THIS week (March 14-18) is Diet and Hydration Week, and North Cumbria Built-in Care NHS Basis Belief is highlighting how poor diet and hydration can result in a deterioration in well being and elevated hospital admissions.
Nicola Storey, deputy head of Diet & Dietetics at NCIC, mentioned: “It’s actually necessary individuals preserve a very good weight-reduction plan and keep hydrated, particularly those that are being cared for in a hospital or care residence.
“The results of poor diet can embody an elevated threat of an infection, delayed wound therapeutic and decreased muscle energy.”
The theme for this yr’s marketing campaign is ‘Making a distinction daily’.
Individuals being cared for in hospital or a care residence could have a lowered urge for food and require further assist to eat effectively with additional snacks and nourishing drinks.
Taking the time to grasp their likes and dislikes may help.
Nicola added: “For the final inhabitants there are many issues individuals can do to take care of a very good degree of diet and hydration, for instance, consuming water often all through the day, consuming extra contemporary fruit and greens and reducing down on the quantity of sugar and salt they eat.”
Medical proof additionally reveals that good diet and hydration can help in stopping circumstances resembling stress ulcers, coronary heart illness, diabetes, and low blood stress.
It’s also recognised that it helps to maintain you alert and really feel typically more healthy.
If you happen to’re taking a look at methods of enhancing your weight-reduction plan, right here are some things that would assist:
High ideas for diet
• Base your meals on starchy meals – starchy meals ought to make up round one third of the meals you eat. These embody potatoes, cereals, pasta, rice and bread
• Eat loads of fruit and veg – It’s really useful that we eat at the very least 5 parts of various kinds of fruit and veg a day
• Eat extra fish – fish is an efficient supply of protein and accommodates many nutritional vitamins and minerals
• Minimize down on saturated fats and sugar – all of us want fats in our weight-reduction plan, however it’s necessary to concentrate to the quantity of fats that we’re consuming
• Eat much less salt – consuming an excessive amount of salt can elevate blood stress, which may result in individuals creating coronary heart illness or having a stroke
• Keep lively – staying lively is a crucial a part of sustaining total good well being
• Pay attention to dehydration – we have to drink about 1.6 – 2 litres of fluid daily.
High ideas for hydration
We have provide you with some ideas that will help you keep hydrated:
• Total, try to drink 8-10 glasses of water a day.
• Begin the day with a glass of water.
• If you happen to discover it tough to hydrate in your shift, ensure you begin your shift effectively hydrated and drink extra at residence.
• It’d sound extreme, however in the event you usually go all day with out consuming water, set a reminder in your telephone!
• Infuse your water for flavour. Add your favorite fruits and/or herbs, like lemon and mint, to make water slightly extra attention-grabbing.
• Preserve monitor of your consuming via an app like My Water Steadiness.
• Are you able to substitute considered one of your typical cups of tea or espresso for H2O?
• Add time markers. Use markers in your drink bottle to point how a lot you need to drink by a sure time. That method, you will see in the event you’re behind or on monitor every time you choose up your bottle.
• Comply with your physique’s pure routine. Have a glass as quickly as you get up, every time you utilize the toilet, earlier than each meal, and earlier than you go to mattress.
• Reward your self with a brand new water bottle
Diet and Hydration Week is an annual occasion with a shared goal to focus on, promote and have fun enhancements within the provision of diet and hydration domestically, nationally and globally.
• To assist Diet and Hydration Week, individuals are being requested to make a pledge to elevating consciousness of the significance of diet and hydration as a necessary component of care.
