Tiffany (00:01.607)
Welcome to a very special episode of Comfort Connections, our 50th. Over the past 50 episodes, we've tackled some of the most important issues facing seniors and the people who care for them. Today, we're taking on one of the most urgent food insecurity among older adults. Today, our guest is someone many of you may remember from one of our most downloaded episode. Dr. Joan Selje Blake is a nutrition professor at Boston University, host

Joan Salge Blake (00:20.109)
Thank

Tiffany (00:30.569)
of Spot On Podcast and one of the most respected voices in nutrition today. Dr. Seljie Blake, welcome back to Comfort Connections and thank you for joining us on this milestone episode.

Joan Salge Blake (00:37.539)
Thank

Joan Salge Blake (00:42.903)
Well, happy anniversary. I'm so excited for you. And thank you for asking me back.

Tiffany (00:46.049)
Thank you.

We had such a great response to your first episode on senior meal prep. Since then, food insecurity has only grown as a national conversation. What's changed since we last spoke?

Joan Salge Blake (00:51.715)
You

Joan Salge Blake (01:02.883)
Oh my goodness, have you gone food shopping lately? I feel like I'm in Bloomingdale's here. It's like crazy. You know what I did Tiffany? I did some little bit of homework here and I went back a decade and I looked at the consumer price index of an appertaining to food and you're ready for this over the last 10 years since 2016 to 2026. Food prices have increased by 37.

percent. No, no Tiffany has has your salary increased by 37 percent over the decade? Nor has mine. Okay, so the question is what? It's unbelievable.

Tiffany (01:33.836)
It's unbelievable.

Tiffany (01:40.841)
It has not.

Tiffany (01:50.797)
It really is. So let's set the stage. When people picture food insecurity, they might picture someone who simply can't afford groceries. But for seniors, especially those receiving professional care, the picture is more complicated. What does food insecurity actually look like on older adults daily life?

Joan Salge Blake (02:06.199)
Mm-hmm.

Joan Salge Blake (02:12.835)
Well, there's a lot of things going on. Okay, so they have limited fixed income and some may have really fixed income. They have to pay for rent or mortgage, electricity.

car, gasoline, should they still be driving, the medications. So, know, often times for a lot of seniors, you know, by the third week of the month, things are getting quite tight. You know, their monthly budget is dwindling down. So, you know, they've got to pay the rent, they've got to pay the mortgage, they've got to pay the electricity. So, what do you give up? Oftentimes, it's the food.

So what happens by the end of the month, people may start skipping meals or doing things like having oatmeal three times a day, you know, so limited food supplies and could be a real problem, especially if this is a continual chronic way that they're eating.

Tiffany (03:19.946)
Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about when we're talking about food insecurity and hunger, can you talk a little bit about the differences there?

Joan Salge Blake (03:29.345)
Right? So, you know, when you have food insecure, you may not be hungry. And you say, what? Well, because let's go back to the oatmeal. All right? So if you're food insecure and you're just, you know, eating oatmeal for two weeks or rice for two weeks, you may not be hungry per se, but you're going to be food insecure. And the diet that you're having is not well balanced, which could set you

up for problems, especially, I mean, nowadays, many adults have one or more chronic conditions, whether it's heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure. So you got all of this working together and maybe on medication. So again, unbalanced diet is not going to be good for your health long term.

Tiffany (04:21.254)
Why do you think seniors maybe don't self-report that there's food insecurity taking place?

Joan Salge Blake (04:27.703)
Right, pride.

Pride, you know, they don't, they're not proud. They're very proud people. They've worked hard all their lives. They're used to giving, being parents and taking care of others, not used to having others take care of them. So a lot of it is pride. And a lot of it is also, they don't know about all the wonderful resources out there that can help older adults support their diet with healthy food.

Tiffany (04:59.83)
What are some warning signs that caregivers or family members may notice to see if someone is maybe skipping meals or doing the oatmeal or the rice diet that really isn't something that's gonna benefit?

Joan Salge Blake (05:12.963)
Right. You know, you want to start looking at the first thing is weight loss. If someone's had a dramatic weight loss or slow weight loss, like if six months ago they were 10 pounds heavier, right? And they're losing a pound or so a month. Okay. So that's one of the things you want to look at. And you know, be a snoop. Go in there and look, open up the refrigerator, open up the cabinets and what are we seeing in there? And you know, if we're not seeing a well variety of foods or well stocked

pantry. Clearly this is when you first read flag here that obviously there's not enough food in this house to fortify a full day's worth of calories.

