What’s on the menu?

Menu planning with special consideration for the needs of the elderly is crucial to preventing malnutrition and the development of wounds.

A diet that is nutritionally adequate for the elderly should include recommended servings from the core food groups. Careful and structured menu planning for the elderly is important to ensure it meets nutritional and hydration adequacy.

Similarly, adequate hydration of aged care residents with their daily intake of fluid must be considered, but there are many aspects that may be overlooked by some health professionals.

Menu planning needs to be consistent with the ‘Best Practice Guidelines’ for provision of nutrition in aged care according to the Dietary Guidelines for Older Australians aged 65 years and over.

Tips on how to provide nutritional food to residents in an aged care:

• Ensure the menu includes sufficient food from each core food group, meeting best practice guidelines for provision of nutrition in residential aged care facilities.
• Ensure dietary needs for specific health conditions are met.
• Adequate fibre intake is a must.
• Special consideration for seasonal variations.
• Consideration of social and cultural backgrounds of residents.
• Promoting variety and tastiness of menu items, while nutritionally adequate.
• Many health professionals make the mistake of placing too much emphasis on nutrition alone. The problem with this is that if the food is not eaten, the nutritional worth is lost.

Core Food Groups

Core food groups refer to your meats, cereal, fruit, vegetables and dairy foods. 

Careful consideration to the proportion of these foods in each day’s intake is very important for a well-balanced diet that meets the special nutrient needs of the elderly.

Serving sizes from core food groups

According to the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, to meet baseline nutrients we must include the following minimum serving sizes from the core food groups on each day’s menu:

Meat, fish, chicken, eggs – 1.5 serves

Breads, cereals, rice, noodles – 4 serves

Vegetables, legumes – 5 serves

Fruit – 2 serves

Calcium-rich foods – 4 serves

There is also no need for health professionals to have a separate set menu for diabetics. The new rules only require diabetics to have at least one low glycaemic index food (i.e. GI <55) at each main meal and snack to meet the best practice guidelines.