Use Food as a Way to Help Your Loved One Cope With Alzheimer’s

Coping With Alzheimer's

Do an experiment right now. Let your friend blindfold you. Sit on a chair. Now your friend will be adding a drop of different flavors onto your tongue. You have to identify them.

The flavors are fresh tomato, avocado, cilantro, chocolate, steak, barbecue sauce, and coconut. How well do you think you’ll do at identifying them? Most likely if you are like everyone else, you’ll get them all right.

But that’s not the experiment. The experiment is to see which of these flavors take you back into a place and time in your past where you experienced them the first time or a very powerful time. You might only have one of these flavors take you back in time or you may have several of them take you back in time.

This is a helpful experiment for coping with Alzheimer’s disease because if you can access their taste buds that link to a previous time in life, you could potentially ‘bring them back’.

Let’s do this by incorporating healthy salads into their diets.

Healthy Salad Recipes

Black Bean, Bacon and Corn Salad

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients:

• One 15-ounce can black beans, drained
• One corn on the cob, with corn removed from the cob
• 1 bunch green onions, sliced thinly
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 cucumber, cubed
• 5 strips bacon, cooked and cut into small pieces
• Vinaigrette dressing of your choice

Directions:

1. In a large 2-quart bowl, mix all ingredients.
2. Add the vinaigrette dressing, toss and serve.

Ask your loved one with Alzheimer’s if she remembers anything from the past while eating this recipe.

Heirloom Tomato Lentil Salad

Yield: 3 servings

Ingredients:

• 4 Heirloom tomatoes, sliced
• 1 cup cooked lentils
• 1 8-ounce jar roasted red peppers, drained
• 3 ounces goat milk cheese
• Vinaigrette dressing of your choice

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together in a big 2-quart bowl.
2. Add vinaigrette dressing for a little extra flavor.

Ask your loved one with Alzheimer’s if she remembers eating tomatoes out of a family farm or garden as a child while eating this recipe with her.

Watermelon Salad

Yield: 3 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 cups watermelon balls
• 1 cup cantaloupe balls
• 1 cup strawberries, sliced
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup pineapple chunks
• 2 ounces shredded coconut
• 4 ounces coconut water

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together. Let marinate for an hour.
2. Serve cold.

Ask your loved one with Alzheimer’s if she remembers eating watermelon as a child while eating this recipe with her.