Best Practices | Food Production |
Dietary Requirements Submitted
by linda vogler on
09/24/2002 Friendship Trays, our sister agency, feeds over _____
people daily in a meals on wheels program. Not all of our recipients
are elderly, we also feed AIDS patients and others.
About 60% of our people are on special diets. These are doctor ordered
diets. Our field person goes out to interview each person before they
are put on the routes.
Our diets are:
1.regular
2.diabetic
3. jumbo diabetic...this is for those people requiring more protein,
their meat portions are larger
4. low cholesterol
5. hearts
6. NAS (no added salt)
7. renal... for people with kidney and liver problems...these are
trayed separate from the others because the people need to receive
very specific amounts of protein
8. Mechanical soft or ground or as we affectionately call them
gummers... these are people who cannot chew very well
9. Puree...unlike those who cannot chew, these people cannot swallow,
usually due to a stroke, this condition is called Dysphasia and people
can actually choke to death if the food is not the correct
consistency.
The diets are put on a big chart each day and each container is
labeled with the letter indicating which diet is in the box. Hot food
is kept hot, cold food cold and the food is delivered in coolers.
Submitted by
Laura MacLaurin on
10/25/2001 Many older people suffer with food related illnesses,
particularly Diabetes. Many cases of adult onset diabetes can be
controlled with diet rather than costly medication. In my experience
low income individuals with limited healthcare options often do not
understand how to manage their diet. I think we need to find a way to
offer some diet instruction to people that need it. Also students in
the foodservice field would really benefit from having a basic
understanding of therapeutic diets. They do not need to become
Dietitians but knowledge is always a good thing. Perhaps some students
in Dietetics could be recruited as mentors for some of our elderly
clients. Also for the Foodservice students I think it is good to
emphasize "healthy cooking" techniques( low fat, sugar and salt)
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