Senior Care Academy - A Helperly Podcast
Senior Care Academy is the podcast for caregivers, senior care providers, and families with aging loved ones. Hosted by experienced professionals, we explore essential topics like elder care planning, dementia support, financial advice, and emotional wellness for caregivers.
Each episode offers expert insights, practical tips, and resources to help you navigate senior care with confidence. Whether you're a healthcare provider, a family member supporting aging parents, or a senior adult seeking guidance, this podcast delivers actionable advice tailored to your needs.
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Senior Care Academy - A Helperly Podcast
Better Nutrition and Diet for Senior Health with Amy Covington
Could changing your diet in your 70s actually improve your health, or is it too late? According to nutrition expert Amy Covington, the power to transform health through diet remains strong throughout our entire lives.
Amy shares the remarkable story of a senior who initially refused to change his eating habits but experienced dramatic improvements in his diabetes management and mobility after just six months of nutritional changes. This transformation challenges the widespread belief that older adults can't reverse chronic conditions or improve their metabolic health.
Drawing from her experience overseeing Utah's nutrition programs and researching senior malnutrition, Amy distinguishes between simply "plant-based" eating and truly nutritious whole foods. She offers practical approaches for seniors hesitant to completely eliminate animal products, suggesting an 80-20 rule that allows flexibility while maximizing health benefits.
Perhaps most valuable are her strategies for addressing decreased appetite, a critical issue for many seniors. From making mealtimes social events to enhancing food's visual appeal and stimulating appetite through light activity, these techniques help break the cycle of poor nutrition that often accelerates health decline. Amy also recommends specific screening tools caregivers can use to identify nutrition risks before they become serious medical concerns.
Whether you're caring for an aging parent, working professionally with seniors, or planning for your own healthy aging journey, these evidence-based nutrition strategies offer a path to enhanced quality of life. Discover how simple changes like incorporating more colorful vegetables, switching to whole grains, and being mindful about protein sources can significantly impact wellness in our later years.
• Nutrition changes can significantly improve health at any age – even in your 70s or 80s
• Plant-based nutrition offers specific benefits for chronic conditions common in seniors
• Small changes like following the 80/20 rule can make meaningful health improvements
• Decreased appetite is a major concern for seniors, often creating a cycle of poor nutrition
• Eating with seniors, making meals visually appealing, and encouraging light exercise can improve appetite
• Eating less red meat (ideally twice monthly) and focusing on whole grains offers significant health benefits
• Medicare and Medicaid increasingly recognize nutrition services for chronic conditions
• Simple screening tools like the Malnutrition Screening Tool can help identify nutrition risks
• Frozen fruits and vegetables are cost-effective alternatives that maintain nutritional value
• Changing the plate composition to include more colorful vegetables and fruits is an easy first step
Contact your local Area Agency on Aging through das.utah.gov/locations to learn about meal programs and nutrition services available in your county.
Welcome to Senior Care Academy. Brought to you by Helperly, I'm your host, caleb. I'm excited to have you as we explore the challenges and opportunities in senior care today, so let's jump in. Today we have a very special guest joining us Amy Covington. Amy is a registered dietitian nutritionist and oversees the nutrition program for the entire state of Utah. She's an expert in senior nutrition and has a wealth of experience. We'll be diving into the biggest nutrition challenges seniors face, practical ways to improve their health through diet, and the role of plant-based nutrition in longevity and wellness. Plus, amy is going to share insights from her research and experience working directly with seniors, offering valuable takeaways for caregivers, family members and anybody that is passionate about senior care. So we're excited to have her on. Well, amy, thanks so much for coming on Senior Care Academy today.
Speaker 2:You're welcome. I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so first tell us about yourself and kind of your journey that got you to where you're at. Can you share what inspired you to pursue a career like in the nutrition space and then specifically originally starting with seniors and everything?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. So this, being a registered dietitian, is actually my second career.
Speaker 1:Your season two. If you will, my season two absolutely.
Speaker 2:I had just some. Well, let me back up. So what got me into nutrition is several years ago I had some health issues and the medical field wasn't offering good answers for what I wanted. Kind of it was out of my control and I thought I don't know that I like that. So I did a lot of research for myself and made some changes nutritionally. That really helped me a lot. So then, when I decided to pursue a second career and go back to school, get my master's in dietetics or my master's degree, I looked and I thought you know what dietetics is where I want to go, because it's so empowering to know that what we eat really can impact our health. It doesn't necessarily change everything, but we do have some power in our own health, and so that's what got me into becoming a registered dietitian. Nutritionist is to help empower others for their health and what they wanted, yeah.
