Elder Care: Whether your senior has health issues that affect her blood sugar levels or not, looking more closely at the added sugar in her diet can be really important.
Having help from you and from elder care providers, with the actual process of swapping out added sugars can make a difference.
Natural Sugars Exist in Foods
Sugar is a naturally occurring substance and it is in a lot of fruits, vegetables, and other foods, too. Grains and milk also contain natural sugar. Natural sugar content is just that. It isn’t added into the food after it’s processed. That’s the sugar that the food contains naturally on its own. There are a variety of different types of natural sugars, like fructose, glucose, and lactose.
Added Sugars Are a Different Story
Added sugars are exactly what the name sounds like. These are sugars that are added to the food, in an effort to make the food more palatable or to serve as a type of preservative. Added sugars are the true danger when it comes to dietary sugar intake for your senior because these types of sugars can really add up. And most of the time, they’re not necessary in her diet. They offer calories, but they don’t offer nutrients.
Make Sure to Read Labels Carefully
One of the best ways to start getting familiar with added sugars and recognizing when they’re in a food is to start reading food labels. The FDA requires manufacturers to include added sugar amounts on the nutritional label. Added sugars should also be listed in the ingredients for the food, but they might not be called sugar. Ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, and any word ending in -ose indicate that there is added sugar in the food.
Make Replacements Easier on Your Senior
Once you and your senior are aware of the sources of added sugar in her diet, it’s a lot easier to start making some replacements. Swapping out pre-packaged desserts for fruits instead can make a huge difference because your senior is getting other nutrients and less sugar. Reduce juices, as those are mostly sugar, and look for versions of favorite foods with lower sugar content.
Grocery shopping can be exhausting enough, but then with challenges like reducing added sugar intake, your senior might feel overwhelmed. Elder care providers can be a huge help with errands like shopping, and they can also help with cooking and other household tasks. Being able to lean on elder care services can help your senior to make big improvements in her diet without a lot of extra effort on her part.
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