Nutritional porridge recipe for the elderly

30g of japonica rice, 15g of oatmeal, 10g of steamed and cored dried lotus seeds, 20g of peeled and diced carrots, 15g of shredded lean pork, add 400ml of room temperature water and simmer for 40 minutes. Add 1g of low-sodium salt before serving. The energy of a single serving is about 280kcal, and it contains 8.2g of high-quality protein and 3.1g of dietary fiber. It just meets the light nutritional needs of the elderly in a meal. It is easy to digest without bloating and will not cause additional burden on the gastrointestinal tract.

I have been working as a nutrition consultant at a community health service center for almost 6 years, and have reviewed the dietary records of nearly 400 elderly people. This basic model was finalized after dozens of adjustments, and is suitable for more than 80% of ordinary elderly people. Last month I met Aunt Zhang who lives in Shunhe Garden. She has type 2 diabetes for almost 10 years. She used to drink white porridge with pickles every day, and her fasting blood sugar kept hovering around 8mmol/L. I changed the japonica rice in her formula to 20g germ rice + 10g. For white quinoa, the carrots were removed and replaced with chopped broccoli of equal weight, and the minced pork was replaced with blanched chicken breast mince. After drinking it for almost two months, I checked last week and found that the fasting blood sugar was stable at 6.3mmol/L. She said she was not as hungry as before.

As for whether to add grains, there are actually different opinions in the circle. Old-school traditional Chinese medicine health enthusiasts always say that grains are cold and hurt the stomach, and they recommend that the elderly drink more pure white porridge.； We who work in clinical nutrition recommend adding about one-third of low-GI grains. As long as they are soaked 2 hours in advance and stewed for a long enough time, it will not hurt the stomach, but can also delay the rise in blood sugar after meals and alleviate the common constipation problem of the elderly. If you are an elderly person with severe gastric ulcer or hyperacidity, you can just replace oatmeal with millet. There is no need to follow the same rules.

Many old people like to add alkali when making porridge. They say that the cooked rice will be sticky and delicious, but don't do this. The alkali will destroy all the B vitamins in the porridge. If you want the porridge to rot quickly, put the prepared rice in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for 4 hours in advance, take it out and cook it for 15 minutes, and it will bloom. It is much easier to use than adding alkali. My own mother used to like to use alkali, but she changed it after I told her three times. Now she still says the porridge cooked with frozen rice tastes good.

If you have particularly bad teeth and cannot chew while wearing full removable dentures, you can beat all the ingredients in a wall-breaking machine for 30 seconds before stewing. The resulting porridge is so delicate that you can swallow it without chewing, and you don’t have to worry about choking. There was a 92-year-old man who drank this way before. His weight increased by 3 pounds in half a year, and his family members were very happy. Elderly people with gout will remove lean meat and replace it with chopped rapeseed thrown away before cooking. It is low in purine and can also supplement vitamins. ； If your kidney function is not good, don’t use low-sodium salt, replace it with ordinary table salt, and reduce the amount to 0.5g. Don’t bother with this detail, it can really reduce a lot of problems.

There are also many people asking whether to add wolfberry, red dates, Codonopsis pilosula, etc.? If you don't have diabetes, it's okay to add two pitted gray dates and seven or eight wolfberries. Adding some iron can also adjust the seasoning. If your blood sugar is high, don't add it. There is really no need to risk raising blood sugar for the so-called nourishing effect. I have also seen people make porridge for the elderly with donkey-hide gelatin and bird's nests. It is a waste of money. The few active ingredients are not as much as the protein of eating two more bites of lean pork dryhernia.

In fact, porridge is just a daily meal. It doesn’t need to be complicated, and there is no all-purpose god-level formula. It is best to drink it comfortably and not burden the body. If you are not sure what is suitable for you, go to the community health service center near your home and ask a nutrition doctor. Many places now provide free consultation, which is much more reliable than those selling health porridge powder online.