How to Prepare Easy to Chew Foods for the Elderly

When you have your own teeth, you are able to chew your food without any problem, and you are able to eat just about any food you desire. When you are a senior who wears dentures, or a senior who has lost his teeth and never replaced them, chewing certain foods can be difficult, if not impossible. People with this problem could be lacking essential nutrients when they eliminate certain foods from their diet. If you are a caregiver with the responsibility of taking care of an elderly person who has trouble chewing, you may want to know how to prepare easy to chew foods for him.

Instructions

• 1

  Prepare fruit for breakfast or dessert for the elderly person to get some fiber and vitamin C in their system. Use a cheese grater to grate an apple or pear for this person. If the pear is overripe, mash the pear with a fork instead. Serve the pureed fruit over creamed cottage cheese or yogurt. Oatmeal is another nutritious breakfast food. To make oatmeal easier to chew, put half a cup of dry oatmeal in a blender to grind it down. Cook the ground oatmeal as you would regular oatmeal. The end result will be oatmeal with a creamy texture that does not need to be chewed.

• 2

  Make soup for an elderly person. Soup is an effective way to put a variety of vitamins, minerals and fiber in a senior's diet. Add soft white rice to the soup, or tiny pasta, and add chopped zucchini to the soup for calcium and vitamin A, and chopped tomatoes without the skin for additional vitamin A and vitamin C. If the person you are cooking for likes carrots, put some in the soup by grating a carrot with a cheese grater. You can also put potatoes in the soup for potassium.

• 3

  Grind turkey, chicken, pork, or beef so the elderly person wearing dentures can comfortably eat these protein foods with a minimum amount of chewing. If the senior has no real or artificial teeth, give him meat from a jar that is made for babies. Make mashed potatoes and mix the ground meat or jarred baby food into them. Moisten the food with brown gravy. You can also cook canned barbecue beans for this person, mash them and serve them with over the mashed potatoes.