Senior Living LIVE! Healthy Meal Planning for Seniors

Video Transcription

Hello, and welcome to Senior Living Live. I'm Janae Sherman, and thank you for joining me for today's webinar, Healthy Meal Planning for Seniors Today, we're pleased to host Arbor's very own culinary expert, Ryan King. He's the vice president of culinary services at the Arbor Company, and I've already had pleasure of hearing him speak before, so I know you guys are in for a real treat. So, Ryan, thank you for joining us today.

Absolutely. It's my pleasure.

Well, so you're gonna be sharing key insights today for optimizing our health as we age using our food as fuel for our wellness. And I happen to know that Ryan is especially talented in using the best flavors and special ingredients to make everything taste amazing. So I wanna jump right in. But before we start, I just want to remind you, this is a perfect time to get your questions answered by an expert. So make sure you click the q and a button at the bottom of your screen to submit your questions throughout Ryan's presentation. And when he's finished presenting, I'll make sure that he gets a chance to answer all of your questions live. And we'll also give you more information at the end on how to get a replay of this webinar so that you can have it for your own benefit. So with that, I will get out of the way. Ryan, the floor is yours.

Alright. We'll jump right in here. So thank you all for joining us. Today, we're gonna be talking about meal planning for seniors. And, during this webinar, the major topics that we'll be covering are, prioritizing protein, eating your fruits and veggies, how to choose resistant starches, leaning on healthy fats, minimizing the use of sodium, and my personal one that I think is the most important is, how to stay hydrated. And, obviously, at the end there, as Janae talked about in the question and answer box, the bottom will be answering any of your questions at the end here.

So jump right in here. This is, for me always the most important part is the protein component of it. So what is protein? Proteins are large complex molecules that play many critical roles in the body. It does most of the work in the cells and requires does most of the work in cells and are required for structure, function, and regulations of the body's tissues and organs. They're made up of hundreds of thousands of smaller units called amino acids and is an essential to building and maintaining muscle mass. Alright. So the reason that I wanna put an emphasis on the protein is because as we age, people lose between thirty percent of their muscle mass between the ages of forty and eighty years old. So that's, you know, a substantial amount of muscle mass that we just naturally lose as we age. This is even more compounded in people who do no strength training. So if you do not do any strength training on a regular basis, you can pretty much anticipate to lose between four to six pounds of muscle per decade. And with muscle loss, it can contribute to, eliminating of a person's ability to perform day to day activities such as walking, cleaning, or even getting dressed in the morning. It can also hinder a person's ability to cope with and recover from any type of illness or injury, and it can lead to an increased risk of dangerous falls that can result in disability or death. So to help, you know, slow this process down, it's important that we all consume enough protein and, do some strength training on a weekly basis. It doesn't mean that you need to be out there, you know, bench pressing hundreds of pounds, but just making sure that we're working those muscles on a weekly basis and, stimulating them so that as you eat the protein, you're essentially preventing the muscle loss or even in some cases adding on additional muscle.

So how much protein do we need? So, first off, it's always best to consume your protein throughout the day instead of having it all in, you know, say dinner where you're gonna eat a big steak or something along those lines. It is also recommended that seniors increase their protein intake by fifty percent more than the general population. So to break that down, we should be striving to consume between, point four five to point five five grams of protein per pound of body weight. And to break this down in a simpler math, it's basically if you were a hundred and fifty pound person, you should be consuming between sixty eight to eighty three grams of protein per day. And then that breaks down further to roughly between twenty five and thirty grams per meal if you're eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

So some of the best protein sources are, dairy. So that would be your milk, cheeses, yogurts. Also, lean cuts of beef, lamb, pork, and veal, poultry, chicken, turkey, duck. You get your, protein and seafood from fish, shellfish, and crustaceans. And then another good source, especially from a breakfast standpoint, is, eggs. And then I know, you know, not everybody obviously eats meat or animal pro or animal byproducts, so there's plenty of plant based options out there as well. So nuts are a good source of protein. So, you know, any walnuts, pecans, almonds, pistachios, seeds. So chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, legumes, so your beans, lentils, tofu. You can even find it in certain grains. So if you're gonna eat grains, farro, quinoa, oats, it's actually found in whole wheat, brown rice, and wild rice as well. And then it's in vegetables in limited quantities as well. But some of the best choices when it comes to protein for vegetables, you can find in spinach, green beans, brussels sprouts, sweet corn, broccoli, and asparagus.

And just to kinda give a breakdown, because I know I was mentioning how many grams that you need per body weight pound of body weight. If you break it down by three ounce portion of chicken, that equates to twenty grams of protein.Your standard cut of beef is twenty four grams or three ounces. Salmon's another great choice with twenty two grams of proteins per three ounces. Shrimp is twenty one grams per three ounces. And as you can see digging down here, eggs, one egg equals six grams. Lentils are seventeen grams of protein. So if you're going, you know, a plant based route, that's your your best bang for your buck would be lentils and other legumes. Now you can see as we get into the starches here, we got quinoa, which is eight grams per cup, oatmeal's five grams, and then the dairy component, we got Greek yogurt, which has a whopping twenty four grams per cup, and even a cup of milk itself is eight grams of protein. And then if you're going into vegetables, the best bang for your buck there is spinach, which has five grams of protein of spinach.

