Ages Combined diets for the family

It becomes very challenging when you have a family comprising of different age groups. You still need to cook for them, nutritious foods that will see into their health requirements.

It would not be a possible venture to cook every individual’s food separately, but it is much advised to find ways, of putting the nutrient requirements of all those present in your family, into consideration.

Different age groups require different amounts of nutrient contents like calcium, iron, phosphorous, selenium and zinc, calorie provisions, dietary fiber content etc.

It is still, an important combining factor, that despite the differences in individual bodily nutrient requirements, provision of a balanced diet is an underlying all time  need to keep those you are feeding healthy and vibrant at all time.

A Healthy Family

 Ensuring a balanced diet for the whole family makes it possible to be certain that required growth rate, function ability of the metabolic system is in order.

Provide a wide range of foods with different nutritional values so that the whole family can be able to enjoy healthy eating from personal choices. You can also try out new recipes that would improve on flavors, texture and appearance.

When preparing food, be sure to observe great hygienic standards so as to avoid health issues related to contamination resulting in food that may affect the family.

Understanding your family members’ likes could be very helpful in making healthy food choices.

Involving the household in making the menus, selecting foods, and in the cooking process will really help you to maintain a happy healthy family. It promotes a personal identification view of in the whole process.

Educate the whole family on the benefit of eating a balanced diet to their overall health so they may be able to make informed nutritious choices.

Encourage the eating of regular balanced diets without unnecessary meal skipping.

Sitting together as a family to eat, is not only, unifying and bonding for the family, but is also a great appetite booster. This would ensure that the whole family feeds well and help them to stay healthy.

Economy

 Economic hardships may hinder the provision of a healthy balanced diet to sustain the whole family. In spite of this, the care provider should find ways of nutritiously feeding the family for general wellness as proper nutrition helps to keep off diseases whose resultant occurrence would just but create more strain into your present economic hardships.

Healthy food stuffs can be bought in bulk to get some discount or you can opt for foods in season as their prices get fairly low. You can go to agricultural markets other than supermarket.

You should minimize on wastages by only preparing food that you are sure that will be utilized fully by the family.

Community

 The influences from the society greatly define the feeding habits of the larger community and any unhealthy practices could have some real detrimental effects to an individual’s health. Being part of the larger community does not mean that you have to do what they are doing as, especially if health matters are concerned, you should be able to make personal healthy choices like eating a balanced diet at every meal.

Care should be taken to avoid groups that affect our feeding habits so as to keep our bodies healthy. Teach the children who pick unhealthy habits from their peers at school and in the play grounds, the worth of healthy eating so they may not ignorantly indulge in practices that could bring about heath problems into their lives.

Practices such as smoking and drinking are great health hazards and can be avoided by staying away from those who encourage your indulgence into the practice.

Slimming, water and hunger diets are common amongst teenagers who are very keen on their shapes and think that this is the only way to go. It results in missing out on some very vital nutrients for their overall health. They should in turn be trained on the importance of eating a balanced diet and helped on how to make healthy food choices in order to keep healthy and in good shape.

Communities have certain taboos and myths about some foods and eating habits which you can overlook if you find that they could be detrimental to your health. Do not allow yourself to be blindly led into malnutrition with baseless claims. 

Press (televisions, radios, magazines and internet) play a great role on influencing how the society thinks and acts. Any health information got from the media should be well studied; for nutritional authenticity, before blindly getting into something, that may end up endangering your health.

Combined pots

 You may be required to cook for people with different nutritional health requirements due to the differences of ages, health conditions and energy requirements like:

•         toddlers

•        teenagers

•        expectant mother

•        the sick

•        middle aged person

•        the old

•        babies

•        school going active child

•        vegetarians

•        lactating mother

Making a combined pot dish tends to be cheap in terms of time and fuel and helps you not to miss out in providing a balanced diet for your family.

You should be very careful to include foods that will provide them with all the important nutrients in a very creative and healthy way that they will all enjoy.

Combining the dishes you prepare helps you to still provide a balanced diet for all of them without overlooking any ones health and nutritional requirements.

One of the dishes that you can make to cater for all these diverse health needs and still manage to stick to a balanced diet is:

Pilau

Ingredients

Carbohydrates: Rice,

Proteins: meat (poultry, beef, lamb) / beans

Vitamins: carrots, coriander leaf, tomatoes, onions, green pepper

Fat: olive oil

Spices: salt, ginger, garlic, pilau spices or pilau masala

Fluids: water

Method

 Wash and cut meat into small cubes and then Pre-boil.

Select, wash and boil beans if that’s what you are using.

Select and wash rice while meat or beans is boiling. Leave to drain.

Meanwhile, chop onions and green pepper and coriander leaves

Cut tomatoes into small pieces

Grind or pound ginger, pilau spices and garlic

Grate carrots

Boil some water

Sauté onions, ground or pounded ginger and garlic in the olive oil,

Add in the meat, and some salt. Turn it in the onions for two to three minutes. (Do not add beans at this stage if that is your protein choice.)

Add in tomatoes, green pepper and coriander. Mix in and then cover for a minute then turn again.

Add in the grated carrots, mix and cover opening to turn until they are all well cooked and blended with the meat.

You can add in beans at this point and stir gently to prevent them from breaking.

Add in the pilau spices or pilau masala and keep stirring for them to mix well.

Pour in the hot water bit by bit stirring gradually until you have added in an adequate amount for cooking the rice.

Pour in your rice and stir lightly then cover and leave to cook.

Note

 You can opt to break the beans while staring in cases where you are cooking for sick persons, children, or old toothless people. You can alternatively marsh their portion after the food is cooked so as not to give them problems in enjoying this nutritious meal.

When cooking for these delicate groups, you can as well use minced meat as your main objective is to serve sumptuous nutritiously filled delicious meal for the sake of great health. Beans can be used as a nutritious alternative for vegetarians.

You can garnish and serve this attractively, accompanying it with a glass of nutritious fresh fruit juice like mango, pineapple, orange, pawpaw, or a glass of milk.