Getting older often means changes to one’s diet. While eating right is important, so is choice. Liberalized diets, which are tailored to a person’s preferences and health needs, make seniors’ dietary changes less of a forced change and more of an informed decision-making process. For many years, therapeutic diets or restricted diets were the norm. Whether your physician prescribed a low sugar, low salt, or texture-modified diet the result for patients was often the same, frustration.
These restrictive diets often left patients with little choice in the foods they ate. If patients didn’t like the food that was being served they may just have not eaten, resulting in poor health outcomes despite a “healthy” diet. Thankfully, today most older adults are offered a liberalized diet approach. Patients are allowed to participate in diet-related decisions, making choices about the foods they eat to manage a medical condition while maintaining a desire to eat and enjoy food. This approach is supported and recommended by both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
There are many benefits of a liberal diet. But how can long-term care communities begin to implement them into their dining program?
Here are our top dos and don’ts of liberalized diets. Let’s start with what liberalizing diets does not involve.
Don’t take a cookie-cutter approach
Liberalized diets are a type of person-centered care, which is where:
- The resident’s choices and health needs guide the treatments and care plans.
- Care is “collaborative, coordinated, and accessible.”
- The resident’s physical and mental well-being is at the forefront of all decisions.
- The resident and their support system are involved in all aspects of care and decision-making.
Taking a cookie-cutter approach, or serving all residents a similar diet, doesn’t align with person-centered care. Instead, try to customize individual diet plans as much as possible according to their individual needs. For example, low-sugar diets could still include a dessert, but in a smaller portion. Or, a texture-modified diet could feature a cream or puree soup instead of a stew. Indulging in a favorite food once or twice weekly is another way to personalize a resident’s meal. Emphasizing this customization helps residents feel empowered and satisfied with their meal choices, promoting a higher quality of well-being and comfort.
Ultimately, liberalized diets aim to improve the quality of life for older adults and give them the culinary indulgences that the rest of the community has, regardless of their necessary diet modifications.
Don’t focus too much on getting it “right”
Just like it’s important to avoid using a cookie-cutter approach, you shouldn’t focus on getting everything “right.” Trying to have a perfect dining program can override the entire purpose of implementing liberalized diets into your dining program: to improve the quality of life for your community’s residents. Residents are also more likely to participate in a diet that they feel is genuinely attuned to their needs. Here are some tips to avoid falling into the trap of perfectionism:
- Embrace the diversity of your resident’s preferences, knowing that their choices are unique and specific to them.
- Focus on the holistic well-being of the person, not a rigid framework.
- Encourage residents to experiment with different foods, especially if they haven’t had a previously expansive palette.
- Emphasize the importance of balance and moderation.
- Have a compassionate and open-minded attitude.
However, along with this, you do need to adhere to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) guidelines for food safety and preparation. Check out our blog on F-tags to learn how to keep your community survey-ready.
Now, let’s take a look at more things you should do when preparing liberalized diets.
Do follow the guidance of a registered dietitian
Registered dietitians (RD) have the dietary expertise to provide the perfect solution for developing liberalized diet. RDs will carefully assess residents’ dietary restrictions, medical concerns, and health goals to piece together a diverse range of nutrient-rich food options. They also consider preferences and mindful eating practices so that the meal plan is a balance between health requirements and an enjoyable experience.
RDs also create liberalized diets to help older adults avoid malnutrition. As of January 2023, almost 10% of older adults living independently don’t have enough to eat. Long-term care residents also experience food insecurity, but more than half of them also experience malnutrition. However, over 30% of people over 65 overeat. With a diet emphasizing a reasonable portion size, the risk of an imbalance of nutrients significantly lowers.
After creating the plan, RDs also perform regular check-ins to monitor the diet’s effectiveness and whether it’s meeting the resident’s flavor expectations.
Do work with a food service management partner who specializes in liberalized diets
Sometimes, starting to include liberalized diets into resident care plans can be challenging – especially if you don’t have a food service management partner specializing in them. At Culinary Services Group, each of our offered plans are designed with resident preference in mind. We believe that food should bring joy to residents, not stress, so we feature different types of adaptive menus for people that need specialized care or modifications. This includes plans geared toward individuals with medical concerns that require specific nutritional adaptations, dysphagia, limited mobility, dementia, or other conditions that impact the ability to chew or swallow. Plus, we also provide a staff of nutrition professionals like registered dietitians!
Schedule a consultation to see how our experts can help you enhance your dining program with a liberalized diet.
