How do we feel with the food we eat?

I’m working on a menu right now for a young man who doesn’t really like to cook for himself. A common problem with a lot of people, I’m sure. It got me thinking, how can I inspire this guy to not only want to take time and effort to prepare meals for himself, but also care about the food he chooses to eat? Easy for me to say that I love to cook because I like to eat good food, but I cook with someone on a regular basis. I didn’t always feel this way about cooking. When it was just me for supper, I couldn’t be bothered to make a real meal – all the time, effort, and mess. Not only did I have to do it all myself, but then I’d have to clean it all up by myself. I couldn’t be bothered. Yet, when I was cooking for my family, although sometimes I was uninspired, it was no problem to cook up a balanced meal. Why is easier to do things for other people, and then we set ourselves aside?

Loneliness and depression sometimes accompany living alone, and lets face it, people living with a disability of any kind can already feel isolated. There are many people that live in areas where sufficient support isn’t available, or they’re unable to afford sufficient support, and/or they rely on support to access and interact with their community. Despite these challenges, can we not feel enough self worth to fuel our bodies to let them perform the best they can?

So how does what we eat affect our mood, or emotional well being?

Surely everyone is familiar with the effects of refined sugar on our bodies, and how diabetics for one, need to be very careful of their sugar intake. Just as certain foods can affect our physical well being, they also can have a bearing on our emotions. When we choose foods that have been made with various chemicals, unhealthy levels of everyday foods, and refined foods that are all but shells of their former goodness, our bodies don’t know what to do with these things and react accordingly. As I understand it, our body’s defense mechanism is to release chemicals to deal with these foreign things, and these chemicals will affect how we feel about things, how we perceive situations, and what emotions arise in order to deal with things. Look at a coffee drinker who doesn’t get their coffee – Grrrrrrrr!

When people feel isolated, depressed, lonely, it is common for their eating habits to be poor. With all the concern about food these days, at least we have more access to less processed or organic quick and easy, ready-made foods, but the cost is inaccessible to a lot of people. Of course, a homemade stirfry can be whipped up in minutes – as long as your veggies are prepped ahead of time. (Perhaps when support is available, and a tedious task could be made more enjoyable by the company and help of someone else).

In this case, it was decided that the family was going to have a cooking day. As a supplement to a meal program, mother, son and daughter would combine their efforts and have a cooking frenzy, preparing meals for the young man’s freezer. The best that I can do for these people is to create a reasonably easy list of great meals, and organize all the tasks to give them all the best chance for a stress-free day, so that instead of individuals carrying out menial tasks, they can have some fun cooking with other adults who they love. I’ve also added a few smoothie recipes that the young man can make for himself. Quick, easy, and good foods that are bound to bring a smile to his face, and what a great way to start the day.

Check out these links:

Snap-ed connection

Food-mood (it’s a pdf)

The Food Issue explained

It came to my attention when I was doing market research for my menu business, the issues that families have around meals. I had asked families to specify their main issue around meal planning/preparation with their adult child who is living semi-independently. Here are some typical scenarios:

He buys junk. He comes home with chips and frozen dinners, and calls it grocery shopping. I’m so frustrated with menus and meals, he just eats with us now.

Our support worker just doesn’t know how to do meal planning for our son, that’s not what she does. Our son asks for the same thing for breakfast everyday, so that’s what the supporter gives him.

Our daughter has trouble with the meal planning itself. She knows she needs meals for seven days, but what does that look like, she doesn’t know what she needs.

Our daughter will budget about $100 for groceries, but she always over spends.

I made some menus for our daughter, but it was a huge struggle and we butted heads the whole way through. I have to continually revamp them for her. It’s a lot of work.

Our son just can’t be bothered to cook for himself. And then of course, he always eats by himself. I think he gets lonely.

The centre that supports our daughter sends out whoever is available. Meal planning/preparation just isn’t in their skill sets. We can’t find/afford that kind of support.

My good friend Linda once said to me, “The food issue is so big, that people won’t even be able to articulate it. They just do what they can.” And that really got me to thinking.

Families coping with an adult child who lives with an intellectual disability, who is either transitioning into interdependency, or who is already there, have a multitude of challenges that many families get to take for granted.