Tiffany (05:57.793)
Yeah, can you walk us through what happens nutritionally when someone is kind of doing the oatmeal or the rice diet? What starts happening to their body?

Joan Salge Blake (06:08.587)
Right, so what's gonna happen is you're gonna start to get vitamin and mineral deficiencies. You're gonna start to feel fatigued. Your immune system is not going to be as robust as you want it to be, so a cold may take you longer to get over it. One of the other things that...

caretakers can do. And this is a wonderful resource. It's called the Nutrition and Aging Resource, and it's on the Administration for Community Living. Administration for Community Living. So you can Google that and get on there. On there is these red flags that you could look at and ask. So if you're going in there and you're seeing, you know, they've had tooth problems.

They're not going to the dentist. They can't chew. You're looking around, of course you're not seeing enough food in the house. They have the weight loss. They can't get out to food shop. Then there's this wonderful, wonderful little quiz that you as a caretaker can take. So what you do is you go onto this website that I just said, and there are these 10 questions.

And it's really great. It's kind of like a little game you can play with the person. And you can ask the questions. Do they have an illness or condition that has changed the kind or the amount of food? And if so, you circle it. And do they eat fewer than two meals a day? If so, you circle it. Do you eat a few fruits and vegetables or milk products? Circle that. You have three or more servings of alcoholic beverages a day.

You have tooth issues. You don't always have enough money to buy food. They eat alone a lot of times. are, without wanting to, they've lost weight and they're not always physically active and ready to shop. So what you do is you just, you know, take this like little interview and then you add up all the numbers. And if the amount that you add up is six or more, then they are at high risk.

Joan Salge Blake (08:28.353)
for malnutrition. And so this can help you, know, they be honest with you of what they're eating and that could be your first signal, first little test to say, gee, you know, based upon everything that's going on with you, you know, you may not be getting all the nutrients that you need.

Tiffany (08:49.034)
Right, and I think caregivers might have, specifically caregivers, if we're already in the home providing services, they're expecting us to sometimes provide tips and feedback. So it's a little bit different than maybe their son or daughter, you know, who they may feel like is lecturing. It can really come well from a caregiver. We really need to make sure that we are watching for these things because it's really important. If we are in the home,

for conditions and we're helping someone or even if we're in the home because someone recently had a surgery, what they're eating is going to be huge in regards to them healing. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Joan Salge Blake (09:23.107)
Huge. Tiffany, that's very spot on because I'm going to tell you something. When the kids come, they're still the parent. I don't care how old, they're still the parent. And they always are the kids. So stop. But when a caretaker comes, oh my gosh, this is a person that's employed to do this. This is their job. That takes on a whole different...

Tiffany (09:44.972)
They're a professional.

Joan Salge Blake (09:49.751)
take on the person so they'll be more likely to listen to that person because that's their job where your kids like stop, all right? Just stop already. So, excellent. So for sure, you know, the caretakers, that is part of the job and they should be looking around and making sure that they're watching for these red flags.

Tiffany (10:11.692)
Absolutely. Can you talk a little bit about mental health toll? And there has to be one. So when you know that there's not enough money to go around, we're not maybe getting the right nutrients, and then we have this mental health toll. Can you talk a little bit about how that affects this whole situation?

Joan Salge Blake (10:15.895)
Yes. No question.

Joan Salge Blake (10:27.895)
Totally, you have to feed your brain, okay? Your brain is driving the body, okay? You have to feed the brain and not just carbohydrates, it loves carbohydrates, but other nutrients so that the brain will work sharply. So if you're not feeding the brain, not having good nutrition, it is gonna affect your mood. It is conspiring into depression.

So you really need to be making sure that you're feeding your brain so that it is driving the bus in the right direction.

Tiffany (11:01.834)
And is this maybe another red flag? If people are noticing with family members or clients that they're serving that this person is more agitated, they just seem overall, you know, things are, they're not feeling great about things. That could be another sign that something deeper is going on, such as food insecurity.

Joan Salge Blake (11:22.199)
That's right. And you know, Tiffany, I'm sure when you get hungry, you're not the most pleasurable person to be around. know, right? So think about this. If these people are chronically hungry and not well fed, you're right. Irritation is going to be a first good signal that something's not going on here. That's correct.

Tiffany (11:29.13)
Right.

