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Types, description, purpose and results of high calorie diet.

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You can do an online search for high calorie diets for the elderly. When I worked in the nursing home, I found ensure and boost have a medicinal taste and no one really likes that. The dietitian there would add peanut butter to ice cream and make milk shakes, blend yogurt or cottage cheese with fruit, add some oatmeal, etc. anything that would add calories and nutrition. Generally is someone has lost weight, increased protein would be good to maintain skin integrity. Cook with cream, whole milk and use butter if the doc says it's ok. Make favorite foods. Use your crock pot for roasts or chicken so it's very tender and easy to eat. You can make gravy to go with it. Use whole grains which is good for intestinal health as well. Make smaller meals but serve more often than 3 times a day. Carnation instant breakfast has vitamins and you can add fruit, nut butter such as peanut or almond or flax seed and blend all to make a smoothie. Fix favorite foods. If this person has difficulty chewing or swallowing, you can 'chop' meats and add gravy, vegetable can be cooked and pureed if need be. Use spices to enhance the flavor of foods. Foods cooked as you would normally cook them, will taste the same if they are chopped or pureed. Make the food look appetizing on the plate, eat with your loved one even if it's just a snack or a cup of coffee. The dietitian I worked with said what ever they want and will eat-give to them. I saw it work many times. Talk to the doctor who can make recommendations about specific diets & food items.
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I found the best way to get my Dad to put on weight; was to cook old fashioned food from scratch. I use cream, and butter in everything. I use the joy of cooking, and a 1940's cookbook. He isn't crazy about green leafy vegetables, except cabbage, so I make cole slaw 8 different ways. When I make vegetables like squash, sweet potatoes, and carrots, I use brown sugar and butter. He eats so little, that I can afford to buy the tenderest steak from the butcher. I slice it very thin, and it melts in his mouth. I always have cut up fruit on the table, sprinkled with a little sugar. He gets high nutrition in every meal, made palatable by sugar and fat. I always make old fashioned desserts, like apple crisp or fruit pies, loaded with high fat ice cream.
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There isnt going to be one single answer to this. A lot is going to depend on what the goal is of their feeding & what their situation is.

For example my mom is on hospice& totally bed fast. So she needs "low volume" feedings and better with those that have probiotics in them (a nicer diaper). Mom gets Abbot Labs TwoCal HCN with FOS as a daily supplement mid morning daily (between breakfast & lunch). Then gets Boost or anther TwoCal as the supplement mid afternoon (between lunch & dinner)- Boost is fruit based & better for her than Ensure as she's lactose intolerant. Her meals are regular with proteins partially mechanized (dense proteins go through a tenderizer or get flatten with mallet). At moms care plan meeting, Dietary told me that it is really important that they stay on a regular diet as long as possible for their meals as the whole using a fork / knife, chew, swallow, repeat really helps keep their cognition going. Liquid only or purée diets are just to passive. All drinks with bendy straw.

If they are cancer patients undergoing chemo or some of the cancer drugs, they often have taste & mouth-feel issues. There is a really good cookbook for this by Holly Clegg. Some southern SAMs Club stores carry her line of cookbooks.
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Some Boost or Ensure formulas are high cal. Just have to watch out for medication interractions (for example, they might contain too much vitamin K for patients on blood thinners.)
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Tips on How to Gain Weight for Seniors & the Elderly
livestrong/article/267336-tips-on-how-to-gain-weight-for-seniors-the-elderly/
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MANY
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