#NourishYourMuscles – How to protect you and your loved ones from Malnutrition

Last week, I talked about Malnutrition on the blog and mentioned about how ignorant we are when it comes to eating healthy and giving healthy food to our loved ones. If you haven’t had a chance yet to read the blog post,  please have a look at it now here. 

Malnutrition leads to muscle loss and thus causing various other problems including depressions and loss of interest in being active. It is the high time to take the utmost care to spot the signs of Malnutrition and take action at the earliest especially when you are looking after an elderly. 

When you look at my Dad, it is hard to believe that he suffers muscle loss. He is a very active person who still (at the age of early 80’s) loves to cycle and finds reasons to keep himself active. Though his hearing is affected, he tries everything he could to live independent. Only when he started complaining about the unbearable leg pain when he was a little more active on some days, I realised he has lost quite a good amount of muscle on his legs. 

Did you notice the change in the muscle density in the above picture!?. Exactly that’s what happened to my Dad. So, It is important to spot the Muscle loss and Malnutrition at the earliest to avoid further damage. But it is definitely not something to be scared of. Age related muscle loss can be helped with diet and exercise. 

And, do you know “A 10 day period of bed-rest can lead to 1kg of muscle loss from the lower limbs in an older adult”

And people suffer from muscle loss takes longer to recover….

When you look at the above picture, what was your exact reaction!? I was like “Wow!, That’s highly impossible to ask my dad to include all those in his meals everyday!”. The reality is just as below. Believe it or not! Tea and biscuits – Dad’s favourite food, he can live with just having around 10 cups of tea everyday with a couple of biscuits at each tea time. So, there was no surprise if I say the below picture really shocked me. 

So, for someone like Dad who hates and developed a negative desire to food, the best way to keep his protein, energy and vitamin levels to the expected rate is by using Oral Nutritional Supplements (ONS). He actually takes multivitamins from a leading pharmacy brand but the research and results after using ONS alongside food really impressed me. 

To repair and rebuild your muscle while recovering from illness needs the following nutrients. 

• High protein • β -hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate (HMB)  • Vitamin D • Calories • Other essential nutrients 

• β -hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate (HMB)  • Vitamin D • Calories • Other essential nutrients 

• Vitamin D • Calories • Other essential nutrients 

• Calories • Other essential nutrients 

• Other essential nutrients 

and the interesting fact is ONS helps regaining all these nutrients and promotes rebuilding the muscles. 

If you talk to your GP about your health conditions, you are highly likely to get the best advice about the Nutrient supplements that will help keeping the energy and vitamin level to the expected standard. But remember, exercise is also very important to nourish your muscles, so it is very important to keep yourself active. 

Hope, the blog post really helped you to understand Malnutrition and the left you with some tips and advice to keep yourself and your loved ones healthy. More information can be found at Abbott Nutritional News. 

*I have been sponsored by Abbott to become an advocate for my Dad’s nutritional health, however all opinions are my own.

e-meet you at the next post…Take care…Bye…

-Rishi @mummyandcuties