Speaker 1:I think it's crazy how often modern medicine has come so far, but how often a lot of times it's like limited to what it can actually do, and it's like just getting back to our roots of eating good whole foods would solve a lot of stuff. Yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2:A lot of our chronic illnesses that we deal with, and especially in the older adult population, lifestyle is a big factor, not discounting the medicines that we have today In tandem they're really strong.
Speaker 1:If it's just medicine and you're eating junk food all day, it still has lots of problems. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yep, exactly. And then, while I was working on my master's degree, one of my professors received a research grant for older adults in home delivered meals, population and malnutrition and asked if I wanted to be a co-investigator with her and I thought, yeah, let's give that a try.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that was supposed to be two years. Then we applied for another second grant that went for three more years, and now we're in the middle of our third grant, which is a five-year grant.
Speaker 1:So what was going to be just a two-year jumping off point for me, you know in research and nutrition has ended up becoming my career being a decade in basically kind of overseeing nutrition for the state of Utah. So can you talk a little bit about that, your current role, overseeing that nutrition program? There's lots of cool things that you're doing to help Utah seniors.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So to kind of boil it down, what my main job responsibility is is in order. Order for so we have area agencies on aging I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, familiar with those triple a's, triple a's yep, uh-huh, and there's 12 different triple a's throughout the state of utah. Some of them are located per county, some of them have a few counties, um, in, you know, in their same area. Yeah, but they provide nutrition programs for older adults and and that's the Home Delivered Meals Program and the Congregate Meal Program they receive funding through the Older Americans Act for those programs, and in order to receive that funding, there are certain guidelines that they need to follow, and so my job is to monitor and make sure everything's being met appropriately, which is really great. They do such a good job, and the reason that I think it's so great is it's making sure it's a nutritious meal. The meal needs to meet a third of the daily requirements for this population, and so they're getting one meal a day.
Speaker 1:That has nutrient, dense yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so they you know, the caregivers or family or the participant can feel good about that meal, that hey, I'm getting the nutrition I need. And other meals of the day they might not be getting that, but this is a good, balanced meal and so so, yeah, I get to monitor the programs. I get to go all over the state of Utah. I've gone on several home delivered meals routes and those are great and it's just really um wonderful to meet with different of the seniors and what their experiences are, and these are just great programs.
Speaker 2:So I'm happy to be able to do that.
Speaker 1:I love that. Um, I'm super curious because Utah, I feel like we have a pretty cool. Um, super curious because Utah, I feel like we have a pretty cool. Um, the state is just very. You have a Metro and like Salt Lake along the Wasatch front, and then you have crazy rural places, Um, so we have a big kind of melting pot of different living experiences. Considering, like, how different Salt Lake is to a Kanab or Vernal or something.
Speaker 1:How does the state approach nutrition differently between those two? I'm curious because I wonder if, like in the rural places, where maybe they have more homegrown food, is it like as needed? I don't know, I'm just. How does it? How do you, with the 12 different areas of aging that have such different people, make sure that everybody's getting the right nutrition?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question and, honestly, on the state level, we don't do that this is where our AAAs come in.
Speaker 2:So, within these guidelines that we make sure they're following, there's some flexibility for them to really approach it for the people in their areas, and so you know some counties that have people that live very far. They can't receive a home delivered meals because they can't drive to them, but they send frozen meals and so they've adapted that way. Other areas maybe they have smaller routes so that they do take longer to deliver to get to a different area. The nutrition requirements stay the same. But the other thing that's really important that they need to use part of the Older Americans Act is that they're getting feedback from their participants and adapting it to something that, yes, it meets the requirements, but is it something they enjoy and is it palatable With that? There are also other things that the AAAs will do.
Speaker 1:So at senior centers they have people that have gardens and they've got, you know, all this excess.
Speaker 2:They come and bring it and anyone can take it, and so it's just. They're all like a whole unique little area in and of themselves. They just manage it very differently, and so we allow that flexibility for them to adapt it to those various areas. That's interesting, Is there?
Speaker 1:and I don't know if there's not a right answer, but is there like similar adaptability for like cultural palatability? Right like in utah, we have a lot of native americans and their general, their typical food like, or the same thing with hispanics?
