What is Nursing Care Meal? Basics and Tips for Preparing Meals for the Elderly
Eating is one of the most important pleasures in our lives, but as we age, our ability to eat declines.
“I want to be able to enjoy delicious meals even as I get older” is a wish that everyone has. Particularly in today’s society where the aging population is progressing, this wish is becoming a growing social need, and an increasing number of young people are learning about nursing care food for themselves and their families in the future.
Many people may have questions such as, “What is nursing care food?” and “How do I make it?”
In this article, we will explain the basic concepts and types of nursing care food, as well as key points on how to make it.
What is nursing care food?
Nursing care meals are meals provided for the elderly in nursing homes or at home that are designed to prevent aspiration and nutritional disorders.
In a broad sense, this could include people who have difficulty eating due to illness or injury, or people with developmental disabilities, but generally speaking, the target audience is often “elderly people who have difficulty eating.”
In this article, we will discuss “care food” as meaning food for elderly people who have difficulty eating.
If swallowing ability weakens, aspiration occurs repeatedly, making it easier for bacteria in the mouth to enter the lungs. When bacteria enter the lungs and cause inflammation, it is called aspiration pneumonia, and is known to be one of the leading causes of death among the elderly.
Three characteristics of nursing care food
Nursing care meals have three main characteristics:
For elderly people, food that is too soft may not be satisfying and may not be satisfying. Therefore, it is best to maintain a certain level of hardness so that food can be crushed in the mouth even if the person has weak teeth .
Using oils and fats that are smooth and easy to transport from the mouth to the throat
to bind ingredients together helps food go down the throat more easily and prevents choking. Thickeners also help make food easier to swallow without changing the taste.
Requirements for nursing care food
Nursing care food must meet the following requirements:
[Safety]
Preventing aspiration is the top priority. It is necessary to understand which foods are difficult to swallow and to devise food forms and feeding methods that will prevent aspiration.
[Nutritional value]
It is important to consider nutritional balance and ensure sufficient intake of energy, nutrients, and fluids. It is also important to utilize nutritional supplements as needed.
[Preference]
It is important that the food is tasty and appetizing, taking into consideration appearance and aroma. Conventional “thick liquid food” and “chopped food” have the problem of not stimulating the appetite.
Nursing care meals can contribute to improving the quality of life of the elderly by not only providing food but also taking into consideration how it is eaten and the environment.
Nursing care food shape
Care meals are prepared in a variety of forms to suit the level of decline in the eating function of the person receiving care.
The main shape classifications are as follows[※].
| Blender food | Ingredients mixed in a blender to make a liquid |
| Jelly diet | Mixed food with gelatin and other ingredients to solidify it into a jelly-like substance |
| Thickened food | Ingredients are blended in a blender and thickened with a thickening agent |
| Paste food | Ingredients made into a paste using a mortar and pestle or food processor |
| Pureed food | Ingredients that have been boiled or blended, then strained to make a smooth consistency |
| Chopped food | Finely chopped ingredients |
| Extremely chopped food | Even finer than chopped food |
| Super chopped food | Even finer than extra-finely chopped food |
| Soft food | It looks almost the same as regular food and is indistinguishable, but it is soft when chewed. |
*These categories may be called different names depending on the facility that provides care meals.
Key points for choosing care food
A mark that makes food selection easier
In reality, you won’t know if a food matches the condition of the person receiving care until you buy it and try it. However, if you have some kind of guideline, you can make a rough estimate before purchasing. The guideline is the Japan Nursing Care Food Council’s “Universal Design Food® [※]” mark and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ “Smile Care Food” mark.
These two marks are based on a common standard that standardizes indicators such as “ease of chewing” and “ease of swallowing,” which previously varied from food manufacturer to manufacturer. Because there are two standards, it cannot strictly be said to be “unified,” but there is no doubt that they have been consolidated and made easier to understand. If you refer to these marks when purchasing food, mismatches will be reduced and food selection will be easier.
Key points to remember when preparing care meals
Care meals can be purchased commercially or made at home. By following the basic points, you can even adapt everyday dishes to suit your needs.
When preparing meals for caregivers at home, it is a good idea to keep the following points in mind:
[Cooking methods]
Finely chop
; Grate
; Boil to soften
; Steam to soften
; Do not soften more than necessary (the importance of chewing)
; Thicken (use a thickener)
[Appetizing Presentation]
・Use seasonal colors
・Mold and serve (don’t serve it as a sludgy dish)
・Serve in a beautiful container
・Use lighting that makes the food look appetizing
[Food poisoning precautions]
・Keep in mind that the elderly have weaker immune systems.
・Cut your nails and wash your hands thoroughly before cooking.
・Use sterilized cooking utensils and tableware.
・Pay more attention to the freshness of ingredients than with regular food.
[Nutrition]
・Consider nutritional balance
・Avoid filling up on water alone (leading to nutritional deficiencies)
・Incorporate antioxidant foods to slow the aging process
・Avoid excessive salt intake (use the flavor of dashi instead of saltiness) [※]
* As we age, our sense of taste weakens, leading us to prefer stronger seasonings. In particular, we become extremely sensitive to saltiness, and it is said that some people can become 12 times less sensitive to it.