Tiffany (11:43.634)
What should a caregiver say if they suspect that someone is indeed skipping meals? How do they bring that up?

Joan Salge Blake (11:51.169)
Yeah, so we have to approach this that this is, food is food is medicine. So you're taking your medicine for blood pressure or diabetes or whatever, but food is medicine. And you have to eat to...

Make sure your body is running the best it can run. So you can't skip meals, okay? This is not just about satiating and not being hungry, know, the whole rice diet, the whole oatmeal diet. This is about putting in food that is nutrient rich, that the whole body is functioning properly. Then on top of that, if you have something like high blood pressure, which we know certain foods can help lower that and some can...

can increase it and look at diabetes. Very important to be controlling what you're eating and how frequently throughout the day. all of this, know, food is medicine and that's really what you need to think as caretakers, be telling these people this can't be skimped. Just like you don't skip on your medicine, you can't skip on your food because food is medicine.

Tiffany (12:59.788)
True.

Tiffany (13:03.466)
Why do you think that that is usually one of the first things that people decide to cut when there are budget, we're dealing with a set amount of money? Why is that the first thing people typically go to?

Joan Salge Blake (13:15.169)
You know something, it's interesting. This happens all the time. It's not just in older populations. This happens in young families that have a tight budget. know, food, you can...

fool around with food. You can't fool around with the rent. You can't fool around with electricity. You can't fool around with the meds or medications, although some people do try to stretch those medications, which you should not do. So the last thing is that you have control over is gonna be the amount of food that you eat. And you, as I mentioned, you can be doing unbalanced diets just to fill your tummy. What we have, Tiffany, it's quite, quite interesting.

Tiffany (13:32.492)
Thank

Joan Salge Blake (13:59.459)
And we just figured this out maybe a little bit over decade ago, that when people were admitted to the hospital and they had excessive body fat, especially around the middle, we found out that they could have malnutrition. And as a dietitian, you would say, what? How could you have malnutrition? That's not, you think of malnutrition, you think somebody that's so frail and thin, but you could be excess body fat and be

Tiffany (14:25.342)
Right?

Joan Salge Blake (14:29.363)
malnourished. And what has happened is in the hospital, dieticians are now do physical focus exams where they can look and say, you know, I think this person is malnourished. Let's run some tests. So as a caretaker, obviously you can't run tests, but you need to understand that even though maybe they're a little robust, that they still can be malnourished. That's really important.

Tiffany (14:58.4)
Yeah, so we've talked about the stakes. It's so important. Food is medicine. It's important what we're putting into our bodies. Now let's talk about what caregivers and families can actually do when that grocery budget is low. And this is one of my favorite parts of our conversation that we had the last time that you were on. You just shared so much information of what can we do? How can we make this work? Can you share with us some of your biggest tips for just stretching that dollar?

Joan Salge Blake (15:27.125)
Right. First of all, I want you to remember, and we talked about this in the beginning as a caretaker, please remember, there are a lot of resources out in the community to help older people. I'll get to the grocery in a minute because I know you love to to shop, Tiffany, but anyway, but there are a lot of resources. There's a commodity supplemental food program. It's a federal program. You can Google that. You can...

There's a senior food box program. There's senior food pantries. There is food pantries in every town. There's things like senior farmers markets, which is really neat because then you're out with everybody of your own age and it's kind of like a social event here. You have SNAP, know, that's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. And you know something?

You have congregate meals. Many towns have senior centers which have congregate meals where they can go. They'll even pick you up in a bus sometimes. And you can eat at these centers. Let me tell you what the research tells us. That when you eat with others, you eat more. So it's better for you to get out of the house and go and eat with others at a congregate center, senior center, whatever, than eating by yourself.

Tiffany (16:28.108)
Mm-hmm.

Joan Salge Blake (16:48.749)
Because you know, don't want to cook it all by yourself. Who wants to cook? And here we go again with the oatmeal. So looking at the resources and as a caretaker, let's look at what are the resources in the neighborhood that they can augment. Maybe every Tuesday they go to the congregate meal. Maybe every Thursday and Monday they have Meals on Wheels comes to deliver. So you need to be looking at.

what other kind of resources are in the community to support them to make that, make sure that they get supplemental food when the food budget is getting really, really tight.

Tiffany (17:27.702)
I really appreciate you bringing that up because it's so important. Not only does it give people options of what are the other options, it's yes, we can stretch the dollar at the grocery store, but there's also, there's a community out there and there's a community that wants to support people and wants to bring people together on top of just getting people together for food. There's also the perspective of now we're bringing people together, just what that does, the sense of community, talking to one another.