Speaker 1:or asian americans, like their palates might be different, like they want to have. Is that also kind of in that realm of um customization that each area can do for their people? Or is it kind of like here's Tuesday's meals and it's mashed potatoes and steak and like whatever and everybody gets it, even if you like hate it? I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so yes and no, that's a great question. The flexibility is there, so I know there's certain areas that they will have. Flexibility is there, so I know there's certain areas that they will have, um, culturally cultural meals, you know, like maybe an Asian meal or a Mexican meal one day, so everyone will get that same meal. They can't do yeah, but they try to make it throughout the week that there's like oh, I'm really looking forward to taco Tuesday or something like. Okay, yeah, exactly, that's so interesting.
Speaker 1:So in your season one of your life you were in kind of private practice and how would you say that that influenced the approach that you have to getting nutrition for seniors in their homes?
Speaker 2:So in my private practice I was in a physician's office, and so family medicine and a lot of older adults you know are frequently going to their family medicine. I want to hear a crazy statistic that I learned today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 61% of all money that we're going to spend in our lifetime on health care happens after the age of 65. And the average lifespan in the? U is 77 years old. So that means that over half of all money that you're going to spend on healthcare happens in the last 12 years of your life, which is crazy. Anyway, no, that is really crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah, I saw that. You know, at the, at this office. It was what I really took away from that experience pertaining because I saw all ages, but what I really took away working with older adults in that area is being able to see the metabolic improvements.
Speaker 1:Interesting. We talk about it like hey, if you eat?
Speaker 2:healthy and do these things, you'll see improvements in your metabolic markers. And then to have them do that and then have blood work done and to actually see okay, we're not just talking here Older adults can improve their diabetes, type 2 diabetes and prediabetes, high cholesterol. They can bring that down. Hypertension they can work to either reduce the doses of their medications or get off of the medications if they're willing to make these changes. And so that was really great to really see that actually working and in action. And then it also you know the conversation would come up about well, maybe I don't want to live longer.
Speaker 2:Oh, interesting you know I'm kind of done why would I want to live until I'm 90?, and so then that changes from like not just longevity, but quality of life, and like you know, prolonging morbidity and so really having you live as long as you can and healthy and active before anything you know might interfere with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's interesting, I wonder. I bet that you didn't get a lot of like I don't want to be around for another decade. Maybe post like spouse dying that was more common. But I would feel like the people that were healthy and had a good active lifestyle they weren't the ones saying like, yeah, I wouldn't mind if I was gone in the next few years. It was the people that had already had so many health choices make it so. That way, their quality of life really isn't that good, and so they're like I don't want to live like this for another decade.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, they'd been through some really hard, tragic things potentially and had some health issues. Yeah, exactly, yeah.
Speaker 1:It is interesting though, because you mentioned with the metabolic markers, I feel like there's. Is that like a false? What's the word? Not a false? I'm trying to remember the word. I know it's in one of these questions, so let me, aaron, what is it? When it's like a false belief, a? I'm just blanking. False equivalent, no.
Speaker 2:Like placebo.
Speaker 1:No, I'm so blanking on this word.
Speaker 2:Come on.
Speaker 1:Get there, get there, brain blast Jimmy Neutron or whatever False whatever. But I feel like it's really common to have this like false belief around aging where you can't reverse the because everybody we're getting older, our bodies are deteriorating because we're getting older. But I feel like there's this belief that when you become a senior it has this quick drop off and you're like going down and you can't slow down Like you're just going to, you're going to pass away in like shambles of what you could have been, but I feel like that's not true.
Speaker 1:Like in my family, my grandma grandpa's 90 and he's still kicking it Like I think he's going to pass away super peacefully in his sleep 30 years from now. I don't know, but is it like a false belief that you can't slow down that metabolic decline and all the other declines that are happening as you get older?
Speaker 2:It sounds like it's like I can't remember what the term is, but no, I, I exactly know what you mean, because you know I would have people come and they're like well, I've been diagnosed with type two diabetes and my mom had it and my brother or my aunt, and they just have this feeling of I have to accept this now and this is my journey and I'm going to decline, and so I've just got to get on medicine and and I'll be taking this pill and doing that for the rest of the next 40 years Exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's you know. That's, I think, where I go back to my experience with my health, when I thought I could do like there's gotta be more to this, this issue and being able to really see yes, it doesn't matter what age you are, you definitely can affect your health in a positive or a negative way. And changing that belief, I think, is probably step one, that what I do will matter. It doesn't matter that I'm 60 or 70, I can improve this.
Speaker 1:And I think it's the return that you get for it. Say, you're 70 and like you've been living life a certain way and you have all these terrible health markers and it's like, well, it'll take me three years to turn it all around. It's like, yeah, but then maybe you die or you pass away at 85 instead of 70. Set like that, what is that extra eight years worth to you? You?
