Aging and Eating Habits

[chromedome]

Good food in retirement complexes is a growing trend...not necessarily in all (especially the low-cost variants) but in many. It's often attributed to the Boomers ageing out, and to their collective unwillingness to accept sub-par food. They've got the clout to change things, and they will. 

 

As a massive generation arriving just as the world of commerce discovered demographics, it has literally been "all about them" (all about us, I should say, since technically I'm considered to fall into the last of the Boom) from the beginning, and that's not going to change much at this late date. 

[pastrygirl]

On 5/13/2017 at 4:06 AM, chromedome said:

As a massive generation arriving just as the world of commerce discovered demographics, it has literally been "all about them" ... from the beginning, and that's not going to change much at this late date. 

 

Shhh, don't tell millennials! 

 

I have to agree on the generations though. I associate the cooked to death thing more with people of my late grandparents generation (they were both born in 1910).

 

My parents ('34/'43) are/were much more adventurous. Dad has passed, but my sister and I took my mom to Thai food last night and she was wishing it was spicier. The idea of sushi creeps her out but she's definitely not into bland and mushy. 

 

Julia Child and Jacques Pepin were influencers too. "Gourmet" cooking, imported ingredients and techniques became available to boomers as they were entering their prime. So marketing may be a factor, but also the shifts in global commerce and imports. 

 

Wasn't the low salt thing bigger in the '80s or so?  Older people may have more issues with hypertension etc and need to watch salt, but I think salt got some unfair demonization for a while and was seen as unhealthy for everyone. 

 

 

[chefmd]

Here is a sample menu from the Assisted Living floor.  

[Darienne]

Save a place for me in this home for when I 'age out'.  (I & DH are both War Babies, a small generation so I understand.)

[Anna N]

21 minutes ago, Darienne said:

Save a place for me in this home for when I 'age out'.  (I & DH are both War Babies, a small generation so I understand.)

Don't be easily misled by a menu. Over the past 12 months I have spent far too many weeks as the guest of one of our health institutions. The menus were impressive but the food was inedible!  

[Darienne]

51 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Don't be easily misled by a menu. Over the past 12 months I have spent far too many weeks as the guest of one of our health institutions. The menus were impressive but the food was inedible!  

Gotcha.  Not looking forward to ever being in an institution.    It's often one of those decisions over which the affected party has little if any influence.

[liuzhou]

55 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Don't be easily misled by a menu. Over the past 12 months I have spent far too many weeks as the guest of one of our health institutions. The menus were impressive but the food was inedible!  

 

And there doesn't seem to be a wine list!

[rotuts]

I knew some very good friends from a different age that spent there later years at an assisted living place.

 

it was a good one.   We all called it  The Club.

 

they had wine before dinner , white or red.  Id say 4 0z or so.  maybe a little more.

 

No Chateaux , probably not from France.

 

a sort of ' Social ' hour  .  no refills.

 

I line formed well before the Start Time.   

 

It was a decent place.

 

never ate there , but the food was well above average.

 

they always took me out to lunch or dinner , but I had the option to join the seniors.

 

 

[Katie Meadow]

Before my mother died I spent some time looking at assisted living retirement homes. Two were here in Oakland near me, and one was in Portland. One was very good all around: lots of action in the hallways, lively and actually cheerful. Their dining room was pleasant and the food was pretty good. Not great, but surprisingly good. The other, nearby, was gloomy and the food was boring and bland. The place in Portland was lovely looking, with nice apartments and a modern addition, but there was little action despite things like a coffee bar with a view of Mt. Hood; it was deserted.. The food in the dining room was bad. It seems to me that if you want happy campers the dining room food needs to be pretty good, since it is the most social part of living in a retirement community.

 

My hunch is that the actual quality of the food in most of these places hasn't caught up with the attempt to improve it and the desire to appeal to older boomers who still have taste buds. Works in progress. The widespread belief that we lose our sense of smell and taste as we age can't be proved by me or my friends. In fact, in my case, for the past ten years my sense of smell has sharpened--a lot. I can smell all kinds of things others don't. I'm almost 70, so that may or may not be old. Like most of us, I feel old in some ways and not in others. I'm cooking more than ever, and enjoying my own cooking. I'm not skydiving or training to climb Everest, so, like some others have stated one way or another, my priorities have changed when it comes to being adventurous. Food is an easy way. One of the problems with the apartments in the independent living sections of the places I visited was tiny inadequate kitchens. I don't cook esoteric or super complicated food generally, but the storage and surface space was woefully lacking. There are new retirement communities popping up, perhaps not fast enough to accommodate us older boomers; new designs should include mo' bettuh kitchens, especially if the dining room food is mediocre. When I get to the point my mother did (she was 94) living on scotch and coffee ice cream, then I'll give up my kitchen. 

 

 

 

[lindag]

On 5/12/2017 at 11:50 AM, dcarch said:

Old is whenever you are on public transportation, and everyone offers you his/hers seat.

 

dcarch

Or when in the grocery checkout they automatically ask if you want help out.

[Anna N]

50 minutes ago, Katie Meadow said:

When I get to the point my mother did (she was 94) living on scotch and coffee ice cream, then I'll give up my kitchen. 

