Pennyaline
I am inclined to agree, but not totally.
There certainly is no point in making an elderly person's life a misery by radically changing their diet. In that respect I wouldn't bother about cholesterol, for example. If you've got clogged arteries, fine, you'll die of a heart attack. Diabetes is a bit different. Diabetes kills you slowly and unpleasantly, so I think that you've got to make some attempt at dietary modification.
The recommended diet for diabetics isn't all that different from a good general diet. You can replace regular jam with sugarless fruit spreads - there are some excellent products which we have ourselves because we like them, and there are other painless ways to reduce sugar and fat consumption. Eating little and often is no hardship either.
My mother is 90 and has had diabetes for some years. She is past watching her diet (which she did when she was first diagnosed) and my father actively opposes any attempt at dietary control, partly because he insists that she doesn't have "proper" diabetes. I have to admit that that these days my concern is more that both of them are in danger of malnutrition. Since Mum gave up cooking their diet has actually changed, for the worse. Left to themselves they would subsist on meat pies and jam sandwiches and no veggies whatsoever. If I'm going to be feeding them I may as well, within the limits of what they enjoy eating, try to bear the diabetes in mind.
Fish oil and cholesterolThat's pretty cool. I used to keep track of everything I eat, for about 1.5 years, during a weight loss diet and then for some time after that, to learn...
Christine