Joan Salge Blake (17:31.576)
Yeah.

Tiffany (17:55.339)
being around people, getting outside of the four walls of your home. Those things are also so important just for mental health, for so many things. So all of those suggestions are great. I mean, imagine going to a farmer's market and it's just for seniors. That sounds fantastic, right? We're meeting people, we're getting food. That's great.

Joan Salge Blake (18:12.247)
Yeah, right. And you know, you're building relationships and you're building new friends. So maybe you meet somebody at the farmer's market and you find out, goodness gracious, that person lives a block away. Hey, let's come over and have lunch together or let's go, you know. And so again, also Tiffany, not only you wanna be making sure that you're eating healthy, but moving, very important moving. And very important moving for your muscles, your muscle tone.

Tiffany (18:19.265)
Bye.

Tiffany (18:37.057)
Mm-hmm.

Joan Salge Blake (18:41.961)
Also mentally, movement is good. You know, and if you're sitting home and you're feeling a little sad and everything, let's get out, let's get some fresh air, walk with somebody, even just sit with somebody on your front porch or whatever. Just having that interaction with people can really be important and lift you up for the day.

Tiffany (19:01.696)
absolutely so important to do those things. So one of the things I really loved about our last conversation is, and I think this is something that's important for, I think everyone, I know we're talking about seniors today, but I think everyone, we talked about how canned and frozen foods are not the enemy that sometimes people want them to be. It can be a great option. Can you talk a little bit about that and just how they can be helpful incorporated in our diets?

Joan Salge Blake (19:19.799)
Yes.

Yes.

Joan Salge Blake (19:30.135)
I want to tell you something. This is a good, this is really, really good to communicate as a caretaker to a senior person. Mentel just came out with some research. I was just reading it before I logged on here. And what they're finding is, you know, older adults grew up making everything. Fresh is best. know, I have to make everything from scratch and everything. Let me tell you, the young, the grandchildren.

Tiffany (19:52.267)
Mm-hmm.

Joan Salge Blake (19:56.717)
They're not cooking from scratch. They're looking for ways to cut corners in the kitchen. I mean, they have Netflix to watch. They don't have time to chop and clean veggies. So they're going and doing canned and frozen. Like they think this is the best thing since sliced bread. But the older people think that you have to have fresh. No, no, no. Take a look at your grandchildren. They're bypassing the slicing and the dicing. So what you want to do

is look to ways to make food, you know, a combination easy. And there's nothing easier than frozen fruits and vegetables. And they're oftentimes going to be cheaper, and there's no slicing, and there's no dicing, and also no food waste.

because what you can do is take out exactly what you want to microwave for the vegetables, whatever, and leave the bag back into the freezer rather than having this fresh broccoli that you buy and you store it in the...

produce graveyard of your the produce bin of your refrigerator never to be seen again and then it's all wilted and you throw it out. So you know keep it that's why the fresh and the canned and the frozen are stable. So open up that can of corn open up those frozen vegetables or that frozen berries and use them to augment the meal. So maybe all you have to do is make a chicken you know and make and i'm big on

cooking once and eating twice. So, you know, maybe cooking up a whole chicken once. And this is what a caretaker can do. Maybe while you're there is you put a roasted chicken in the oven and then it comes out and then wrap it up. And now this person has chicken, okay, that's gonna last maybe a week, a few days. Then you pull down the frozen vegetables from the freezer. You pull down the instant brown rice from the cupboards and whoop.

Tiffany (21:27.221)
Yes.

Tiffany (21:32.556)
Hmm?

Joan Salge Blake (21:54.327)
This is a meal that you can put together. And so it may be a situation where not only as a caregiver, you're going in and making sure how they're doing and the medicines and everything, but how is, what are you doing for the week for food? Let's plan this out. What are your meals? Let's plan a list of what you're going to do. Just like what are you gonna do every day? What are you gonna eat every day? And let's get some.

long-term planning for the week so you know that things are ready to roll. You couple that with meals on wheels, going out to a congregate center, know, getting excess supplies from the food pantry. Now we have a model in place or a schedule in place to make sure that accessible foods are in the house and they can get it to make balanced meals.

Also, there's a wonderful visual for caretakers to look at, print out, bring to, and put it on the refrigerator when you get to the home. Tufts University made a MyPlate for older adults.

