Question

Mr. King is 75 years old and lives alone. He has been slowly losing weight since his wife died a year ago. His height is 5’8” and he currently weighs 124 lbs. His previous weight was 150 lbs. prior to his wife’s death. In talking to Mr. King, you realize he doesn’t even like to talk about food, let alone eat it. “My wife always did the cooking before, and I ate well. Now I just don’t feel like eating.” He states he skips breakfast, eats soup and bread for lunch. For dinner, he eats a frozen dinner entrée or a cold-cut sandwich and a cup of coffee. He seldom sees relatives or friends. Mr. King has lost several teeth and doesn’t eat any raw fruits or vegetables because he finds them hard to chew.

1. Refer to the BMI table in your textbook. Is Mr. King at a healthy weight? Is his weight loss significant?

2. Discuss factors that contributed to Mr. King’s poor food intake. What nutrients are probably lacking in his diet?

3. What recommendations would you suggest to Mr. King to improve both his diet and lifestyle?

Answer 1

Ans1: Referring to the BMI table, Mr King is having a BMI of 18.9 which is in the normal range, therefore he is at a healthy weight. Prior to his wife's death he was weighing 150lbs and at that time his BMI was 22.8 which also stood in the normal region, hence his weight loss is not significant as he is still at a normal healty weight as per WHO. However extreme weight loss can be life threatening considering Mr King's age.

Ans2: The factors that contributed to Mr King's poor food intake are as follows:-

1. The depression which was caused due to his beloved wife's death.
2. Lack of interest in having food or rather talk about food.
3. Lack of interest in cooking his own food.
4. Loosing his teeth made him difficult to chew raw fruits or vegetables.
5. Un-involvment of relatives or friends in guiding him regard his food regimen.

Now when we consider the nutrients, having said that he skips breakfast leads to low energy levels and therby low metabolism that may have an adverse effect on the blood glucose level.He eventualy becomes deficient in potassium, dietary fibers, vitamin A, C etc as he does not consume any fruits or vegetables.

Ans3: As to his lifestyle we can recommend Mr King to find someone preferably a friend or relative to whom he can openly talk to about matters that depress his mindset and engage in new conversations. He can also join a grief support group.

Discussing about the diet, we can suggest that he should never skip breakfast and must go meet a dentist who can give him new set of teeth so that he can incorporate more fruits and vegetable in his diet as it is adequetly important to maintain his nutrient level. Moreover as he is not interested in cooking he can preferably keep someone who would aid him in his daily eating routines.