lotus root powder and mix well with boiling water. Finally, add the brown sugar and stir well. Drink it once a day. Suitable for middle-aged and elderly people with calcium deficiency.