Speaker 1:know, is it worth a year or two of really hard work to get back onto the horse. You know that extra eight years with family or friends or hobbies I think it's the mind, the shift in mentality around health as you get older. I think is so important to have and being able to help seniors in our life and ourselves Like I'm. I'm 26 and I still have that. I'm like man. It's so much work to try to get back on the horse but it's like at this point I have this. It could add way more quality of life to my later years. So, yeah, well, and can I touch on that?
Speaker 2:I think that's such a great comment. It actually doesn't take that long to see improvements, so let me, if I could share an example of one of the gentlemen that I worked with in one of our studies. He was at a congregate mill site and he had had some. He had a wife die, son die. His diabetes was getting really bad, his functionality was going downhill, he'd been falling. He qualified to be in our study and he said, all right, I'll try it, but I'm not going to change. I'm not going to change what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:I'm like that's okay, let's you know let's just see what you can do.
Speaker 1:Do the behaviors and see what happens. You don't have to believe it.
Speaker 2:Uh-huh and it took him a little time to kind of buy into it. But within the first three months, three to four months, he'd been back to his doctor and his doctor said your A1C has improved a lot. So whatever you're doing, keep doing it. So in that short amount of time and by the time he'd finished the study, which was six months, he was walking better, he was being able, he was able to go down to the gas station again to get his morning drink and things can turn around.
Speaker 2:So it really doesn't take a long time to see some of the benefits.
Speaker 1:Maybe the full picture, just little changes that you're able to implement, you can really start. That's pretty incredible, that's fascinating yeah. Literally half a year is. It's not that long, especially when you get to being an older adult. It's like you've gone through so many years at six months. It's like that you know like and so taking half a year to get back on track and then committing to a long-term health is really interesting.
Speaker 1:We found, as we were doing some random research on a website, that you maybe what switched your health over was kind of going to a plant-based nutrition diet. Is that accurate, mm-hmm? Yep, our research was good, you did good, yep, you did good, Yep. Do you find that a lot of seniors would be open to like plant-based diets because you've seen firsthand the effect that they can have? Or are there added benefits to seniors for a plant-based diet versus just like a normal well-rounded nutrition kind of thing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's a good question. Definitely there are benefits and I would say I feel like the population, the older adult population, is starting to understand better health and taking that into their own hands. A little bit more than maybe in the past. And there are. So, and let me maybe, plant-based versus vegetarian, versus vegan.
Speaker 1:Is that okay? If I kind of cover that a little bit?
Speaker 2:too, so whole. So we want to say whole food plant-based, because really what we're talking about, you know, oreos are plant-based.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true, they're. You know, they're not there's no animal products.
Speaker 2:Veggie straws are plant-based. You know you could take you could, I mean stretch it. Those are better, exactly, yeah, like you can.
Speaker 1:potato chips are plant-based yeah.
Speaker 2:And so so we want to focus on whole food plant-based. So you want to eat the potato, not the potato chips and things like that. So so that whole food plant-based, that's also a little different than like vegan. You know vegan is more of maybe directed towards animal rights and the environment, and you know they don't won't wear leather or they avoid, you know, honey things like that, any sort of animal product.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then you've got vegetarian, which there's a spectrum, you know. Honey, things like that, yes, product, yeah, yeah. And then you've got vegetarian, which there's a spectrum, you know you can be vegetarian and still eat fish. But you don't need any of the others. So um so, with that whole food, plant-based diet, the reason that is such a like I'm such a proponent of that is because you're getting whole fruits and vegetables and whole grains and, um, proteins that are very healthy.
Speaker 2:That have fiber, but also have the protein and the iron and the magnesium that your body needs, and you know you're just getting back to the earth and feeding your body what it needs and in a whole way, and so so, yes, that that does help a lot Older. So when I, when I approach, approach this maybe with older adults, because when they come to me and they say, you know, I don't want to, I don't want to be diabetic, I want to reverse this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that takes a lot of effort, yeah.
Speaker 2:And you really are going to have to cut out some um animal proteins to do that and really switch to getting those whole foods. But there's a little leeway in that, you know, you don't have to completely cut out all animal products to do that.