 Under those conditions I too might be willing to give up my kitchen!

 

[rotuts]

Old for me is when the Check Out Clerk 

 

as Pets,Etc   ( not the real name )

 

asks me if Id like help with

 

MC  refill of litter.  in a circualr tub

 

which I refill myself

 

 

MC and I save 2 USDollar's

 

I think its 20 lbs

 

but seems to feel like 40 these days

 

no picture required.

 

 

[barolo]

My mom is 97 and moved into an assisted living facility two years ago.  Assisted living, at least here, means you are somewhere with 24 hour nursing care.  Most of the residents have dementia, some have other significant health problems, some have both.  Some are there for palliative care.  They are old or very sick or both.

 

A few things I have observed in two years of visits:

- some people with dementia don't even know what food is anymore, don't remember that they've eaten five minutes after they finish a meal or remember how to use utentsils. Food is not at all central to their life.

- many people in their 80's and 90's grew up without great dental care. If they have dentures or other appliances, eating can be challenging, more so if they have rheumatism or other conditions that affect their hands.

- lots of people have dietary restrictions related to medical problems.

 

Even with all of these challenges, my mom's place does a decent job of providing meals.  But it is a challenge. My mom was a great cook, a baker, and loved wine but it is hard for her to eat anything that requires coordination now.  That's how you get to scotch and ice cream, I guess.

 

The independent living side of my mom's faciltity sounds more like what most people here are describing/discussing.  That's a whole other story. I would not be in a rush to move into institutional living like that no matter what the menu looked like. It is a lot like cruise ship food.  As Katie Meadow noted, the kitchens in those places are tiny and they are not really encouraging you to undertake adventurous cooking projects. It is all about liability management.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

My exposure to old folks homes has been to the type where the residents are there because they need 24 hour nursing care and assistance of varying types. I find it hard to imagine wanting to go to one while you are still active and able, and the only person I know of who has done so is @Jaymes. It would be interesting to hear her take on it.

 

When my stepmom got so down with Parkinson's she first went into the very same facility my husband is at now. We did a lot of research before deciding which place would be best, and selected this one because they seemed to be the most willing to cooperate with her lacto-ovo vegetarian dietary preference. I noted that the only dish on the menu @chefmdshared with us above that could be made vegetarian and still supply protein and Vitamin B12 was an omelet, which is available every day. I love a good omelet, but would tire of it quickly if that was the only thing on offer day after day. I ate with my SM one day for lunch. My food was mostly edible, but I can't remember anything except those mushy overcooked veggies. Cabbage was cooked until is smelled sulfurous. Gross. They gave my SM a plate of these overcooked vegetables and she nicely asked for a grilled cheese so she could get a little protein. Her sandwich arrived smashed down deliberately. I mean this poor sandwich looked like it had been subjected to a tortilla press, y'all! I surmised this was the cook's statement that her request had been an inconvenience. I wanted to send it back, but she would't hear of it, and figuring she was the one that had to get along there 24 hours a day, I conceded to her wishes. 

 

Long story short, she hated the food there so much that after weeks of begging me to come rescue her, my husband and I did. Her condo had not been sold, since she had IBM insurance and was loaded to boot.

 

She was able to afford part-time nursing and housekeeping help on her good insurance for several months along with one of those alarms that connect you to emergency services that you hang around your neck. She was much happier living in her own home for almost another year. Then ultimately, she went into another home, still hanging onto her condo in hopes she'd improve. The food there was much better she said, and she was better resolved to the necessity of her being there. 

 

I've seen the meals my husband is served, and they are pretty bad. They need to be served in his room because of his paralysis. I think they are plated hours before being delivered because they don't appear even warm. Once we came into his room and his meal had been delivered and placed on his rolly bed table and someone has spilled a cup of water all over it. I know it couldn't have been my husband because he was in a wheelchair outside with us. Whoever ruined the meal didn't bother to clean up the mess, replace the meal or even top off the cup of water. This tells you the level of service you are getting for $1,500 a day. *Sigh* We went to the nurses station and requested another meal and something to clean up the mess.

 

There are dietary limitations for many of the residents/patients there. Low salt is probably the most common. Maybe it is just being in the South where many of the older people, but certainly not all of them, prefer vegetables cooked to death. My BIL is older, but still active and able and mushy veggies is his preference, and he's very opinionated about it. I don't serve green beans or beef when he's around, because the twain shall never meet on how we think they should be cooked.

 

My husband is not all that hard to please. He hates the food at the "skilled nursing facility"/nursing home. Usually he can't even remember what it was if I ask him what he had for dinner, but always has a negative comment on the quality. I mentioned I was making enchiladas for my dinner and wished he could be there to join me the other day. He brightened right up and got all excited. He has good memories of my cooking for us, so that is some comfort. It made me smile.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I work in the library that serves our local retirement community/assisted living/nursing home.  No one complains to me about the food.  I only wish I could afford to go there when my time comes.

 

The only criticism  I recall was from a patron who had to give up his record collection to accommodate his concert grand piano,  That and he filed a complaint in jest that Jo was not wearing nail polish -- long story.  Hand fetish I can understand.