So next up in the presentation here is, the importance of eating your fruits and vegetables. So we're gonna touch on why fruits and vegetables are important to our health, how much should you be eating, and then some of the best sources for fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables have the highest nutrient density of any food groups, and they are they make up an essential source of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that are conductive to healthy living. Recent studies show that only one in ten seniors eat enough fruit and vegetables on a on a regular basis. And as we age, seniors often have increased nutrient needs compared to younger adults even though they may require a lower caloric intake. We should be eating at least two grams of two grams. I'm sorry. Two servings of fruit per day and then at least three servings of vegetables throughout the day, And each of those servings should really consist of about one cup. So if we're prioritizing, you know, fruits and vegetables to eat, the best fruits that are considered superfoods out there are blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, apples, peaches, mangoes, oranges, and watermelons. And these are the ones that have the highest, level of nutrients for your body. So they'll help with, you know, a healthy lifestyle, and a lot of them have actual components that are linked to improved cognitive abilities and slowing down any cognitive decline that might be happening just naturally as we age.

Next up, would be the vegetables that were considered superfoods. The number one area here would be those dark leafy greens, which is your spinach, kale, arugula, and Swiss chard. But you can also get a great amount of nutrients from beets, broccoli, brussels sprouts, asparagus, cabbage, carrots, or tomatoes. And, yes, I do know technically tomatoes are a fruit, but for this purpose, it's, you know, most people use it under the the vegetable side of things opposed to treating it as a true fruit.

So next up is when we're gonna choose our starches, it's, it's important that we're choosing resistant starches. And in this area, we're gonna cover what are those resistant starches, the benefits of the resistant starches, and the best resistant starches to choose. So what are resistant starches? Resistant starches is a type of carbohydrate that does not get digested in the small intestine. So it actually breaks down in the large intestine and feeds our good bacteria. So it's essentially a natural, natural probiotic in that sense that it's feeding your gut health. And it's a type of complex carbohydrate that requires more energy from the body to digest than a simple carbohydrate, which would be those, you know, white flours, white rice, things of that nature. They're simple carbohydrates, and they, they get digested really quickly. And then they have, a little bit less when it comes to the nutritional value than the, resistant starches. Another benefit of resistant starches is they're only two point five calories per gram opposed to four calories in traditional starches such as the, white flours, white rices that I just talked about. The normal starches actually break down into glucose when digested, whereas the resistant starches ferment in the large intestine and create more good bacteria, which leads to improved, gut health. They also have been shown to improve insulin sensitivity, which can help handle, high blood sugar. So it helps regulate, the sugar levels in your body. And an additional benefit of the starches is that they can help you stay full longer due to the amount of energy and time required to break them down. So if you're looking to, you know, lose weight or anything of those anything along those lines, if you're gonna choose the starch, these resistant starches are a great source for that because it will make you feel longer, feel full longer than, traditional starch would.

And now we're gonna touch here on some of the resistant starch options that are out there. So some great sources to choose from here are brown rice, legumes, which are the beans again, whole grain breads and cereals, oats, barley, quinoa, plantains, and then potatoes, especially, especially sweet potatoes.Alright. So moving on here. It's important that we we lean on healthy fats. I'm gonna take a minute before I go in the rest of the presentation here because I think for a long time, there was a, like, a real negative connotation around just the term fat in general. I know back especially in the nineties, there was that, a very prominent trend of everything being, like, low fat and low fat is better for you. But then they found out as they did more studies and stuff like that that choosing low fat, quote, unquote, options was actually more unhealthy than choosing something of the full fat variety just because it was was chock full of so many, additional additives and additional sugars that it actually ended up being worse for you than just eating the whole fat in its, in limited quantities. And then, you know, as we've kinda gone through and more and more research has come out, it's really broken down that we really do need fats in our daily life. It can't be this dirty word, and we just need to make sure that when we're we're choosing the fats, we're choosing healthy fats that are gonna provide the health benefits that we're looking for. So fat is a type of nutrient that your body needs for both energy, and it helps with absorbing vitamins. Healthy fats play a role in helping manage your mood, protecting brain health. They help fight fatigue and control your weight, and there are two major types of healthy fats. These are monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats.

So why is it important to choose healthy fats? Healthy fats can actually help lower the risk of heart disease and stroke. This is why, you know, you hear about, salmon and omega threes and things of that nature that are good for heart health. So we'll get into some examples of the different types of fat, but that's why salmon is considered such a, you know, a healthy food and, a great choice for somebody that's looking for a heart healthy option. Healthy fats can lower bad cholesterol levels while helping raise the good cholesterol levels in your body. They can also lower triglycerides and help fight your body's inflammation. It can also help lower pressure and prevent the buildup of plaque in the blood vessels. And in that same vein, they can also help prevent the hardening and narrowing of the arteries.

So on the two we talked about the two major components of healthy fats being monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. Some examples of monounsaturated fats that we should be including in our diet are either olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, or sesame oils, avocado or avocado oil, olives in their natural state, most varieties of nuts, and peanut butter. Natural peanut butter, I'm not saying the sweet and jiffy kind. If you're gonna choose, that would be the best to choose the natural unsweetened type of peanut butter. And then on the polyunsaturated fat component, it's sunflower, sesame, and pumpkin seeds, flax seeds. Walnuts actually fall under the polyunsaturated, category. Soybean and safflower oil. Soy milk and tofu. So any of those soybean components and any of their derivatives would be a polyunsaturated fat. And then any type of the fatty fish, this is where the salmon, tuna, herring, and trout are. If you're looking to make a healthy choice when it comes to seafood, salmon or tuna or trout herring. Those are those are great options to to lean on from, the polyunsaturated fat component.

