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| Author | Topic: how to get older ppl started on the diet? |
| Sanna 09-13-2002 06:23 AM | Hi again Wai. I am so happy and healthy now and I hate to see the people I love suffer as a consequence of a wrong type of diet. My grandmother is 75 (not even very old...) and she has lately experienced various health problems, including age-related macular degeneration of the eyes (isn't that diet-related? doesn't it have to do with clogging of the arteries?) and vascular problems, she has had a few heart attacks and says she finds it hard to breathe sometimes. She used to go on walks outside, either alone (her husband died 7 years ago) or with her friend, but now she hardly goes out of her apartment anymore because of her heart, breathing difficulties and also because she fell and her knee has not healed properly (probably will have surgery or something). I have been helping her out with stuff (cleaning, going to the bank etc) as well as talking to her face to face for hours. She is very lonely and doesn't have any hobbies. She is concerned of her health and reads "health magazines" and so she eats rye bread and fat free milk - like two liters a day - it freaks me out and I have told her I never drink milk but her reaction was so--uh well you know...that I just didn't have the energy to tell her anything about my new way of eating until now. By the way people in Finland drink SO much milk, always with every meal...I don't understand it. How is it possible that people still believe that milk prevents osteoporosis? Anyway, this is what my grandma thinks too and is almost fanatic about it. She sends me to the store to buy her another 8 liters of that poison and honestly, I can't do it anymore. I feel like I'm buying her drugs or something and helping her kill herself. She is getting very weak. She is at the hospital now. She had a bypass surgery September 3rd and is recovering from it. It was a big surgery but everything went well and she will be home in a week, I think. Now I thought I would write her a letter in which I explain (not in detail) the benefits of your diet and then when she asks me more I can go to her place and answer her questions and help her get started on a this new lifestyle. I want to do the letter thing because I know she will not be easy to convince. she is very stubborn and not that open-minded, especially when it comes to diet matters... Now before I try to help her, I wanted to ask you if there are some special rules or restrictions for older, weak people who have eaten wrong their whole lives and now start this diet. What should I remember and how to start? And then there are my parents, 47 and 48... they eat WRONG and they are NOT concerned about their health. But they should...they are both overweight (and, needless to say, so is my grandma) and I know they will not live that long if they don't drastically change their habits soon. And my mom already had breast cancer at 43...she had a surgery and it's gone (for now)... I have tried to not push this diet to them or convince them but just carefully mention how dangerous habits they have and how I feel healthy and strong now...but seriously, nothing helps!! please tell me, is there anything I could try? Maybe I will write a letter to them, too...and keep it short and then later answer their questions if they get curious? What foods should I first introduce to them? thank you. Sanna |
| Wai 09-13-2002 09:11 AM | Personally, I don't think we should force any diet upon anyone. If someone does not want to change his/her diet, that is his/her choice. It is their life. Loving someone is also about respecting their choices. quote:Ah, so she DOES want to eat healthy... It is just that she believes the official recommendations... Maybe you can ask her why especially people in finland suffer from osteoporosis so much, while people in countries where they hardly drink any milk at all, have hardly any osteoporosis. quote:You can tell her every time you are bringing her the milk, that that is what co-causes her problems. Don't try to convince her, just tell it to her every time. quote:She wount ask more. She will not believe it because the government tells her differently. The only thing that might work, is the constant repeating of the same lines, over and over again, with every time that you see her. Tell her that it is because of the foods she eats that she is sick now. Don't try to convince her, just tell her this every time, and then always switch to 'normal talk' again. quote:You should always keep in mind that her defense system has been weakened, and you therefore should be very careful regarding fresh raw fish / egg yolks. If she doesn't mind to drink orange juice, you can start with adding one single drop of fresh raw egg yolk to her juice, and do this daily during one week. Then you add 2 drops to her juice, during another week. Then 4 drops, then half a teaspoon, then one teaspoon etc. etc. She wount notice it. It will increase the strength of her defense system. quote:Woops, you can forget about teaching them then. If they are not interested, you cannot make them interested. quote:That is her weak spot then. You can make a list of everything that can cause breastcancer, and repeat that to her over and over again, depending on what she is eating when you see her. Every time that you see her, you mention one of these causes once, and then you skip to 'normal talk' again. Don't try to convince her, just keep on telling it to her once in every time that you see her. quote:they wount. It is not their interest. quote:The best food to introduce to non-dieters, are delicious fruit-shakes; they are easy to digest, make you feel energetic and taste great. |