And it's great, it's a great visual. So it's gonna show you like when it says grains, what type of grains, protein, all the wonderful protein sources, and they don't have to be animal based. They could be soy, they could be beans, vegetables and fruit, and of course dairy. And it's a nice visual because my plate, that's what it's supposed to be. That's what your plate's supposed to look like. So you have grains, you have fruits, you have vegetables, you got some protein and dairy. So with every meal.

mimics my plate, then you know you're getting a wide variety of food in the right proportionality to better get a better guarantee or better assurance of getting all your vitamin and nutrient needs.

Tiffany (23:50.785)
You got me there talking about the protein and how it doesn't all have to be animal based. Can you talk about some of your favorite? I'm a vegetarian, so I'm always excited to hear about ways I can get protein. What are some options out there that are gonna be plant-based?

Joan Salge Blake (23:56.247)
Right? Yes.

Joan Salge Blake (24:07.043)
Okay, let me tell you, people are now doing more plant-based. And the reason why they're doing more plant-based is because the other day I said to my husband, you know, I feel like a steak for dinner. So I'm going to go to supermarket. I went to the supermarket and I'm looking at the sirloin steaks. And I looked at the price and it was $19 a pound. said, and so I went to the butcher. said, no, no, I don't want the whole cow.

Tiffany (24:30.923)
Yes.

Joan Salge Blake (24:37.011)
All I want is a sirloin steak. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. It's ridiculously expensive. So really wonderful, wonderful protein sources are going to be your canned tuna, even those pouches of tuna, your canned beans. And you know, you can get this at the dollar store.

Tiffany (24:43.372)
So expensive.

Tiffany (24:55.584)
Yeah. Yeah.

Joan Salge Blake (25:02.015)
I love the dollar store. You can get some wonderful, you can get those whole grain sides, the way you can microwave the brown rice and put it in the microwave. So the dollar store is, it could be a place where, you know, an outing that can go to where they stock up on these kind of shelf stable protein. Cottage cheese.

My goodness gracious, this entire baby boomer generation grew up with cottage cheese. Cottage cheese is the hottest thing now on TikTok. I mean, you have, it is. And so like, hello, talk to your grandmother. Your grandmother grew up with cottage cheese. And cottage cheese is wonderful because it can go in every meal. You can add vegetables to it. You can add fruit to it. It's a fabulous, fabulous source of protein.

Tiffany (25:32.916)
It is.

Tiffany (25:47.116)
Yeah.

Joan Salge Blake (25:51.363)
And dairy, course, is an excellent source of protein. So are beans. So are nuts. Let me tell you something about the animal products. listen, when you go food shopping, you need to be pretty savvy. A lot of people don't like to buy foods that have been reduced in price.

Okay, so they'll see a red sticker, okay, it's marked down, and they'll see a yellow sticker, that means clearance. And they'll go, I'm not gonna buy that. Yeah, it's on clearance. Let me explain this. In the supermarket, the supermarket manager must, by law, sell a food by a certain date. Okay, so chicken.

Tiffany (26:23.788)
Mm-hmm.

Joan Salge Blake (26:49.729)
fish, meat, whatever, okay? They have to remove from the store by a certain date. So if you don't buy it, they're not making any money off it. And more importantly, they're gonna have to truck it to the landfill.

and deposit it in the landfill, well, it's going to, you know, reduce, I'm sorry, create greenhouse gases, which is not good for Mother Earth. Okay? So they want you to buy it, please buy it. Okay? But what happens is we don't like reduced food. We think something's the matter with it. There's nothing wrong with it. Okay? Well, I want you to close your eyes and think of yourself in TJ Maxx, which is my favorite store in the whole wide world.

When I go to TJ Maxx and I see red, that means the price has been reduced on a blouse. When I see yellow, I start hyperventilating because it's on clearance now. I I will call my sister in New Jersey when I see all these sneakers on sale. What size does he wear? Nine? 10. He'll grow into it. I'll mail them to you. At this price, what do we care? Okay, so.

So make believe you're in TJ Maxx when you go in the supermarket and you see these reduced food prices. Okay, so it is the, it's the sell by, it's not, has nothing to do, the quality is still there. The use by date on the label is the use it by that date to get the peak quality. So let's make believe that chicken is now on sale 50 % off, right?