Alright. So this this one here comes up a lot about salt or sodium in cooking and, the risks associated with it. So, here we're gonna talk about what sodium is, what the risks are of having consuming too much sodium, and some tips and tricks around reducing sodium consumption and some, ways to to make your food still taste great without going overboard when it comes to adding salt for a flavoring component. So what is sodium? So sodium is an electrolyte that causes muscle contractions and nerve impulses. It is not inherently unhealthy as a lot of people are led to believe, but it's actually an essential nutrient that your body needs. Sodium actually helps with blood volume and blood pressure regulation in your in your body. It helps regulate all the the body's natural fluid, so your water content, all those types of things in your body. Sodium plays a major role in keeping those, those things balanced, and it's also an important nutrient that helps stimulate muscle and nerve function. That being said, you know, you can have too much of a good thing. So in this case with sodium, too much sodium can lead to, a risk of high blood pressure, heart disease or stroke, kidney disease, because too much sodium in your in your body will make your kidneys work over time to try and dispel it, can also lead to different types of auto autoimmune diseases, certain types of cancer, especially stomach cancer, and then can also contribute it to cognitive impairment.

So this is this is the important part here. So how do we minimize the sodium that we consume? The biggest way and you know, is to try and do as as much home cooking as you possibly can where you're controlling everything that's going into that final dish. So I you know, the recommendation would be to avoid, you know, processed or prepackaged foods and meals because typically these are chock full of different preservatives and things of that nature, which are heavy on the sodium content. When you're going shopping for, you know, stock, sauces, things of that nature in the grocery store, always on the side of trying to find those, low sodium options out there. They even have them for soy sauce, chicken stock, vegetable stock. You can find either the no salt varieties or the low sodium varieties. So those would be the the best choice when choosing any of the any of those ingredients. You wanna choose unsalted butter. When you're when you're purchasing butter, there's always the the option between unsalted or salted. So in this case, we'd always wanna on the side of the unsalted butter. Try and minimize the consumption of any of those deli meats or any of the really processed, salamis or anything in that in that nature, whether it's, you know, run of the mill turkey or ham or pepperoni, prosciutto, all those things have nitrates and things in them, which are a derivative of sodium as well. I know most people typically aren't cooking beans from a dry state. They're they're buying canned beans at the store. But a lot of the times, those those beans, or vegetables that you can buy you can find in the, the can aisle at the grocery store. They're they're sitting in a, a brine of sorts that contains, a salt solution. So we wanna make sure that it you thoroughly rinse any of those products before you use them. You consume them or use them in your cooking process because, actually, just by rinsing them thoroughly under cold running water, you can remove forty percent of the, the sodium content of the the canned items. When you're when you're cooking and trying to minimize the use of salt, a lot of people say that, you know because as as we age, our taste buds start to, break down, deteriorate a little bit, and people just naturally become more susceptible to certain, seasonings and flavors. So one of the things that becomes more prevalent that we can taste more of is, things that are salty, things that are spicy, and things that are sweet, But a way of kind of counteracting that is by cooking with a lot of, fresh herbs and spices. By adding these things in, you're doing, you're you're packing that food full of additional flavor without having to rely on the salt. That, that flavoring component. And when cooking with salt, there's really there's really two reasons to cook with salt. It's, salt, when used appropriately, brings out the natural flavor of something. So something really shouldn't taste, quote, unquote, salty. I always use an example of dark chocolate. If you taste dark chocolate in its natural state and then you taste dark chocolate with a couple flakes of sea salt on it, it makes the dark chocolate taste different. And personally, I think it tastes better, but it doesn't taste salty. It just brings out the more chocolatey flavors that are in there. So another way of achieving that same goal without using salt is to add an acid to something. So if you're cooking greens or a sauce or something and you're tasting, you're like, oh, man. I think it needs salt. You can achieve the same effect with adding a little bit of, acid, whether it be wine, vinegar, or, citrus juice to whatever you're component, whatever you're cooking. Obviously, what you add will be contingent upon what you're actually cooking in that moment. But by adding a little bit of acid, it'll help, I'd say, brighten up the dish, but it just enhances the natural flavors of the ingredients without the use of, additional salt.