First, there’s the total lack of appropriate resources. Many recipes just aren’t that easy to follow. Recipes with few ingredients, usually call for unhealthy ingredients. And adequate meal support can be costly and difficult to find.

Add to this the stress of parents’ wondering how their kids are going to manage when they’re gone, the relief/joy/I’m not sure what word to put here, that their kids are finally ‘out on their own’ and possibly have a little more freedom/less frustration/fill in your own word here too, AND the never-ending task of arranging support that is going to help their offspring develop their skills and independence.

Ready-made foods that are full of chemicals, fats and processed ingredients aren’t good for any of us. They have adverse effects on our organs and bodies in general. Effects that are only amplified when paired with a multitude of medications that many people with special needs are taking, and the results are mind altering. Really! Increased anxiety, mild depression, mood swings, and hyperactivity, to name a few. Many disorders come with their own idiosyncrasies that target otherwise healthy organs, and compromised immune systems. Again, conditions that are worsened by poor eating habits of unhealthy foods.

The list goes on. Many people are sensitive to food textures, foods that are too crunchy or hard, foods that have strong flavours, or foods that are too spicy. Some disorders will not allow an individual to feel full or satisfied, so portion control is imperative, and obesity is a concern on so many levels.

I feel like I’m just getting started! Where do families go to find the resources they need? What if their community doesn’t have supportive organizations that provide such services, or worse, you’re on a waiting list that’s five or ten years long? What do families do when the cost of support is more than they can afford? What strategies do families implement to deal with their unique challenges and what effects do they have on the family unit as a whole? Do families feel alienated by the lack of understanding of their issues by extended family and friends?

Well, as I’ve said before, I think the food issue is a really big topic. I sure would like to hear what your food issues are. Leave a comment so I know I’m not just talking to myself!

Related to this subject, for your reading enlightenment:

Food Intolerance Network

Pursuit of appropriate supporters…

 

Foods we don’t like

Everyone has a food they’re not very fond of. Some people don’t like whole food groups. I used to be one of those people. I can remember my mom trying to serve me a tomato sandwich when I was three. It didn’t go well, and it was another 33 years before I had another tomato. In fact, I wasn’t fond of most vegetables. Now, I enjoy many.

Roasted would be my favorite cooking method for most vegetables. Drizzled with a little olive oil and nothing else. Not even when they’re done – no butter, salt, pepper. Brussel sprouts take on a nutty flavour, and like all great vegetables, will caramelize and get a little crunchy on the outside. Parsnips, turnip, carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, roasting really brings out their sweetness. Mmmmm. But, to have any of these veggies boiled – no thank you.

I’ve focused on vegetables here, but I think the points I’m trying to make, would apply to all the foods on your list of things you don’t like. In order to get a balanced diet, it is important to eat a variety of healthful foods. The question is, how do we encourage our children, especially adult children living with an intellectual disability, to try foods they think they don’t like?

My first response is to trick them! My young son would say ‘What is this? I don’t want this, I don’t think I like this’, when I’d present him with the latest dish I’d learned to make. And I would say, ‘Oh, well you really liked it last time I made it, so I thought I’d make it again’. Sometimes it was a booming success and sometimes after a few bites he’d say, ‘You must have done something different, ‘cuase I don’t really like this’.

When I was growing up, we didn’t have to like it, we didn’t have to finish it, but we had to try it. Even liver! And that might be fine and dandy with children, but adult children may not be so easy, especially if they’re not eating meals with the rest of the family. In that case, we need to bring out the mental big guns. Psychology. Tastes change first off. Living independently means that one needs to make responsible, adult decisions. Some may see it as they no longer need to eat vegetables because no one is there to make them. But the responsible adult will say, ‘I know that vegetables are important to keep me healthy, so instead of having this vegetable this way, I’ll try it this other way, or I’ll try a different green vegetable.’

The joy of food groups is that they don’t contain just one of something. So even if someone doesn’t like something, there’s a whole group out there to try. I think the key is to be open minded. And when one food barrier is broken down, others will follow. Even the most stubborn of people want to enjoy what they’re eating, with support and encouragement, trial and error, we can encourage healthy eating habits in our adult children.

Oh yes, and perhaps this is something that sounds less like harping when it comes from a support worker, or friend. It seems sometimes that no matter what you’re saying, if you’re saying it to your kid -they think you’re harping!