It’s important not to try too hard
Some people who prepare homemade meals for their caregivers every day, thinking, “I want to feed them delicious home-cooked meals,” seem to suffer from “caregiver fatigue.”
Nursing care meals do not necessarily have to be homemade every day, and not all of the dishes need to be homemade. It is important to consider using commercially available products, including convenience store foods, and to occasionally “cut corners” when providing long-term care.
Additionally, life hacks such as covering cutting boards and dishes with plastic wrap and then discarding the wrap after use to reduce the amount of dishes to wash are also effective, so it’s a good idea to ask people with caregiving experience for advice. And eventually, you should also stock up on time-saving cooking tools to further improve efficiency.
Blenders and food processors are typical time-saving cooking tools, but water purifiers are also one of them. The electrolyzed hydrogen water produced by water purifiers has excellent extraction power, bringing out the flavor of ingredients quickly and thoroughly (it’s recommended for making soup stock and removing scum).
Useful tools for preparing meals for caregivers
When preparing meals for caregivers, using the right tools can make the process much easier.
Some useful tools are listed below.
| Scale (electronic scale) | Thickeners and other ingredients need to be measured accurately, so a scale that can measure in 0.1g increments is useful. |
| Heat-resistant glass container with lid | When making vegetable puree in the microwave, a lid saves you the trouble of covering it with plastic wrap. |
| wrap | By sticking it directly to a cutting board or table, you can reduce the amount of dishes you have to wash and save time. |
| kitchen scissors | It is used when cutting things that are difficult to cut with a knife, or when cutting long noodles on top of a container. |
| Masher | Use it to mash boiled pumpkins and potatoes. |
| Strainer with handle | It is used to make soups such as potage smoother. |
| strainer | You can make the sauce smoother by mashing potatoes and then straining them. |
| wooden spatula | It is easy to apply force when straining and provides a sense of stability. |
| Mortar and pestle | It is used to make paste from seafood, knead it, and grate yam etc. It is convenient because you can check the degree of doneness while grinding. |
| Grater | It is useful for grating small amounts of ginger, radish, etc. |
| mixer | It is ideal for making juice and soup as it can mix liquids and solids evenly. |
| Food processor (blender) | It can chop, mix, knead, etc. without using liquids. It is useful when processing things that cannot be processed in a mortar and pestle. |
| Hand mixer (handy food processor/bamix) | Put the ingredients into a deep cup and mix with a hand mixer. Starchy dishes will turn into a nice paste. |
| water conditioner | The electrolyzed hydrogen water produced by a water purifier has excellent extraction power that brings out the flavor of ingredients, making it useful when making soup stock in a short amount of time. |
| creamer | It is used to mix egg whites and yolks together and to make a small amount of whipped cream. |
| Tea whisk | This is convenient when adding thickeners, etc., as you can check the viscosity while stirring. |
| steamer | It is used not only to steam ingredients to soften them, but also to heat ingredients that have been crumbled and would harden when heated, and then reshape them. |
| pressure cooker | It is convenient because it can soften hard ingredients (muscle, burdock, dried foods, etc.) in a short amount of time. A small size of about 3 liters is recommended for ease of use. |
| microwave oven | It has the same function as a steamer, but it is convenient when you are cooking a small amount of food, when you are in a hurry, or when you want to save time. It is also useful for preventing food poisoning. |
| toaster oven | Use this when you want steamed food to look like it’s been baked. |
| Shaved ice maker | Used to grate frozen paste ingredients. |
| Die cutter (die) | It makes it easy to make decorative cut vegetables and helps to add a touch of elegance to your presentation. |
| Jelly mold (pudding mold) | It can be used to make jelly and other foods, and is also useful for arranging paste-like products in a three-dimensional manner. |
| Ice cream scoop | It is used to shape paste into neat shapes and arrange them so that they are easy to eat. |
| Disposable piping bags | It is used to shape paste and to serve purees. |
| Small freezer containers | Use this when preparing and freezing purees, sauces, etc. (If they have lids, they can be stacked for convenience). |
| Silicone spatula | It is useful when packing into small freezer containers. Its moderate flexibility also makes it convenient for kneading and mixing the contents of the container. |
| small wine glasses | Serving liquid food in a wine glass makes it look more appealing. |
Of the above, the blender and food processor are the tools you will use most frequently, so it’s best to choose one that is compact, light, and easy to clean.
Also, you don’t necessarily need to have all of these tools. Start with the basics and add more as you need them.
Finally
Nursing care food is not something special, but a familiar meal that everyone may encounter as they age. Learning about nursing care food will not only help you support your own and your family’s health in the future, but will also provide you with valuable knowledge that will be useful in a variety of situations.
For example, when someone is temporarily unable to eat normal meals due to illness or injury, knowledge of nursing care food can be applied to create “medical food.” Also, when preparing baby food, there are many similarities in terms of taking into consideration chewing and swallowing ability, so knowledge of nursing care food can be very useful.
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