Alright. Next up here is the importance of staying hydrated. Obviously, we all know we need water. We need a we need a hydration to just stay alive as a as a human being. It's you can actually survive much longer without food than you can without water. However, dehydration is a, is very common among seniors, and there's a variety of reasons for that. And in this portion of the presentation, we're gonna just kinda touch on hydration in seniors, the risk of dehydration, what warning signs to look for, and then some tips and tricks on ways to increase your fluid intake. So the major part is adults over sixty five are at an increased risk of dehydration, and there's a variety of reasons for that. The first of which is as we age, there's just a diminished thirst signal in the body, which is essentially a fancy way of saying that as we age, we don't feel as thirsty as we did the rest of our lives. So it might your body might not be giving that response to being like, man, I need to drink some water. I'm feeling thirsty. Right now, it might take a little bit longer for the body to do that. So we just need to be cognizant of that and, you know, still drink make sure we're we're getting our fluids even if we're not, quote, unquote, thirsty in that moment. As we age, our kidney function naturally decreases, which can lead to fluid imbalances in the body, which can cause dehydration. So that's just another added risk of just a natural aging process in the body. A lot of types of medications, especially diuretics, can lead to dehydration. They might be benefiting you in one way, but, it can essentially, you know, leach onto some of the the fluids in the body, which causes dehydration. Cognitive impairment may lead to forgetting to drink enough water, and this kinda ties into that diminished thirst signal as well. The two kinda go hand in hand. If you're if you're not thinking about drinking or you're not getting that thirst signal in the body. You probably just won't end up will not end up drinking, and, you know, it happens to the best of us. You know? There's there's days that it's six o'clock, and I'm like, man, I haven't drank anything since my coffee this morning. And, you know, as soon as I start drinking, I start realizing that I'm, you know, extremely thirsty and probably getting on the cusp of, you know, moderate dehydration. And the last, you know, risk of for seniors here is, any health related issues such as diabetes can lead to increased, urination, which is essentially expelling the fluids from your body in a quicker manner than they normally would be expelled and lead to dehydration as well. So the risks associated with dehydration are, obviously, we're coming into the summer months now. It's a lot hotter outside, so it's super important to stay hydrated, drink our water because it can lead to that, heat exhaustion, which then could ultimately lead to heat stroke, which is a serious condition. By not drinking enough water, it can cause the fluid imbalances in your body, can actually contribute to, rise in blood pressure, can help, it can and cause, elevated heart rate, constipation, and then a big one is a a urinary tract infection, which is never fun because there's a lot of other side effects that can come come along with, with a UTI, and they can be prevent all this can be by prevented by ensuring that we're we're drinking enough water throughout the day to ensure that our body is staying hydrated. Now the the signs of dehydration in people are, when you start the feeling of an unquenchable thirst, if there are few or, no tears in your eyes, the feeling of that, dry, sticky mouth where it feels like your mouth is parched, infrequent urination. If you're, if the color of your urine is dark, it's it means that you're kinda bordering on the dehydration and need to ensure that you get some water in your body. Unexplained tiredness, the feeling of being dizzy or lightheaded, and it can actually cause a feeling of confusion as well.

Alright. So some ways to increase your fluid intake during the day. So, obviously, the easiest way of doing this is to just drink more water throughout the course of the day. But you also need to be, cognizant of what else you're drinking because coffee, tea, certain juices may dehydrate the body because they're diuretics. So they're gonna make you expel urine faster, than water does. So you might think that you're drinking a lot, but your body's expelling it at a quicker rate than they would if it were just water. One of the things that I actually use myself, my wife uses because she's notorious for not drinking enough water, is to set reminders throughout the day. So even if you set a reminder on your phone for every thirty minutes, every hour for an alarm to go off just as a reminder to go get a cup of water. That'll go a long way to ensuring that you're staying hydrated throughout the course of the day, and you're not going through peaks and valleys where you're drinking a lot of water and then going the rest of the day without drinking anything else. There's a lot of foods out there that can help with hydration as well. So some dairy components, milk and yogurt. There is they will actually because of the natural, like, water content that is that comes from the milk, they'll help fend off, dehydration as well. It's not as good as drinking water in its natural form, but it is a way of sneaking in some additional hydration into your daily consumption. There's a lot of fruit and vegetables, especially cucumber, celery, watermelon, and berries that have a high water content to begin with. I mean, obviously, watermelon has it right in the name there. So if you're gonna choose some fruits, these are some great options to get not only the nutritional bowel, benefits of the fruits and vegetables, but you're also gonna get some of the the hydrating benefits as well. And then, you know, if you're eating throughout the day, you know, soup's another great, great item to add to the list of foods that you're consuming because most of them are stock based, which is predominantly water. So as you're eating and, you know, eating the soup itself, you're also hydrating your body at the same time. And then I know I hear this a lot of times, you know, people get bored of drinking water and, you know, they wanna spice it up or you know? Obviously, water doesn't really have much of a flavor. So how do we go about making that a little bit more exciting? So it's some variety. It's always it's always great to add fruit or additional flavorings to your water. I'll do I like personally, I really like citrus, so I'll do lime, lemon, orange, something like that to just kind of infuse it with a different flavor. And, you know, now it's it's a brave new world out there. You can find pretty much every flavor of seltzer under the sun in the grocery store. So if you're somebody that likes soda, but you know that you're not getting enough water and you like that carbonation, seltzer might be a great way for you to go where you're getting the hydration, but you're also getting that, carbonation that you might be craving.

And then even going a step further is if you're finding yourself, it difficult to just drink enough naturally, they do now have hydromate and a bunch of other companies out there have the the little powders that are electrolyte infused and help with, like, double the hydration that you could pour into a water bottle, give it a quick shake, and get the the added hydration benefits as well.

Well, thanks, Ryan. This has been extremely helpful information. We do have a couple of questions. But before before we jump in, I just wanna remind everyone that's on the webinar now. If you have a question for Ryan that you would like him to answer for you live, please, click the q and a button at the bottom of the screen, and I will read those out for him so that he can get your answers. We're gonna try to go up to the top of the hour, so make sure you get those in before you miss the opportunity. So, Ryan, let's get started here.

Alright. This is my favorite part anyway.

