Eating Well for Older People with Dementia

For too long weight loss and poor nutritional status have been seen as an inevitable consequence of dementia.

Eating well for older people with Dementia challenges that view by showing how a healthy, balanced diet, firmly founded on variety and quality, can help significantly in promoting and implementing the health and quality of life of older people with dementia.

This work results from the ground-breaking earlier report, Eating well for older people which gave nutritional guidelines for food served in residential and nursing homes and community meals.

These guidelines look more closely at dementia and:

• how dementia affects the ability to eat
• examines the role that good nutrition can play in the care of older people with dementia
• emphasises the importance of organisational commitment to good nutrition and the need for appropriate staff training, and
• provides practical and nutritional guidelines for residential and nursing homes and others catering for older people with dementia.