Elderly Care in Lake Park, FL
Fresh fruits and vegetables play an important role in your elderly care journey with your aging parents, providing valuable dietary fiber to aid in healthy digestion and offer lasting satiety, vitamins and minerals to support the body's functions and ward off health complications and illnesses, and high water content to help you work toward your daily hydration goals. With all of these benefits it makes sense that you would feel fantastic about yourself when you and your aging parents come back home from the grocery store with your bags overflowing with all of that delicious, healthy fresh produce. When it comes time to enjoy your fruits and veggies, however, are you sure you know how to get them clean? There are many different ideas about how to make sure that the produce you use is clean and safe, from whether you should handle organic and conventional foods differently, and if it is necessary for you to clean off produce that you are going to peel or cook. Knowing how to handle your produce properly is an important step in making sure that your parents stay healthy while getting the most out of their diet. Use these tips to ensure your parents' fruits and vegetables are really clean before they enjoy them:• Forgo the commercial washes. Those little bottles of produce wash that you see scattered throughout the produce section among all of the fruits and vegetables has to be the best thing available to clean off your fresh produce, right? Not necessarily, according to studies by the Center for Food Safety. These washes are not only expensive, but they are actually only as effective, if not less effective, than just plain water.
• Wash carefully. Fruits and vegetables, even organic ones, can carry many different contaminants, which makes it extremely important for you to wash them before you use them. Rinse them under clear running water, rub them with your hands or a clean vegetable brush, and then rinse again to remove issues such as dirt, pesticides, germs, and mold.
• Wash, then peel. Many people are under the belief that they do not have to wash their produce if they are going to peel it. After all, it seems strange to wash something that you are just going to remove and throw away. The reality is, however, that it is important to wash your produce even when you are going to peel it because the act of peeling or cutting into it can transfer bacteria and other contaminants from the outside of the produce to the flesh that you are going to eat.
• Wash right before eating. Unless you are going to cut up the produce and store it in a sealed container, it is important to not wash your produce when your first get home, but right before you use it because the produce can pick up bacteria and microorganisms while sitting in the refrigerator. Source http://blog.aarp.org/2016/01/04/8-myths-about-washing-your-produce/
If you or an aging loved one are considering elderly care in Lake Park, FL, contact the caring staff at BrightStar Care of Jupiter. Call today (561) 741-1200.