Yeah. This is where we get down to it. So talk to me about meal prep because there's some of us here, we're trying to make consistent good choices, but I know, personally, I get bored with doing the same thing over and over if I try to prep for a long, you know, for a long extended amount of time. So give me some tips on meal prep. How can I do that and make good choices, keep it fresh, exciting, and tasty?

Alright. So I'm gonna take this down a a diferent avenue that I wasn't actually intending to take it down to. But, so it all starts with, you know, what do we have in the house to meal plan with? So for me, either the best way of kinda doing it is for I've always kinda tried to plan my week out. Like, what do I wanna make? Go to the grocery store and grab that kind of stuff. But to your point, Janae, sometimes that becomes stale because you end up doing the same five things every single week, and you want some variety. So I've gotten to the point where I just go to the store, and I'll pick up a variety of proteins. So I'll pick up some chicken. I'll pick up some beef. I'll pick up some pork as a starting point. Make sure that I have some I like to at home, I like to cook with a lot of greens and stuff like that, so I have a variety of grains in the house. But then, obviously, there's other starches. If you wanna do pasta, you wanna do potatoes, you can grab them as well. But then going into the the produce aisle, for me, it's it's always what's look what looks good. I'm always trying to grab stuff that's in season because, obviously, the flavor is better. It just, doesn't have to travel as far. So I just kinda go in and pick what fruits and vegetables look the best, grab them, and then I'll kinda figure it out when I get home. But if you're not somebody that wants to spend all day researching recipes or, you know, really planning things out, you with the he use of artificial intelligence now, you could just type into, I'm looking to make a dish with, I have these ingredients. And with AI, it'll basically give you a recipe for something with those ingredients right there, without you having to do too much thinking about it.

That's a great use of AI AI technology. I've never thought of that. That's awesome.So you could just go into your pantry, type in what you have, and come up with a with a good recipe. That's great.

Yeah. It kinda keeps things from getting stale that way. Because, I mean, we all we all kinda gravitate back to, you know, what we're comfortable with or the things we, you know, feel that we know how to cook. But guess what? If you're if you're not if you're not cooking different things and trying out new things, you're always gonna kinda stay in that same thing. So a lot of people say that, like, oh, I don't think I'm a good cook. I only know how to make five things. Do you really only know how to make five things, or you just kinda naturally gravitate to towards those five things? Because, you know, cooking really is just the principles. You know? Cooking is cooking. Just follow the steps, and you can, you know, achieve a lot of different things.

That that also reminds me that that would cut down a lot on waste because I know that's the other thing I do is I get a lot of fresh ingredients, and I don't get to use them in time. Or I have things I don't think go together, and so I end up wasting them. And that brings me to our next question because the rising food costs, you know, that's a real that's a real issue for a lot of people. So what do you suggest for those of us who are trying to make these great choices on a budget? How do we how do we do that?

So kind of the best the best bang for your buck approach. From a from a starch component, it's always gonna be cheaper to to buy grains. They're just naturally cheaper than raw like potatoes or anything along those lines. You can find a lot of pastas, things like that, especially at the grocery store. They're they're typically doing, you they'll have some some sales and that kind of stuff where you might be able to get, you know, five boxes for five bucks, and that can stretch you a long way. And then it's really you're going into the stores themselves trying to find, some of those cheaper cuts of meat that are both, you know, nutritious, but not gonna, you know, break the bank. So a good example would be if you're going in the store, everybody knows, you know, beef tenderloin, it's a it's a leaner cut of meat. You know, it's what the filet comes from. But it can be obviously very pricey. You can instead of spending thirteen dollars a pound on tenderloin, you could find sirloin for half the cost. And it's I'm not gonna say it's as tender. It's not quite as tender, but it is as lean a cut of meat. So you're still getting the same health benefits of the fact that it's not overly marbled where it's a a lot higher fat content, but for about half the cost of, choosing tenderloin. Chicken's always a good choice just because it's not always the cheapest, but it's from a price component, it's it's definitely the best bang bang for your buck. Pork's usually pretty good from a cost effective standpoint, and you can find, pork tenderloins for a pretty good, pretty good cost. And, they're very neutral in flavor, so you can do a million different things with it. And on the produce side, it's always trying to stick with what's in season because what's in season is gonna be more abundant, which means the the price is gonna reflect that. If you're trying to get stuff, out of season, if you're trying to get, like, berries, strawberries, blueberries, things like that when they're not in season locally to you, the the price is gonna be elevated, and the the quality of that of that fruit is is not gonna be where you really want it to be.

Okay. And I really also liked your advice in your presentation about the using salts and acids to bring out the flavor of foods because then you can make it more tasty. You're using and you're not wasting your ingredients. And that reminds me about see, I can cook. I'll tell you right now. I can throw down in the kitchen. But I have friends I have friends who don't ever cook anything. They say they can't cook. So how do we help people who feel like they can't cook? I know you said that maybe they just need to try new things. But do you have any tips for people who are just notoriously not able to cook? How do they make those healthy choices?

