On 22 Dec, 2024, Seniors Today hosted their weekly Health Live Webinar with a Senior Dietician, Ms Bhakti Samant who spoke on and answered questions about Food Safety for Older Adults.
About Ms Bhakti Samant
Ms Bhakti Samant is Chief Dietician at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Mumbai. She is an MSc in Dietetics and Nutrition and is a registered dietician. She also holds a European ESPEN Diploma in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. She has over 15 years of experience and her areas of interest include diet counselling for various metabolic, physiological and medical conditions, lifestyle management for metabolic syndrome, nutrition for metabolic diseases such as diabetes, gestational diabetes, cardiac and liver ailments, renal disease, cancer, gastrointestinal, neurological and critical care, nutrition both pre and post bariatric surgery, ketogenic diet and treatment of epilepsy and weight loss. She’s had various fellowships, awards and certifications to her credit. She is a life member of the Indian Dietetic Association, Association of Diabetes Educators, IAPEN INDIA Association.
Food safety is important for people of all ages.
If we look at the data by the CDC it says that almost 48 million persons i.e. 1 in every 6 people are infected with food borne infections every year. And a lot of these patients with food borne infections succumb to death, leading to a high mortality rate.
People who have a weakened immune system are at a higher risk of food poisoning. This also includes people over the age of 65 years- these individuals are more likely to get hospitalised due to food borne illnesses.
There are certain metabolic changes that happen in our body as our age advances. Ageing is a natural process and as we grow over the age of 65 years, all the systems in our body undergo these changes simultaneously; one of these systems is our gastrointestinal system.
Our GI tract holds onto food for a longer period of time and as we age, and some of the changes which are seen are as below:
- There is a decrease in the gastric emptying time which allows the bacteria to grow
- Reduced immune response to diseases
- Improper metabolism of the bacteria in the liver and kidney
- Stomach may not produce enough acid leading to GI disturbances
Thus if your gut is not healthy and strong, the metabolism of your nutrients and your immune system also are affected directly.
If over and above the age related changes that are happening in the body, the individual is also suffering from any pre-existing chronic underlying conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, cancer- it can increase the risk for food borne illnesses- this is irrespective of age.
Ways/ tips to reduce the risk for food borne diseases and infections:
- Ensure a clean surrounding and handling while cooking meals- this includes clean and dry utensils, surfaces, washing your hands before starting your meal prep
- Avoid cross contamination- if you are preparing eggs/ meat/ poultry, etc. these items should be kept away from perishable food items such as vegetables, fruits, bread, etc. Store the cold food in the colder areas and the hot food in the kitchen
- Even while refrigerating keep different food items in the different, allowed areas of the fridge
- The food needs to be cooked and eaten at the right temperature
- Food safety temperature- the prepared food should be consumed within 2 hours. If not consumed within those 2 hours, you should refrigerate it at a temperature below 4-6 degrees to ensure minimal bacterial growth
- When reheating/ defrosting, you should only reheat/ defrost the amount that you plan on consuming. Every time you reheat your food, there is going to be a loss of micronutrients. Refrain from changing the temperature at which you store your food again and again
- Read your food labels. This includes the nutrient content and the ingredients
How to read a food label:
- Read the nutritious facts which gives you information about the content of the total packet in terms of the number of servings servings
- Some brands/ products may give you information about the content of the food items according to the calories
- The nutrient content of the item is mentioned below in yellow and gives you information about the macronutrients- fat, carbohydrate, protein content and below that is the information about the micronutrients and the mineral content
- Below all of this is the percent (%) daily value which are based on a 2000 Cal diet
None of the vegetarian sources of oil will have cholesterol. But these oils have fats, different kinds of fats when they enter your body in turn produce cholesterol in your body by your liver.
Within the carbohydrate contents too, there is a bifurcation, there is the total carbohydrate, then there is the fibre content and sugars.
Sugars include natural content of sugar in the product and added sugar is the white sugar which is added over and above it.
When looking at ingredients you should not only look at the sugar, you should also look for any mention of other forms or sources of sugar which are adding to the sugar content such as fructose glucose syrups, purees, concentrated purees, molasses, jaggery.
India is one of the highest ranking countries for diabetes and one of the causes is that our diet contains very high carbohydrate content and very low protein content.
Some cryptic names/ forms of sugar that you should look for:
- Malt
- Beet sugar
- Malt sugar
- Caramel
- Corn syrup
- Fructose sugar
- Rice syrup
- Maltose
- Molasses
Any micronutrient which is 5% or less is considered low and any product having more than 20% of RDA is considered high.
WHO recommends that our daily salt intake should be below 5 gms/ day.
However, on the regular we tend to consume 8-12 gms of salt per day in our diet which more than double the recommendation for a healthy individual.
All salts are Sodium Chloride and no salt comes without the sodium in it, whether it is white salt or pink salt or Himalayan salt or black salt or kosher salt- they will all have sodium chloride and each of these salts has at least 40% of sodium content.
1 gm of white salt will have over 400gms of sodium.
On a packet of food item, if the content of sodium is less than 0.3 per serving, it is considered low sodium.
If it is anywhere between 0.3 to 1.5 per 100 gms it is considered medium content sodium
If it is more than 1.5 per serving or per 100 gms it is high content sodium
More than 1.80 is very high sodium content
Other salts come in the form of ingredients such as:
- Baking soda
- Baking powder
- Monosodium glutamate
- Papad khaar
- Sodium benzoate- used as a preservative
- Sodium ascorbate- in cured meats, ready to drink beverages
- Sodium nitrite and nitrate
- Sodium saccharine in artificial sweeteners
- Trisodium phosphate- emulsifier and thickeners
- Glutamate
- Lactate
- Methabisulfate
We cannot give away with eating packaged food items and food items from outside completely. But it is important that we know what the ingredients are. It is about making an informed choice.
This awareness is very important.
There are natural flavours that you can use and incorporate in your meals to enhance the flavour of your food items such as:
- Lemon
- Cokum
- Aamchur
- Vinegar
- Herbs and spices
You can try to boost improve by immunity by:
- Maintaining and making a consistent effort to improve your immunity
- Hygienic practices
- Cooking with clean utensils and on a clean surface and environment
- Meditation
- Take your vitamins and minerals for supplementation
- Stay hydrated
- Take adequate amounts of fruits and vegetables. Wash them thoroughly with warm before consuming them
- Quit smoking
