The 2020-2025 Edition is Here!
Make Every Bite Count with the Dietary Guidelines!
The official Dietary Guidelines for Americans define “adaptable eating patterns that can help promote health and reduce risk of chronic disease across the lifespan.” Essentially, they provide an abundance of nutritional options designed to accommodate any patient’s cultural, ethnic, personal, or traditional preferences. What does this mean in practice for you exactly?
Recommend Wisely
All food/beverage options you recommend to your patients should at the very least “meet the key recommendations for food groups, subgroups, nutrients, and other components.” At best, you should be able make great suggestions that help your patients come up with all sorts of unique meal ideas that support healthy eating patterns based on their own cultural/financial preferences.
Food As Fuel
If you’re trying to inspire healthier habits in your patients, proposing whole foods over supplements and dietary additives should be a given. While supplements and added nutrients might be wonderful for making sure your patients get enough of the nutrients they need for optimal nutrition, you should stay focused on encouraging a proper diet that effectively fuels the body with real food to ensure your patients are benefiting from all the other components fresh ingredients have to offer.
Encourage Consistency
If your dieticians and food service staff are pushing for healthier eating, but the rest of your facility is not on the same page or providing the same support, your patients are the ones who will inevitably struggle. That means, consistency throughout your facility in regards to maintaining a setting that supports healthier eating patterns is crucial.
Teach Cleanliness
Beyond just meal selection, ensuring that your patients are educated in proper food safety techniques and understand the necessity of cleanliness can make a huge difference in their long-term health. Foods, utensils, and prep surfaces should remain clean and separated at all times, with meals cooked, chilled, stored, and reheated according to proper food safety guidelines.
Go Beyond Nutrition
Everyone knows there are two keys to unlock a healthier happier life, diet and exercise. That means, of your patients are drilled on nutrition but not given the opportunity to learn how to explore their physical capabilities safely, they are not truly benefiting from a wholly healthy lifestyle and they will definitely not be able to incorporate the lessons they’ve learned from your staff at home. You must maintain a care setting that supports both nutrition and physical activity.
For more information on implementing innovative technologies to help your staff support your patients’ dietary needs, and help educate them in how to align with the official dietary guidelines for Americans, reach out to our software specialists at Vision Software today.
If you need additional support, Vision Software and our array of impressively innovative food service software applications will always be here for you! Call 629.777.8989, or fill in the free consultation form in the sidebar, to learn more about how Vision Software can positively impact the lives of the patients and visitors you service every day.