So anytime that you're going out to eat, it's always going to be, I would hate to say, but less healthy than if you're cooking at home because guess what? Restaurants make their their money off making food taste good, and guess what makes food taste good to people. You know? There's added salt. There's a lot of butter. There's cream. There's a lot of things that go into those components that, drive up the the calorie content while making it taste delicious. So it's one, it's you know, if you're trying to go out, it's always good to find restaurants that are a little bit more for their, you know, health focus. So a lot of restaurants nowadays, especially with the wellness focus that the, you know, the nation's really kind of going through that are their emphasis on the health and wellness component. So it's clean ingredients, things of that nature. So if you can find restaurants that have that in their mission statement, that's always the best the best option. But if you're going out with friends and you don't really have, like, a choice or you're just ordering out, you're in the mood for stuff, it's looking for the the leaner cuts of meat. So seafood's always a great option, from a health and wellness component. Chicken's always a safe bet, especially if it's chicken breast versus a chicken thigh. And then, you know, beef wise, you know, most restaurants have have a few different options when it comes to steak. I would definitely go with the the filet from a health standpoint. Obviously, it's a little bit more of a a pricier item, but it has a lot less marbling, so it's a lot better for you. And then if you're going out, always try and stay away from, like, the mashed potatoes or the loaded baked potatoes. Try and go towards the, the starches that are either the grains, the rices, the sweet potatoes on the menu. Sweet potatoes are a great option. And then or if they don't have anything really on a starch component, that's that's you think would be healthy. Nothing wrong with asking for a double portion of of vegetables. They can always accommodate something being steamed. Steamed's probably your safest bet because, you know, most times, it'll be sauteed in a restaurant. It's getting cooked with some oil or some butter, and seasoned. So if you just ask for, like, plain steamed broccoli, that's always a a safe bet from a from a health standpoint.

Okay. That sounds good. Those that sounds very reasonable, and it sounds like it could still be very tasty as well. So another thing that, well, before I get to this next question, make sure you if you have your question to get it in so that we can get it to Ryan before we run out of time. But another question that I had, I know at the beginning of your presentation, you talked about the importance of protein. And I know a lot of people are really cutting down on weight, and it I and it seems they're, you know, losing a lot of that that muscle mass. And so to overemphasize, they're getting protein from, like, packaged, you know, drinks, prepared things. Is that safe? Should we be looking into that, or is there a good way to gauge when you're trying to get your protein if you're not able to get always make the great choices that you were telling us in your presentation?

Yeah. I have I have no problem with people utilizing protein powder or anything like that. Like, full transparency, if I'm trying to, like, lose man lose weight and keep my muscle mass where it is, I'll supplement it with protein shakes too because they're a low calorie alternative. You know, I think a scoop's usually, like, like, around a hundred and twenty five, a hundred and fifty fifty calories, and you're gonna get twenty five grams of protein out of it. So it's not crazy on the caloric intake aspect, but it is giving you a a solid chunk of, protein. When it comes to that, obviously, you're you wanna try and get as much as you can from its the raw natural sources as possible, but it's a great way of, supplementing it in there. Or another added benefit would be if you wanted to do a smoothie, now we're talking now about the the fruit and vegetable component and adding some extra servings of that in. You could always throw a a scoop of protein powder in with the smoothie. Now you're getting the protein component and you're getting the the fruits and vegetables as well. And, you know, you could do that as a replacement for, like, breakfast or if you're just looking for, like, a a snack to kinda tide you over between meals.

Okay. So that's good. So we can still make healthy choices and and do that as well. So that's good to know. I know that that's been a big concern around, like, losing your protein and or not having enough protein and losing your muscle mass.

And, you know, nowadays, there's there's, plenty of options out there for vegetarians or vegans, whether it's the plant based protein. So it's not all from, you don't have to worry about the lactose component and, the animal by enough traditional, protein powders when it's like a pea protein or, some of the other vegetarian ones that are out there.

Okay. So another thing I was thinking because I was reading an article just the other day about when it's too hot to in the cook kitchen and you don't feel like cooking. And then I know I'm guilty of making bad choices, eating out, or just not maybe not eating a whole meal because it's hot. So tell me about summer eating, eating in the hot weather because I know it's it's a heat wave all over. Are there ways are there tips that you have? What what should we be cooking? What kind of ingredients do we use? What should we focus on when we're too hot to cook or we're just not even feeling in the mood to have a full meal?

So a lot of times, it's it's not a bad idea to kinda take that take a look at that weather forecast. You know? Like you were saying, you know, I think half the country now is in a in some type of heat wave. So if you know it's gonna be, like, really, really hot over the next few days and, you know, you're not gonna be wanting to be standing over a stove or outside using the barbecue, It's not a bad idea being, like, hey. I'm gonna I'm gonna cook a few extra pieces of chicken or something of that nature so that I have it in the refrigerator. It's quick ready to go. I think just naturally people when it's hot and in the summertime, people just they're they're they're not craving those, like, heavy meals. They want some some lighter fare. So for me, I eat a lot of salads and lighter dishes in the summertime just because I I I I feel like those heavier ones kind of they feel better in the wintertime because it's nice. It's warming. Warming. It's hard, like, hearty. But in the summertime, people wanna, you know, they wanna have a a salad and something that's, like, fresh and refreshing. You know? And that's something that you can do in the in the kitchen without really having to turn turn the oven on. You know? You get some mixed greens, some arugula, some of the berries that are in season, some of the vegetables that are in season, you know, some tomatoes, things of that nature. You take that chicken breast right out. Other than the thing, you cut it down, toss it in a salad with, like, a light vinaigrette, and, you know, you got some protein in there, and you're getting the vegetables and the fruit component of it without ever having to turn on the the stove or the oven that day.

