Salads and cardboard breakfasts.

• Elderly not eating properly is a serious medical problem and NOT “old age”!

• I usually get the same reaction from both the patient and the relatives who generally sit back in their chair, their eyes roll back and they appear most surprised that I am saying to them to eat 3 times more than what they are currently eating, just to maintain their health and weight.

• The misconception in the community is that as you get older you eat less is so ingrained that it takes a lot of effort to convince people otherwise that without significantly improving calorie and protein intake in older people, they will suffer the serious consequences of malnutrition.

• Many frail older women just love to tell me that they eat a “healthy salad” and use this proudly as a “badge of honour”, thinking that they are eating very healthy foods when in fact the salad will likely shorten their life and basically kill them from malnutrition.

• I ban my frail older patients from having salad meals.

• Older person not eating properly, just having bland plain cereal from a packet for breakfast just doesn’t have enough kilojoules and energy so is simply not enough for a frail older person to sustain them and prevent weight loss.

• The risks of malnutrition far outweigh any concern about higher cholesterol level here. Salads and “cardboard” breakfast cereals simply do not offer enough calories or protein to sustain health and body weight in frail elderly.

• They should at least be adding to their salads 3 eggs, cheese, meat and thick mayonnaise sauce on top.

• The best breakfast for frail elderly is of course 3 scrambled eggs and bacon on toast with thick butter and a banana smoothie!

For more information read Dr Peter Lipski’s book “Your Elderly Parents Failing Health. Is It Ageing Or A Treatable Condition”.