Speaker 1:So it's like going a little bit back to. We are, as a species, used to be hunter, gatherers like you'd typically have whatever you could gather and if you got lucky and got some animal meat once, however often you could great, but, like vast majority, what was available was what you could gather, which is plants.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, and it's. It's interesting because a lot of you know meat and a lot you know if we're eating a lot of that, that can actually cause inflammation in our body and so, yeah, getting back to just having a little bit is is good, um. So when I approach it, they're not, you know, not everyone's okay with that Um, but I do mention, you know, maybe try to have a meal that's plant-based once a week and and start there and and they're, you know, happy to do that. The gentleman that I I was talking about, he stopped eating hot dogs and I was so happy about that because that's the oreo of meat of animal-based meat.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, exactly, um.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, sorry, I was no, you're good, I don't know if you want some like specifics on different like diabetes and heart disease, yeah, no, I think it would be really interesting what specific kind of differences are there with, for health and health issues, to adopting a full plant-based diet like compared to a regular diet that's animal meat-based. Three meals a day of protein, you know? Yeah, how do you what?
Speaker 2:you mentioned diabetes a few times and other things that that can affect this would be interesting okay, yeah, um, so older adults have higher rates of chronic diseases, and those are, you know, obesity type 2 diabetes, heart disease, constipation which can lead to like diverticulosis and things like that.
Speaker 2:So GI issues and then, you know, dementia and Alzheimer's, and so just some of the foods that are beneficial. For those like diabetes, more fiber helps to keep the glycemic response under control and then helps with increased bile absorption and so it's not being reabsorbed into the liver and promoting a worsening of diabetes or fatty liver disease. And so fiber, your soluble fiber, like legumes, oats barley, some fruits and some vegetables, is really important. And then insoluble fiber, so all of those plant foods, oats barley, some fruits and some vegetables is really important, and then insoluble fiber.
Speaker 2:So all of those plant foods, whole plant foods, are really important. Those also help with heart disease. You know, the thing is is we have these. The way these chronic illnesses affect us, I think are genetically disposed.
Speaker 2:You know, you're predisposed for diabetes or you're predisposed for heart disease. But feeding your body, it's all connected and so when you have, you're eating, you know you're avoiding animal products that are high in saturated fats high you know they can cause inflammation in the body and you're bringing in the high fiber foods, the healthy fats. It's going to help everything. It's going to help diabetes, you know, heart disease. When you're doing those, you're getting more phytonutrients and a lot of those healthy fats from nuts and seeds and olives, and you know those types of foods. And it's low in saturated fat, which is really important too for heart disease.
Speaker 2:That leads into hypertension. You know, more vitamin C, less sodium, more potassium, that's going to help with hypertension, and so you just can't go wrong.
Speaker 1:It's going to help in every way. Just eating more plants, more plants, yes, so with that, the gentleman in your example, you know he he cut out hot dogs. Major win, probably from 80 years of eating hot dogs every day um and then.
Speaker 1:But what would be like ideal for somebody that like said they're kind of they want to keep meat in their life? Is it like have uh, lean meats once a day, or something like, if there was, was a rule to help curb the anxiety that comes with people like, but wait it's so good. What would you say would be like the bare minimum or the not the bare minimum, the maximum amount of meat. And then what type would you recommend people have in that to if they wanted to have meat in their diet still?
Speaker 2:Okay, so an easy way to do that without an assessment is to just say, like an 80-20 rule. 80% of your meals are just really nutritious and whole foods brown rice, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes those are a superfood, so we definitely want to get those on our plates. And then, yeah, having legumes. Those are a super food, so we definitely want to get those on our plates. And then, yeah, having some meat is fine. Red meat is one I would stay further away from.
Speaker 2:I know it's got so much of that good fat in it Saturated fat is really high in red meat and so you know people that would come to me and they're like I have red meat every day, what can I do? And I said can you cut that down to once a week?
Speaker 2:And they're like ah no, I can't like, okay, twice a week, so then they would do twice a week and then they'd be like, hey, I'm actually learning to really enjoy plant foods and so so I would say, for red meat, ideally, if you're really talking like, hey, I really want to fix my health and you want to keep red meat, yeah, cut it. But if you really want to keep it twice a month is my special occasion. Yep hey we got a raise or whatever date night, you know.
Speaker 2:Um, and then the meats that, if you want to keep them in, you want to go with your lean meats, so lean chicken, so white meat, fish and turkey you know, poultry, your lean poultry, and then 80-20 is like maybe you're eating that every other day out of the meals.
Speaker 1:Yeah, interesting, I think I can do that. Or small portions, you know it could even be, which sometimes is hard.
Speaker 2:So it's whatever works for you Some people are like I'll just have a little bit versus.
Speaker 1:Okay, tomorrow I'm having my chicken breast and it's going to be, you know whatever it's, whatever works for you.
Speaker 2:Every step in that direction, though they do show improvements in health. That's so interesting.
