No. of Recommendations: 3
She was never a great cook, but even by her standards that was terrible. So, no, I assume she was not getting good nutrition.This is often the case as we get older. I was always stunned at the cr@p Dad had in his fridge, what he insisted was OK to eat. He was the cook in the family, but the taste buds seem to work less well as we age.
Institutional food is often not the best, even at the fancy independent living facilities that require a high dollar buy in. I used to visit my parents in one of these places. They would rave about the "restaurant quality food," while I struggled to cobble together a healthy meal for me and the kids from the offerings. Though I've never been able to find the source, I once noted it said that "sugar is the opiate of the elderly." Sweet is one of the last things they taste when other tastes recede, and there seemed to be sugar in absolutely everything coming out of that kitchen!
When my Aunt was in AL and Memory Care, Dad had the luxury of seeing her daily, always at lunch to make sure she ate at least one meal. He would also bring her fortified sweets, like Ensure. These days there are all sorts of protein bars that could help as well. We are huge fans of Fitness Crunch bars, which frankly taste like a candy bar, but there are many on the market with sugar in them rather than erythritol, which may work for your mom.
With our family history, we were sure it was Alzheimer's. Trying to find a cause in someone exhibiting symptoms can be like a game of whack-a-mole, though. It takes time to reverse nutritional deficits, not to mention trying to see if one of the meds they are on is causing it, or a combination thereof. The best defense is to eat well in the first place, which is of course easier said than done.
It has been theorized that sugar consumption is implicated in developing Alzheimer's, which is one reason why we have been following a low carb diet for about 25 years now. There have started to be significant studies supporting this theory. A brief googling gave me this rather simplistic link, but you could google it further if you are interested:
https://food.ndtv.com/health/the-bittersweet-truth... A book that I am still in the midst of reading tells you more about the scavenging glia:
https://donnajacksonnakazawa.com/the-angel-and-the... Wendy on METAR is the one who brought the book to my attention.