Okay, so you see it on sale, you weren't planning on making chicken that week, buy it and put it in the freezer so that next week you already have something that is at bargain prices that you can defrost and cook. And you know, it could be as a caretaker.

Joan Salge Blake (28:45.155)
Fun ritual that you all do. Let's let's go free the freezer shopping. Okay, what's in the freezer? What can we make meals out of and make it into okay? This is let's do this Let's defrost this and then you know on Thursday when I come back, but we'll cook it together So shop from your freezer and buy things that are reduced Now if I know it I know you're worried about food poisoning and you should Tiffany have you ever had food poisoning? Yes

Tiffany (29:11.924)
Yes, don't want it again.

Joan Salge Blake (29:14.015)
No, no, no, no, no, no. I'd rather be in labor because I know if I'm in labor, I know that the labor is going to stop. When you had food poisoning, you think this is the end. It's never going to end. Okay? So terrible. Now there's something called a food keeper. So you can Google it. It's a government thing. It was created by the USDA and Cornell University. Food keeper.

Tiffany (29:21.899)
Right.

Joan Salge Blake (29:39.703)
You go on there and what it will do, it will tell you, okay, I have turkey breast that I bought in a sealed package. Okay, it'll say how long it'll last in the refrigerator unopened. Once it opens, how long should you keep it around? So it helps you better work with the food safety issue of that. Because what we don't want,

is to throw away food that is still good. And I'm telling you, I know you have done this, Tiffany. I know you have done this. You have had a yogurt container in your refrigerator and the use by date was today.

and you threw it, you didn't get to it, so tomorrow you threw it out. And it has nothing to do, I know you're shaking your head because you're so honest, it has nothing to do with food safety, it's food quality. So one day after the use by date, has the quality gone down that much? The answer is no. so don't, know, these datings on labels are very, very confusing and it can make people...

Tiffany (30:27.649)
Right.

Joan Salge Blake (30:47.443)
really, really throw away good food, especially when they can't afford to throw away foods that are very nutritious and healthy. The other things, you know, as you can tell from my accent, I grew up in New Jersey and New Jersey is, in New Jersey, shopping is like an Olympic sport.

Like I could calculate 20 % off before I could speak English. So I know how to shop. So not only can I, you if I see that chicken 50 % off, I'm right there, honey. But I'm big on coupons. I am big on coupons. So what you want to do is you want to download the grocery store app. And there are so many wonderful digital coupons that you can use. There's

also a wonderful site called the Crazy Coupon Ladies. This is really funny. This is fun. You'll love this. Okay, so what happened is these two friends, were both in finance and they, you know, they left their jobs because they wanted to have a baby. They had a baby and they had a play group, but here the two of them are in the living room and the kids are crawling on the floor and one of them says to the other one, gee.

Why don't we build a multimillion dollar coupon business? Okay, she said, let's do that. Okay, so what they did was they created this crazy coupon lady. You have got to do this. So you can subscribe to this. It is gonna, it's gonna shop for you. It's gonna tell you that Cheerios are on sale at this supermarket or this is on sale this week or Walmart. And then they're not gonna tell you where it is on sale. They're gonna tell you where online you can download coupons.

to add it so when you get that you're practically paying for nothing. And they love this stuff. mean, it's just, this is like their passion. So coupons are unbelievable. You need to be using them to stretch your food dollar. And you know, when I go food shop and I, at the end, it tells me how much I save between the sale lineups and the coupon. Really, don't you get like, I'm like dancing in the aisles. Like, yeah, yeah, I just saved 38%. yeah.

Tiffany (32:57.303)
Yes.

Tiffany (33:02.185)
Yes!

Joan Salge Blake (33:06.595)
Oh yeah, you know, and so we have to remember to do that. And I use it as a game, you know, but you gotta train them into doing that. And as caretakers, you can help them with meal planning. We wanna look to when your meal plan is used the circular. When you food shop, do you look at the store circular first? Yes, right, good girl.

Tiffany (33:21.569)
Yes.

Tiffany (33:26.647)
Bye.

Tiffany (33:30.121)
Absolutely. What's on sale this week? What's the special?

Joan Salge Blake (33:34.573)
Good girl. So in the, want to know what's on sale. We may have mentioned this in our last episode, but if not, we'll repeat it again. Let me repeat it again. They have something all supermarkets do. They have something called loss leaders and what loss leaders are, they'll put certain foods on sale and they put it in the front of the circle cantaloupe for $2 each.