Speaker 1:Even just taking cutting red meat consumption to twice a week, had this big improvement, and then cutting it to twice a month and exactly you mentioned something about portion sizes which made me think about an issue within older adults which I think it's common is appetite. So as they get older they just eat less, and so it's hard to get those nutrients in every single day. So, what advice do you have for that, for people that see that in their loved ones?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is a very common issue with older adults and that can lead to malnutrition, which is a big concern in this population. But you know, the first thing I say is limit drinks during a meal because you don't want to have them filling up on a drink, so limit that. Offer smaller food items throughout the day is also helpful. Another thing is, you know, maybe they've had some diet restrictions and so they're like I'm just not happy with this, pulling up the Internet with them and looking you know we have so much access to all kinds of recipes and ways to make foods and eat and have them look and you know, talk about it Like, hey, what about we try this?
Speaker 2:And you do it together, which also leads to eating with them. That is really helpful. People who eat alone will eat less than if someone else is with them. So, if you can sit down and have that meal with them, Make it an event.
Speaker 2:Use the nice china or make it look appealing and pretty and have a good conversation while you're eating. Those are some things that help, and then physical activity will help to improve appetite as well. Yeah, burning calories, things that help and then physical activity will help to improve appetite as well, and so calories, if you can get them moving before they they'll get.
Speaker 2:You know that gets your gi system running, moving actually if you do exercise, whatever it is, whatever they can do, um, and then there was one last thing I had. Wow, where was that? It's okay. What question was?
Speaker 1:that? Uh, this was the question eight. What are the most common nutrition challenges?
Speaker 2:you had appetite, mobility and absorption okay, yeah, right here, sorry, no, you're good um way to make it number based, so you could recall it. I'm like I just didn't have time to really even go over everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think I had it in a different section, but oh, another, yeah. So another issue that can come from you know, when we get older and that appetite, our appetite decreasing is, our taste buds change and so food tastes different and so we just kind of lose the pleasure in eating and so we don't want to just add salt, which is can happen often. Some people are avoid salt, but a lot of older adults salt because they need to get more flavor.
Speaker 2:So really just getting creative with herbs and spices and even Mrs Dash has a lot of no sodium, you know different variety and then keeping in mind, with a decreased appetite, when someone hasn't been eating well for a while, it just it's kind of like a circular effect If you're not eating well, your appetite goes down, and then you continue to not eat well, your appetite goes down, and so some point it's like I know, you know, maybe you don't feel like eating, but food becomes medicine.
Speaker 2:Now and so it's that conversation of you know, let's just get some food in you, even though you may not be enjoying it as well as you could, um, to get their appetite to come back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my grandpa. Um, on my mom's side he, he has a ranch and if you don't like force him to sit down, like take food to him on the tractor and like make him turn it off. He's just not eating, or he'll eat like a tiny bowl of hot cereal in the morning and then that's it for the day I think just is totally fine yeah, it really is like very conscious effort.
Speaker 1:Um, I had a random thought as you were talking about, like let's look up meals together. I have a friend that uh or I guess my wife's friend she didn't know what to make and so with tools, today she took out her phone and opened ChatGPT. Yeah, yeah, and took a picture of the fridge and was like, what can I make? And it like, made these recipes with the ingredients in her fridge. It was pretty sweet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you can do that as a caregiver of being like go grocery shopping with what's recommended for your loved one, take a picture and just say what can I make and see if there's anything that's appealing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's pretty cool and that's such a great idea too, because that helps with food costs. You know, a lot of times we go to the store and we just buy things like, okay, we'll have this and this, but what did you have at home first?
Speaker 1:Because sometimes that ends up getting pushed to the back and we we don't use it and so how often, uh, in my house we buy like spinach and kale and blah, blah, blah, and then like two weeks later we're like ah he got one serving out of the 12 in this container, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah, that's. That's really great to take that inventory and see what can we make.
Speaker 1:Um, we the time's flying, we've been going for like 40 minutes. But what you are working with the government programs in Utah? I feel like you mentioned a few, but what are some initiatives that seniors in Utah, um, should be taking advantage of? There's meals on wheels? Is there anything else as far as nutrition goes? Any maybe dieticians from the state that can help them for those other two meals out of the day? I don't know what. What, uh, yeah.
Speaker 2:So it depends on which area you're in. Um, everyone's funding is a little bit different with the. Aaas. So some there's. There's some that may have a dietician on staff that if they're part of their programs they can work with them. For those other two, meals. And that's yeah. That's kind of what I was doing is helping like, okay, you're getting one balanced meal, but how do we navigate?
