As a teenager, I used to eat like a horse. I could barely keep up with my appetite. It made it easy to meet my nutrition needs as I inhaled an impressive amount of food, daily. While “variety and abundance” worked for me then, decreasing energy needs and reduced appetite can make it more challenging to eat healthfully as we age.
Remember my co-worker Lara’s nan from the blog entry Tea with Nan - Part 1? She was challenged with getting enough fluids, while not wanting to “fill up” on beverages that would further reduce her appetite. In Part 2, we offer ideas from Dietitians Services at Health Link BC to stimulate Nan’s appetite and incorporate smaller amounts of food throughout the day to help meet her nutrition needs and keep her feeling her best.
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Blog
May 2012
May 31, 2012 | Posted in: Food & Nutrition | Tags: meal planning, appetite
May 29, 2012 | Posted in: Food & Nutrition | Tags: seniors
Living alone and getting older can pose challenges to one’s health. This was recently brought home to me by my colleague, Lara. She has a close connection with her nan and they talk to each other by phone nightly. Lara described the familiar scenario of an independent person who “doesn’t want to ‘bother’ anyone,” as overall she is “feeling good.”
However, Lara’s nan has a low appetite, so it can be a struggle to eat enough to meet her health needs. She also tends not to drink enough fluids during the day. She finds they’re too filling and therefore cause her to eat even less. + MORE
May 28, 2012 | Posted in: Physical Activity | Tags: bike, work, physical activity, fit, exercise
Bike to work week has arrived! No better way to foster increased activity, better health and improved quality of life than strapping on your helmet, slipping into your favourite cycling shoes, and saddling up on your metal (or carbon fibre) horse for the morning and afternoon commute!
By now you should have your bike tuned up and ready to rock. If it’s still hiding out in the garage and you're not accustomed to tuning it up yourself, take it to your local bike shop for a spring spruce up.
May 24, 2012 | Posted in: Food & Nutrition | Tags: Informed Dining, eating out
Over the last few months, Dean and I have been swimming in a sea of schnitzel, oxtail, onion rings, cannelloni and curries. If you passed by our desks you would have heard endless discussion about how to determine the sodium absorption of a piece of chicken in a marinade or how to figure out how much oil a samosa absorbs from the deep fryer. All of this has been for work on Informed Dining, helping restaurants in B.C. provide nutrition information to their guests.
With the recent launch of this new program unique to B.C. and almost 300 restaurant locations participating, Dean and I decided we wanted to see Informed Dining in action.
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May 22, 2012 | Posted in: Pregnancy & Parenting | Tags: babies, toddlers, new foods
As a food loving father I'm eager to introduce my son to his first foods. In about a month, he'll reach the six month mark, the age when starting to introduce solid foods is recommended. Already I see that he’s starting to pay attention to what his parents are eating and he’s starting to show other signs of readiness for solid foods.