Okay. And you brought up a couple of good ingredients just now because I know one thing that because I personally know that you're famous for superfood ingredients and how to utilize those. And you did touch on that a little bit in your presentation. Can you tell us a little bit more about what superfoods are and the suit the and what they do for us and how we can get them? Are they more expensive? Are they easy to find? And how do we how do we incorporate them into our everyday choices?

So no. They're not not any more expensive, and they're not they're not hard to find. Fine. So superfoods are essentially any food that's going to be bringing a lot of nutrients and added health benefits to, to your body. So we were talking about it a little bit earlier. So, like, any of those, like, dark leafy greens, most of your just, regular, greens that you find in the supermarket, whether it be arugula, the mixed greens, spinach, things of that nature are chock full of, nutrients for the body. I always recommend people choose those over romaine or iceberg lettuce just because romaine and iceberg are mostly, water based. You're not getting as many vitamins and nutrients from them. Another great thing that's totally in season right now is all the berries. So blueberries, raspberries, strawberries. There is strong evidence that six, that say that, you know, berries have a berries and nuts even have a very, direct correlation to to brain health. So incorporating those in. So, I mean, I just you basically you can make a salad with what I just talked about right there. You know, some nuts, some berries, some, arugula and mixed greens tossed together, and, you got some superfoods there. Going into the the other areas, a lot of the legumes are also, superfoods, especially the lentils, getting into the grains, any of the ancient grains, whether it's, like, quinoa, any of those brown rice blends, things of that nature. A lot of the resistant arches in general are superfoods from the nutritional component. And then if if we're gonna lean a direction of protein, that's probably the the best bang for your buck in a protein component while also giving you those added benefits as those those fatty fish. That's why salmon has such a great reputation because has a lot of protein in it, and it also has the, the healthy fats that you're looking for. Also with those healthy fats, picking up some avocados at the store, can be cross utilized in a million different ways, and, they're another great source of healthy fats to incorporate into the diet.

Okay. So if we if we decide if someone who's watching today and they're they're sold, they wanna get started making healthier choices, Where where should they start? What do you think is the easiest way so that they can consistently make these choices and make it something that they can actually do. It doesn't feel overwhelming. What where's our first tip to begin?

For me, it's always the first thing is just wrapping your head around the fact that just because food's healthy doesn't mean that it's gonna taste bad or be boring or something like that. So you just the first thing is you just naturally need to get over that, like, mental hurdle. And then I I kinda touched on it earlier. It's, you know, what what what what do you like, like, personally as a as a person? So me, like, I like fruits. I really like berries. So for me, knowing that person, like, I need to make better healthy choices. I'm gonna start just week one. I'm gonna make sure that I have berries in my fridge, and I'm I'm eating them throughout the day instead of choosing, you know, a candy bar or Nutri Grain bar or something like that. I'm gonna eat that. Maybe incorporate some Greek yogurt with some, you know, oats on the top of it, And maybe I'll do that for breakfast and start with something that you already feel comfortable with and then start adding some additional layers on. So maybe that next week is, I'm making my berries now. What vegetables do I really like? And then, you know, make big batches of those vegetables, and maybe you're you're eating more of the vegetables at dinner time than you normally did. They're taking up a larger component of your of your plate. Just kinda kinda chip away at those things and get through the the mental hurdle of, healthy food does not need to to taste bad.

Okay. Well, that that I I know that you're you're great at it because we we've seen what you can create. So do you have any tips for people who so they we we believe you. It's gonna taste good. What kind of things would you suggest so that we can get some exotic flavors or things that are different to us? How should we how would somebody start trying something to expand their palate? Trying to think. So get outside your comfort zone, first of all. So start looking at other cultures, other cuisines. If you're talking, like, like, exotic and stuff like that, there's, I always think that Asia is a great a great starting point for that because I think a lot of people have the exposure to Chinese takeout and Chinese restaurants and stuff like that, but that's only a small section of that that general area.

So taking a kind of a trip down the, the international aisle at the grocery store and taking a look at some of those, some of those ingredients, the different sauces, different things like that, and then kind of being like, okay. Well, I know I like stir fry, but I wanna try it with, I wanna expand my palette and maybe I'll start using some fish sauce, some oyster sauce, or I like sweet and a little bit of heat. Let me try some some sweet chili. And just trying those individual things out, kind of like adding on to something a little bit familiar, but taking it a step further instead of like I wouldn't recommend somebody that's never, like, had Indian Curry to just jump into Indian Curry. You know what I mean? It's kind of that baby steps in finding out what you like, what you what you dislike, what kind of flavor profiles, because inherently, everybody's palate is is extremely different. What one person likes might be completely different than somebody else. So for me, it's always been about just trying different things in general. Like, I was talking about going through the grocery store. Pick up some fruits you've never had before. Pick up a vegetable you you never had before or something that you thought you didn't like. Because, I mean, I can tell you that, you know, just growing up, there's things I I didn't like twenty years ago that I absolutely love now. So just trying out new things and then trying to trying different cooking techniques in general, whether it's turning the grill on outside and grilling your vegetables or roasting versus sauteing, you know, not being afraid of I know a lot of people think things are, like, burnt if they have color on them, but that's all free flavor. So getting that caramelization, you're adding, like I like to call it free flavor because you're you're getting the flavor without having to do anything else to it. You know, experiment with different herbs. Just pick up some herbs. They have them in the you don't have to go overboard nowadays. You can buy the the little individual packages of different herbs and just play around with with the herbs and the food that you're making and kind of, you know, kinda create your own palette of, like you know, some people like to go the you know, a little bit more on the savory side where it's the rosemary, the thyme, the sages of the world. Some other people like that kinda more little bit more Mediterranean, and they're gonna go and gravitate towards the basils, the oreganos, the more drums of the world for, for their flavor profile. So it's it's really just about experimenting with the different ingredients and finding out what works from you. And like I said before, like, if you're not really sure where to start, like artificial intelligence, fantastic. You type it in there. Or even just, like, you know, pulling out a recipe book and paging through that or going through recipes online. You can pretty much find anything, nowadays out there. And, you know, a lot of people are doing traditional recipes with, like, a a health focus spin on it.