Speaker 1:these others? How do we not get a microwave meal for those other two meals?
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, that's, you know, not widespread because of funding which?
Speaker 1:we all understand yeah.
Speaker 2:But Medicare and Medicaid have are recognizing nutrition and dieticians more, and so if people have certain chronic conditions, their insurance can pay for a dietician.
Speaker 1:And so they can just look that up. They just call their insurance and see if it's part of their policy or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, call your insurance, find out if that's part of their policy or whatever. Yeah, yeah, call your insurance, find out if that's covered. You can talk to your physician and ask for a recommendation as well. Sometimes physicians will have connections with dieticians, and so that's the best way to do that. There are online dieticians as well. I don't know that insurance. Some of them would take insurance. A lot of them don't, but I wish it was a little more simple to get older adults in front of dieticians.
Speaker 1:But we're getting there, we're taking steps and I think to your point earlier where um, older people like 80 years old and older, like they aren't as speaking generalities. They aren't as open to using technology and using google and using chat, gpt. But I think that the baby boomers that are getting into being older, they're more open to the free resources that are all over the internet to like get started or the, you know, using the internet to find a dietician in their area, or like find a Facebook group of like health. I don't know, I'm sure there's a.
Speaker 1:Facebook group out there called like healthy grandmas or something. And so, like I think that we're getting there, and it's just kind of this bridge period between now and the next one, to maybe two decades of getting people that are using their technology to do a lot of that, so it's yeah, it is tricky and, I think, relying.
Speaker 1:One like supporting the elderly people in our lives to get there and help them and use our aptitudes to try to help. And then two is just like government programs trying to support the best that they can in the meantime, you know like, yeah, it's really interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're, you know, they do education, nutrition, education quarterly also for participants of the meal programs for the home delivered and the congregate, so they do get you know.
Speaker 1:general nutrition information, which is really helpful too like screening tools available that caregivers or other providers for seniors that they could use to monitor their seniors health to just like a 20, answer these 20 questions to see what blah blah blah Like. Is there something out there like that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, there are a few that would be appropriate for that, that setting One of them is. So we're looking. There's a couple different ways where we can screen. We can look at nutrition health just in general, and so that would be the determine your nutrition health risk is questions on how many you know. Are you eating fruits and vegetables each day? How many alcoholic drinks do you have? How many medications do you take? So those all factor into nutrition risk and so that gives a score Malnutrition risk. It's called the MST malnutrition screening tool and it's just a few questions.
Speaker 1:And you just go to Google MST or malnutrition.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, and so if caregivers can do that, that is a really good thing to give to their physician and or make a contact and say hey, I just screened my mom and I'm concerned because she's scoring this on the mst, and make an appointment um to talk to the physician, um have you know, maybe he'll have a dietician he can bring in as well. But but, yeah, those are, those are good. Those are a couple of the screening tools that are available.
Speaker 1:I love those. I think that it's so underappreciated how much taking the five minutes to do a test like that and then, you know, red flagging it for their primary care physician can go a long way, cause I bet a lot of uh, if I were a betting man I would bet that most of their insurances cover it. But it needs a cause, it needs a well. We're getting a dietician because and not just like everybody- not Oprah.
Speaker 2:you get a dietician as much as that would be awesome. Exactly, yeah.
Speaker 1:But you know getting that started because then when they go into that appointment their physician can say yes, insurance, they need a dietician. Because and it takes five minutes and a phone call- to like help an aging person.
Speaker 2:Do that or themselves to do that. Yeah, and you know some other things as a caregiver you can look at is if they have a change in mood and they're down a lot more than they used to be or sleeping more a lot more than they used to be, or sleeping more. If there's been a recent loss, a lot of those things right, there are a flag that hey, there's going to be some changes in what they're eating, and so getting the eyes on how much are they eating if it's someone that's not in the home all the time?
Speaker 2:just looking for even those physical changes and how their affect is and stuff can also be a you know like huh, something's changing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And with your nutrition. So let's, let's look into that a little deeper.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, what so say they do, that they get in contact with their physician. What's something that a senior caregiver, if they wanted to start making small and meaningful changes, um, changes to get towards a healthier diet, what's something that they could do, like today?
Speaker 2:Okay. So I don't know if everyone's familiar with MyPlate. It's the government, it's a plate, you know it's in the school. Sometimes it's green, red, blue and yellow. You got it. Yeah, focusing on that plate is really helpful. It's a very good visual of okay, is this meal balanced? And so start there. Look at that. But statistics show we are not, as a society doesn't matter your age getting enough fruits and vegetables, so start with that All right, and it's like half your plate or something.