Lettuce chicken that's reduced. Yeah, yeah, that's on sale Why do they do this because they want to lead you into the supermarket to buy what's on sale with the hope that you'll buy everything else All right, toilet paper the laundry soap. That's where they make the money is is on those kind of items So they will not only have a smaller Profit margin on these loss leader items. They may actually lose

money. They actually will lose money because they want you to buy the toilet paper. Okay? So outsmart them. So what you may want to do, you know, in my town, I'm blessed to have a couple of supermarkets, so I play one against the other. What do I care? I have no loyalties to anybody. So I go, and you might end up going to get the produce at this one place, and this place over there has, you know, the chicken on sale with a better bet. So

Tiffany (34:31.318)
Wow.

Tiffany (34:40.193)
Mm-hmm.

Joan Salge Blake (34:59.171)
Use that circular, I call it like your GPS system to navigate how you're to go food shopping and make a list. No, you don't want to be wandering around the supermarket aisles. TJ Maxx, you wander. You wander, look, you shop. That makes you happy. Supermarket, no wandering. Okay, let's go in, let's have a list, let's figure out what we're going to do. You calculated, you planned your meals for the week, you shop the f-

Tiffany (35:04.929)
Yes.

Tiffany (35:11.637)
Right?

Tiffany (35:15.565)
Thank

Joan Salge Blake (35:28.079)
freezer first, remember? So you're not buying more chicken if you have enough in the freezer. Okay? So you shopped your pantry, you shopped your freezer, your refrigerator first, and then you made a plan. And this could be something that the caretaker could together, you know, it could be, you know, you get two for the price of one, speaking about bargains. Why don't you plan your supermarket, the caretaker's supermarket list with the person you're taking care of?

You know, so you're planning what you're going to buy at the supermarket and help the person plan it too. Right. And really, and so that you get that job done, you don't have to worry about that in your own household. So there are so many ways to cut down on food prices. I'm sorry. Yeah. On cutting back on food prices. And I'm scared that they're only going to go up based upon what's going on in the world.

Tiffany (35:59.447)
Absolutely.

Tiffany (36:20.621)
Hmm.

Joan Salge Blake (36:23.447)
So now is the time to get in the habit of using these tricks and tips, the circular, the coupons, leftovers, cooking once and eating twice, making a meatloaf, and then you divide it up and freeze it. that, know, the ground beef is on sale this week. Okay, I'm gonna make meatloaf. I'm gonna make a meatloaf or I'm gonna make a chili, and then I'm gonna divide it up for the meals.

Tiffany (36:31.233)
Yes.

Joan Salge Blake (36:52.353)
So you need to start doing some of this long-term planning. And I have to tell you, this is the generation that did this. Okay, so this is not uncommon for them. The younger people, the Gen Xs, they have no idea how to plan. They're a mess. Okay, but this generation grew up doing this. And in fact, that's how I became this savvy shopper because I watched my mother do it. And so they already are comfortable with

planning in ahead. You just got to remind them to do it and maybe use some of these new fangle dangle apps on their phone right, right to help them cut corners at the supermarket and better plan their meals.

Tiffany (37:21.986)
Yeah.

Tiffany (37:27.666)
us adding this new

Tiffany (37:38.957)
Dr. Seljie Blake, you have given us so many tips today that I think are gonna be really helpful. think, like you said, a lot of these individuals are used to these cost saving measures. And now let's throw in the coupon lady. Let's throw in some of the online app. Let's add some of these other resources. It's really gonna take it to the next level. With this being our 50th episode, we wanna make it count. Is there anything you hope caregivers take away

Joan Salge Blake (37:53.783)
You

Tiffany (38:08.375)
from this conversation, one thing that changes how they show up for seniors in their care, what would it be?

Joan Salge Blake (38:14.755)
Okay, you are what you eat. And getting a nutritious diet is gonna help you better manage the chronic diseases that you may be experiencing. But you know, food, you're feeding their bodies, but you're also feeding their souls.

Tiffany (38:16.898)
Yes.

Tiffany (38:33.325)
Mm-hmm. You're right. Absolutely. Thank you again for your expertise. mean, just the way you talk about shopping, the way, you know, you can kind of create a meal of what it seems out of almost anything is it's really inspirational, right? We can go shop in the freezer. Let's shop in the pantry and we can make something happen and do it in a healthy way. I appreciate your time today and for being with us. Thank you.

Joan Salge Blake (38:56.599)
You got that right. My pleasure. Thank you.