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Healthy Eating for Seniors: A Comprehensive Guide

Design nutritious, senior-friendly meals with practical tips on texture, nutrition, and the latest food trends for healthy ageing.

Healthy Eating for Seniors: A Comprehensive Guide

  • 6 weeks

  • 1 hour per week

  • Digital certificate when eligible

  • Introductory level

Find out more about how to join this course

  • Duration

    6 weeks
  • Weekly study

    1 hour
  • 100% online

    How it works
  • Unlimited subscription

    $244.99 for a whole yearLearn more

Support healthier, happier lives for older adults

By 2030, 1.4 billion people will be over the age of 60 (WHO), increasing the demand for specialised care for ageing populations.

As a caregiver, you have the power to transform the health and vitality of older adults through thoughtfully prepared meals and tailored nutrition plans.

Discover how you can tailor each for your patients and boost their quality of care on this online course from Taipei Medical University.

Over six immersive weeks, you’ll develop the expertise to address the unique nutritional needs of older adults and support them in ageing well with practical, evidence-based strategies.

Understand seniors’ health and nutritional needs

You’ll begin with an introduction to the key issues affecting elderly health, including geriatric syndromes, frailty, and common nutrient deficiencies.

You’ll gain a deeper understanding of how ageing impacts dietary needs and how you can address these through proper nutrition and healthy eating habits.

Design meals to meet the unique nutritional needs of seniors

You’ll then explore how to design, produce, and select food that meets the health needs of seniors, utilising your understanding of medicine, nutrition, and food science.

You’ll master key concepts such as texture-modified food standards, essential for seniors with chewing or swallowing challenges. Additionally, you’ll explore food processing techniques that ensure each meal they receive is both nutritious and easy to digest.

After that, you’ll delve into food processing technologies and learn how they’re applied to geriatric food development.

With the experts at Taipei Medical University, you’ll explore international trends in geriatric food, focusing on markets in Japan, the U.S., and Taiwan.

Syllabus

  • Week 1

    Physiological and Nutritional Issues in Seniors

    • Physiological and Nutritional Issues in Seniors

      Look at the nutrient deficiencies and energy needs of the elderly from the perspective of geriatric syndrome and formulate healthy nutrition strategies.

  • Week 2

    Food Texture Classification

    • Food Texture Classification

      The chewing ability of the elderly is often not as good as that of the young. Food with soft texture can help the elderly eat better and absorb nutrients. This week’s course introduces the grading of food texture in detail.

  • Week 3

    Application of Food Processing Technologies

    • Application of Food Processing Technologies

      Elderly people often have nutritional needs. When softening food, they should consider how to preserve nutrients and adopt different processing methods for different ingredients.

  • Week 4

    Current Situation in the Geriatric Food Market

    • Current Situation in the Geriatric Food Market

      Through understanding of existing products, we help students who are interested in developing novel foods for the elderly to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of products for the target group.

  • Week 5

    Design of Geriatric Food

    • Design of Geriatric Food

      The design of meals for the elderly must take into account the physiological and nutritional status, psychological and socioeconomic conditions of the elderly.

  • Week 6

    Homemade Geriatric Food

    • Homemade Geriatric Food

      Introducing the key points of poetry for seniors, allowing you to prepare customized meals for your family at home.

    • Healthy food podcast and reality show

      The teacher's own family experience brings out the importance of food for the elderly, and by actually showing the portions of food, we can understand food for the elderly.

    • Assessment and course feedback

      The course will end here. If you want to earn a Certificate of Achievement on this course, please take the test for a quick review. You are welcome to leave any feedback and rethink how to bring it forward.

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

  • Available now

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Identify the physiological and nutritional of aging
  • Describe the standards for texture-modified food both domestically and internationally.
  • Classify the food processing techniques for production of geriatric food
  • Apply the knowledge and information gained to design meals for the elderly.

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for healthcare professionals, food researchers, family caregivers, and anyone interested in elderly nutrition and meal design. No prior knowledge is needed to join.

Who will you learn with?

Who developed the course?

Taipei Medical University

Taipei Medical University

Taipei Medical University (TMU) has been a leader in Taiwan’s healthcare system for over half a century due to its research, teaching excellence, internationalization and outstanding medical service.

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Ways to learn

Choose the best way to learn for you!

Subscribe & save

$244.99 for a whole year

Automatically renews

Develop skills to further your career

  • Access to this course
  • Access to 1,000+ courses
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Digital certificate when you're eligible

Cancel for free anytime

Buy this course

$109/one-off payment

Fulfill your current learning need

  • Access to this course
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Printed and digital certificate when you’re eligible

Limited access

Free

Sample the course materials

  • Access expires 20 Mar 2025

Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)

Sale price available until 3 March 2025 at 23:59 (UTC). T&Cs apply.

Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)

Sale price available until 3 March 2025 at 23:59 (UTC). T&Cs apply.

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

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