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How to eat healthily

How to eat healthily with dementia

We all know about the importance of a good diet. But eating well can be trickier when you’re living with dementia. Here’s what helps…

When you’re living with dementia keeping yourself healthy, well fed and hydrated might become a bit more difficult. There are a few reasons for this, and they might not affect you for some time yet, but include:

  • Feeling overwhelmed by choice – you might not be able to decide what to eat

  • You might forget to eat or be too distracted – and not recognise that you’re hungry

  • Your food preferences might change – you might start to enjoy tastes and flavours you previously disliked – or it’s very common for people with dementia to start to prefer sweet food, even if they didn’t used to have a sweet tooth

While there’s no need to worry about this too much now – these symptoms tend to develop in the later stages of the illness – it’s good to be aware of the importance of building good food choices into your daily routine so you can keep up good habits.

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How to eat well – build a routine

Routine is super important when you’re living with dementia. By mapping out your day, you’ll be confident that you’ve done everything you need to do – and you’ll have a sense of time and what needs to be done when.

By creating a routine now and including food shopping, meal prep and mealtimes in it, you’re setting yourself up for an easier time in future and building time in your day to prioritise food and drink.

See more about routines

Plan your meals

Starting to use a meal planner is a great idea – it means that you can write down all the things you enjoy eating, can prepare a shopping list in advance and be sure that your diet is balanced and nourishing.

Download our Meal Planner here to get you started.

If you don’t already, think about getting your food shop delivered – most supermarkets have the function for you to create a shopping list of favourite foods which you can add to or amend, as and when, to save you time. Add the delivery date and time to your weekly and daily routine planner and use technology to jog your memory about when a delivery is due.

Read more about using tech

Snack suggestions

There might be times when you feel more like grazing than preparing a meal from scratch. To avoid relying on sweet treats, stock up on healthier options, such as:

  • Fruit e.g. apple slices, berries, cubes of melon

  • Oat cakes or crackers/breadsticks

  • Houmous

  • Unpitted olives

  • Carrot and celery sticks

  • Cubes of cheese

  • Cucumber slices

  • Yogurt

  • Small pots of nuts

You can read more about eating well and get more great ideas here

Think drink

Dehydration can cause health issues – from headaches and grumpiness to constipation and urinary tract infections – so remind yourself to drink regularly.

Ideally, this will be water, but tea (including fruit and herbal teas) counts too. Try to avoid drinking fizzy drinks or high-sugar juices as they’re not great for your teeth.

Keep a lidded drinking cup with straw close to hand and top it up with water in the morning. You can buy ones with lines/timed markers on the side – a handy visual to remind you to stay hydrated.