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Nutritionist Anna Mrkusic has heard many stories of elderly people who live on sandwiches and toast because they lack the confidence or motivation to cook meals.
Both men and women can find themselves in this situation – some are living on their own, or with an ageing partner and may be struggling with poor health.
It’s a scenario that can lead to people becoming severely underweight or malnourished.
In her role with the NZ Nutrition Foundation, Anna is tackling this issue. She has been involved with the development and trials of the JustCook4 Healthy Ageing programme, which is now being offered in Orewa.
The four-week long programme is free. It is designed for people aged 65 and over and focuses on building cooking skills, motivation and confidence to cook as well as increasing nutritional knowledge associated with healthy ageing.
It deals with the basics of cooking, buying and storing food. “We have some men who have never been in a kitchen,” Anna says. “But in other cases the man has been the cook and the woman is left without the skills after her husband dies.”
There is an emphasis on healthy food and low cost meals for one or two people.
“Some participants need to put on weight and others need to lose a bit of weight because of choosing low quality food.”
The sessions also provide an opportunity for social interaction and friendship.
Anna says a big benefit of the programme is that if people can maintain a reasonable food intake, they can live independently for longer.
“The nutritional needs of an older person are quite specific,” she says. “For instance, they need more protein than an adolescent boy. That’s because it’s used for repair, replacement of tissue and some brain function.”
She says the normal triggers that cause younger people to feel hungry decline with age and while an older person may not need as many kilojoules as a younger one, it’s important that there is a high quality, nutrient dense intake.
The Orewa programme will be run by nutritionist Christine Moore who lives in Whangaparaoa.
It takes place on Mondays – March 19 and 20 and April 16 and 23 at Orewa Community Church. To register, or for more information, email Christine Moore, cookmoore.nz@gmail.com or phone 09 489 3417.