Speaker 1:Half, yes, should be a vegetable.
Speaker 2:Vegetables or fruits, okay, and or you half your plate or something, half, yes, it should be a vegetable. Vegetables or fruits, okay.
Speaker 1:And or you know, oh good, yeah, it can be. And or Because I'm way more just kidding.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Vegetables are better a lot of the time, but Nope, they're not.
Speaker 2:Fruit and vegetables are awesome. They all have their own role.
Speaker 1:My Not as good as vegetables. Just get a plate of kale and suck it up. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So do you remember that old you know, eat the rainbow. You're probably too young.
Speaker 1:I don't remember Eat the rainbow.
Speaker 2:You know you want your greens and your reds and your whites and your yellows and oranges all the color of the rainbow. So if you've got a rainbow on the half of your plate, you're doing great.
Speaker 1:so you don't want to just eat apples only because yeah, that's not good.
Speaker 2:Or just kale, that's not good. You want variety so get those fruits in there too? Yeah, absolutely, and so that's a an easy first step. Um, with cost, frozen fruits are just as cost effective, or sorry, they're more cost effective because they don't go bad and you're not throwing them away.
Speaker 1:And they're just as nutritious as fresh, and so people tend to shy away. Oh, I have to go where it's fresh and that's not the case. Yeah, it doesn't lose nutrition.
Speaker 2:Yeah, even can't If that's the best way someone can get their fruits and vegetables in. Just make sure it's no sodium added and no added sugar. The nutrition value goes down slightly, but not enough to not eat it. Whatever you can do to get fruits and vegetables in, because sometimes eating hard vegetables is hard in this population, so a canned one is going to be better. Great, do that. The other one I would say is switch to 100% whole grains. That's an easy switch. We're eating bread, we're having tortillas, we're having pasta.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And rice Switch to whole grain. One tip for bread with whole grains is bread can say it's whole wheat and it's not.
Speaker 1:It's not whole grain, yeah.
Speaker 2:So you have to look at the nutrition or the ingredient list and if it says enriched, that's not a whole grain. If it just says whole grain flour, you know that's good, that's what you would want to pick. And then the third one I would say decreased saturated fat in the diet. So swapping butter for, like olive oil and avocado oil, skim milk versus whole milk, or even, you know, 2% milk, or some simple changes that people can reduce fat intake. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, Um. Last two questions is one, what advice do you have for somebody getting into the space, a dietician that's maybe that's focused on seniors? Um, and then two, if anybody wants to get in contact with some of these nutrition programs for the state of Utah, who should they reach out to?
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, great. So yeah, for a dietician just getting into this space, I would say I think we approach sometimes older adults as they're all the same and they're just younger people in bodies that have aged. They still you know they're, they're very independent, they know what they like. Um, and to not think because they're older we know better, and to discount the, the years of living that they have.
Speaker 1:Years ago they were just dating their soon-to to be spouse and had all the like they just they lived that too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like, yeah exactly yeah, and so you know, listening to them and what what might work for them, you know they might not want to change some things changes hard, that's been ingrained in them. You know we get in our comfort zones and getting out of that is really hard, but they're willing to do that. So don't I just, you know, don't underestimate the power that you can have as a dietitian in helping them have better health and helping them change and have more helpful patterns in their life. So it's a great space to be in Um and then, if anybody's interested in the meal programs um for like the triple a, to figure out which triple a you're, you live in um go to dosutahgov D.
Speaker 1:A S dot Utah. D A S D A S dot U T or Utah.
Speaker 2:Utah.
Speaker 1:Dot gov.
Speaker 2:Dot gov forward slash locations, so yeah. Awesome, and then it'll have a click box that you click on the the county that you live in, and it will direct you to the area agency on aging. Give them a call and they can hook you up.
Speaker 1:Awesome, amy. I really appreciate your time and wisdom that you shared. There's a lot of, uh, health things that I can change that I learned that I'll implement, um, but yeah, it was great having you in and I appreciate you taking 45 minutes here.
Speaker 2:So yeah, well, thanks. This is a great podcast that you guys are doing and I appreciate that you're doing it Well, thank, you, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning in to Senior Care Academy, brought to you by Helperly. We hope that today's episode provided some insights and something valuable to help you care for yourself, a loved one or seniors that you serve. If you enjoyed the episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate and leave us a review, and if it was extra insightful, share it with a friend so that they can get something out of it also. We'll see you next time where we continue to explore the heart of senior care. So until then, take care.