Okay. Those are great ideas, again, with the AI. And it's funny how our palettes do change. I think about the things that I didn't wanna try or I didn't like as a child that now I really enjoy. Sometimes I go back and think my parents weren't wrong after all. I should try some more of the things that I said no to back in the day. I used to hate mustard. I love mustard now. So Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's you know?

For me, it's onions. I I didn't like it before, and now I love them. I mean, they're awesome. So, yeah, that's definitely something we need to consider as we as we age. We can have new ideas. Before we go, because we're almost out of your time. I know we have to let you go.

But do you you you know everything about cooking. So tell us some resources. What is there any show you like? Or is there any tools we should be looking for? Just any little fun thing that you can add before we go resources that you love.

I mean, can't go wrong with putting, like, Food Network or any of those any of those channels on. You can pretty much turn it on at any point during the day and see new ingredients, different things, and kind of like a a fun, safe flight.

I always like for me, I always like the the cooking challenge types of shows, whether it's, like, Chopped or, man. There was one that was on Vice that I really liked. It was called, Cutthroat Kitchen. So it was two guys after hours at a restaurant, and it was like, they were always friends, so it was a it was a good camaraderie aspect. But, anything like that because now you're you're seeing some different ingredients and, you know, sometimes in those shows, the chefs themselves haven't really worked with them. So they're learning on the fly what's gonna work and what doesn't work, from that. And, you know, I'm always read about stuff whether it's, you know, checking out the or any of the the magazines that are out there. They're a great source for for recipes, different inspiration, new ingredients that are becoming trendy. I mean, I get excited every time the magazines come to my house every month. I'm paging through all that kind of stuff just being like, oh, I never thought of that. That's a great idea. So Yeah. That's a People are connecting with that. Especially if people think they can't cook or they don't know what to do, that would be a great way to start, starting looking through magazines. Yeah. And even, you know, if people don't think they know how to cook, I mean, YouTube's even a great example. I mean, you could find, you know, tutorial videos right on there about the proper way to pan sear something or how to grill something. So that's a great resource because I know a lot of people are are visual learners in that capacity opposed to just kinda reading a step by step. So if they can, you know, see it and then replicate it, it might be an easier learning process for them as well.

Yeah. Definitely. Sometimes when I'm making dinner for my kids, I feel like it's an episode of Chopped. I have five things that don't go together. What do I do? And now I know I'm gonna type it in to AI, and I'm gonna figure out something to put those things together.

And it's it's a brave new world out there when it comes to stuff. What you know, things used to be segregated into the individual buckets of, like, oh, this is French, or this is Thai or whatever. Now everything is kind of intermingled and, you know, hey. I don't wanna say that, like, fusion cuisine.

Yeah. It's a big a big trend out there of, you know, blending different different cuisines and kinda coming up with with your own thing. And it's nothing new. It's stuff that's been going on for forever.

I mean, if you take New Orleans, New Orleans, one of the biggest food cities in in the United States, and, like, that whole Creole cuisine is it's just a it's a blend of Caribbean, African, and traditional traditional French cooking. And now, you know, their their whole the whole city is known for for their food scene, and it was all created based off of the the blending of different cooking techniques and ingredients.

Yeah. That's true. I you know, when last time I went to New Orleans, I got, oysters, you know, char grilled oysters, and now I do those at home.

Mhmm.

And it took me a long time to learn how to open those things, but now I'm pretty good at it. And they're reasonably priced too. I mean, you get them store. So that's a great those are all great.

A lot cheaper to get them at the store than it is to get them out.

So Oh, yeah.

Because they're very expensive. And now that I've gone through the process, I see what they're charging us for because it's a lot it was labor intensive. But it's fun, and I get the family involved, and it tastes delicious. Put exactly my own spin on it.

So well, Ryan, I know we are out of time. I don't see any more questions here. So I wanna thank you so much for sharing with us, for joining us today. It is always great speaking with you. And I'm sure I I'm on it's just now noon for me, so I'm ready for lunch. You've gotten me nice and ready to go in this kitchen and make something up. So thank you for joining us. For those of you watching, this webinar with Ryan will be sent to the email you used to RSVP by tomorrow, and you can share that link with family and friends or rewatch as needed. And I wanna let you know we have lots of videos and webinars just like this one about all things senior living on our website at w w w dot senior living live dot com. And all of that content is on available on demand, and it's all offered free. So you should go out there, visit. You can see other webinars, some even with Ryan here, and all of different experts in all of the different tops in your living.

So thank you so much for being a part of our conversation today here on Senior Living Live, and have a great day, everybody.

Thanks, everyone. Have a good one.