INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Cornelia Fisher glances down at her breakfast plate and a look of amazement spreads across her face. Near the bowl brimming with deep purple blueberries and beside her bran muffin is an assortment of fresh vegetables, meat and egg – a sight so vibrant it looks like a painter’s pallet.
“What are these red things?” Fisher, 90, asks.
She’s told by a nurse that they are peppers and tomatoes scrambled with eggs.
“It’s very, very pretty. I should have worn red today,” Fisher says.
All the while, Fisher’s husband, Andrew, 91, digs into his healthy breakfast.
By all accounts, the Fishers of Seagrove are fortunate. They’ve been married for close to 70 years, they remain in their own home and they have someone help plan the family menu, shop and cook for them – among other things – around the clock.
“Oh it is so helpful,” Cornelia Fisher says of the women from Home Instead, an agency that helps keep seniors independent and healthy in their own homes.
That includes workers like Katja Sommers, who makes sure Cornelia and Andrew Fisher eat nutritious meals.
“I tell you, I didn’t realize how (helpful) it would be until we got (Home Instead). We get awfully good fresh fruits and vegetables,” says Cornelia Fisher.
The Fishers also get treated to ribs each Friday night.
“They are good eaters,” Sommers said.
The Fishers still find pleasure eating foods that provide enough essential protein, iron, fiber, calcium and other vitamins and minerals.
Not all elderly people do.
Studies vary but suggest that between 15 and 50 percent of the elderly people in the U.S. are not eating enough nourishing foods or are malnourished.
There are many reasons, says Beverly Reilly, a registered, licensed dietitian, who works at Sebastian River Medical Center. She says age-related issues like arthritis often make cooking cumbersome.
Then, there’s depression, an elderly person not wanting to cook for just one.
Reilly says economics also play a role. Many live on fixed incomes. Dental problems make chewing difficult or uncomfortable and the diminishing senses that affect taste and smell because of age, she says.
“A lot of our medical conditions are a sometimes related to poor eating,” Reilly says.
While it is true that aging slows down metabolism and older people need less food than young adults, what many don’t realize is the elderly actually need more of certain nutrients.
That’s because the body gets older, it isn’t able to make or absorb the proper amount of some vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin D and B12.// There are other age-related issues as well.
“Loss of muscle mass occurs naturally with aging but it can be more devastating if people are not nourished well,” says Linda Sullivan, a registered dietitian and licensed nutritionist at the Indian River Medical Center.
Dietitians, nutritionists and nurses say the elderly must take special care to eat nutrient-rich foods.
“If they have to rely on Meals on Wheels, that can be somewhat adequate, but if they don’t like what’s being served, then they are in a real bind,” says Mary O’Laughlin, also a registered dietitian and licensed nutritionist with Indian River Medical Center.
Many elderly living on their own lose their interest in cooking or – in the case of many men – don’t know how to cook, so their freezers are full of frozen prepared foods.
Dana Johnson, a registered nurse with Home Instead, says her agency, which over the winter had a local client list of 140 people, has taken many frantic calls from adult children in northern states who were horrified to see an elderly parent’s refrigerator void of nutritious fresh foods, but contain a freezer brimming with processed foods which are high in salt and low in nutrition.
“It’s really quite sad,” says Johnson.
While the selection of frozen foods has broadened and some manufacturers now are more-health conscious, many foods still are laden with excessive sodium and saturated fats.
“We are just not getting enough nutrition in our diets,” says Johnson. “We are not eating the way our bodies are designed for us to eat: we are not eating enough berries and nuts and getting enough proteins. Instead, we are going to what is fast.”
The convenience of taking something from the freezer, popping it into the microwave and then moving it to the dinner plate may seem nice, says Johnson. “But not when it’s Lean Cuisine or Stouffer’s for the eighth night in a row.”
The same can be said for seniors who would rather have a bowl of cereal or a cup of soup and think that’s sufficient as a main meal of the day, says O’Laughlin, of the Indian River Medical Center.
The Fishers’ caregivers also make sure the couple gets plenty of fluids that include fruit juices, milk and water.
The lack of hydration with the elderly especially in Florida is a concern for Sullivan of Indian River County Medical Center.
Just as many elderly people think it’s OK to skips meals because they’ve lost their interest in eating for various reasons, many are not drinking enough water either because they feel that thirst only comes from exertion or because of the fear that too much water may make getting to the bathroom in time a chore.
“They think, ‘Well, I don’t want to have an accident so I don’t want anything to drink,’” says Sullivan. “Unfortunately, it can become a vicious cycle.”