With age, the appetite of the elderly gradually decreases. Dental or swallowing problems, side effects of medications, depression, pain and lack of taste in food, etc., are just a few of the reasons why the elderly cannot eat well. At this time, the best solution is to prepare easy to swallow foods for the elderly. Let’s learn some low sugar desserts for elderly together.
As we know, elderly people have completely different nutritional needs than young people. In their old age, the elderly like to eat foods with high sugar and low nutrients, which often causes concern to those around them. Most sweets are high in calories and fat.
While normal people are asked to consume sweets less and in moderation in their diet, sweets are a good option for the elderly! Because with age, the body loses its fat reserves. This can be especially beneficial for the elderly who are underweight or have malnutrition problems. In this article from humanhealthmag, we are trying to introduce you to the types of low sugar desserts for elderly that, while being delicious, also have health benefits.
What Strategies Can be Used to Make Desserts Nutritious for the Elderly?
Regardless of the elderly’s desire for sweets, convincing them to give up processed foods is a huge challenge. The best way is to gradually introduce nutrients into their diet. There are many cookbooks on the market that teach you how to add nutritious ingredients to senior meals, such as desserts. Desserts for seniors can include creamy banana ice cream, brownies, and chocolate chip cookies. Make a list of foods that your senior likes and try to include more nutrients in them.
For seniors who love sweets, smoothies are a great way to sneak in nutrients. A healthy smoothie has fruits and vegetables and does not have a specific recipe. Homemade smoothies can be packed with nutrients, taste great, and provide fat and calories. First, start with flavorful fruits. Strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, and mango are popular, and frozen bananas can provide high potassium and a creamy texture. Try adding a tablespoon of flaxseeds, a tablespoon of plant-based butter like almonds, or Greek yogurt to provide protein and healthy fats. Do you know what are foods to increase sodium levels in elderly?
Liquid multivitamins and protein powders can add even more nutrients to a smoothie. Vegetables like kale and spinach are also easy to hide in smoothies, but they may have a slightly bitter taste and change the color of the smoothie. If you use these vegetables in your smoothie, use sweeter fruit or honey to moderate the flavor. You can dilute the smoothie with ice, water, milk or orange juice.
Allow your senior to eat as much dessert as he or she likes, except in cases where the senior’s doctor has placed restrictions on the person’s diet due to diabetes or other conditions. Even if you are improving the nutritional status of an elderly person, your goal must be to make your elderly person happy as well as consuming a variety of nutrients. As they age, the elderly lose many substances. So let them be free to eat the foods they like because it improves their quality of life. Would you like to learn about tricks to stimulate appetite in the elderly?
Low Sugar Desserts for Elderly
Dessert is one of the pleasures of life. We don’t always need to go for high-sugar and high-calorie desserts, we can make wonderful desserts with simple recipes. In this section, we try to introduce you to several ideas about. The way to prepare these desserts is very simple and you can prepare them at home with minimal facilities.
Smoothies
Sweet smoothies made with fresh fruits and vegetables are a great way to make dessert for seniors that are often enjoyed by older adults. To prepare a smoothie, combine fruits and vegetables with different flavors. Also, you can use protein powder or peanut butter in your smoothie to increase its protein content.
Using dark chocolate in low sugar desserts for elderly
Dark chocolate has many health benefits and is an important source of antioxidants. All antioxidants are great for heart health and disease fighting. A square or two of dark chocolate is a very good dessert option for the elderly that even doctors and experts approve of.
You can use dark chocolate to prepare other desserts as well. Put some dark chocolate in the microwave until it melts a little and then put your desired fruit in it. Your fruit can be strawberry, mango, apricot or banana. This dessert is very nutritious and filling because fruits are rich in fiber and water. The antioxidant in cocoa increases the flexibility of blood vessels and lowers blood pressure; Because dark chocolate contains more cocoa than milk chocolate, it also has more beneficial compounds. The calories in a strawberry dipped in dark chocolate are approximately 80 calories.
Grilled Fruit
Try putting fruits such as pineapple, banana, apple or pear slices on the grill. This method is one of the healthiest ways to prepare low sugar desserts for the elderly. When you grill fruit, the juice is reduced and the natural sugars caramelize, so it tastes better. For example, one grilled pineapple juice has about 80 calories.
Yoghurt Paraphyte
Yogurt is a very good option for making dessert for the elderly, of course, choose yogurt that does not contain sugar. Greek yogurt has very little sugar. You can make parfait with different fruits like pineapple, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry and banana. These fruits add color and important nutrients to your delicious dessert. You can even add some chopped walnuts to your parfaits to give your parfait a significant amount of healthy fats.
Caramel popcorn dessert for the elderly
Popcorn is a great snack and very healthy as long as it doesn’t contain too much salt and butter. The healthy way to make popcorn is by roasting corn. Pour some melted caramel over the popcorn and turn this delicious and crunchy snack into a low-sugar dessert for seniors.
Homemade banana ice cream
Instead of consuming high-fat ice cream, make banana ice cream at home. This ice cream is very easy to make. First, cut the bananas and freeze them. Then, put the frozen bananas into the blender and blend them until they have a smooth texture. You can use coffee, nutella, honey, peanut butter and other flavors to flavor the ice cream.
Mini ice cream sandwich, attractive low sugar desserts for the elderly!
Place a small scoop of vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt between two vanilla wafers. Roll the sandwich in finely chopped dark chocolate so that the chocolate sticks to the ice cream. Each sandwich has about 200 calories.
Banana ice cream with cinnamon and walnuts
Combine frozen banana chunks with almond milk to create a creamy, ice cream-like texture. Sprinkle chopped walnuts and some cinnamon on top (cinnamon has anti-inflammatory properties and helps diabetics control their blood sugar). This dessert is a very good substitute for ice cream because it has less calories and does not have extra fat and sugar. Also, this dessert has a lot of potassium and fiber that it gets from bananas. One question: Is split pea soup good for diabetics?
Chocolate Chia with Almonds
Pour water and dates into the food processor until it becomes sticky. Add cocoa powder, almonds and chia seeds to create a solid paste. Round the resulting mixture and then put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour. Dates sweeten your dessert and almonds and chia seeds add natural fat.
low sugar desserts for elderly with ricotta and berries
Mix a cup of berries with a quarter cup of low-fat ricotta. The resulting cream is a good substitute for ice cream because it is sweet and low in calories.
Greek yogurt and berries combination
In a bowl, pour nonfat Greek yogurt over fresh berries. Pour a teaspoon of sugar over the yogurt and use a kitchen torch to burn the sugar for a minute or two, until it turns golden. This dessert is not only very tasty, but yogurt has protein and high amounts of vitamin C and calcium.
Concluding Remarks
In this article, we introduced a variety of low sugar desserts for elderly that you can easily prepare at home. With age, people’s desire to eat food decreases due to some diseases and their physical conditions. Many elderly people tend to eat sweets at this time of their lives, but as we know, sweets are full of calories and fat. The best options for the elderly are healthy desserts made with fresh fruits.
FAQs
Why Do Older People Like Sweets So Much?
Although a diet high in sugar may be harmful to your senior, it can have other consequences. For example, if an elderly person has problems chewing, swallowing or digesting food, it is quite natural to prefer cupcakes to hearty foods like meat or broccoli. In this case, the nutrients do not reach his body and his health is at risk.
What Are Common Reasons for Changing the Diet of the Elderly?
Two common reasons for elderly people to change their diet are dentures or toothache. In such cases, consult his or her dentist to suggest solutions to solve the oral and dental problems of the elderly person. Also, changes in appetite or dietary preferences can be caused by conditions such as forgetfulness or even constipation.