Tag: Eating

Whilst my brain seems to be remarkably good still, other things about my dementia continues to ‘trouble me’.  When I say trouble me, I don’t actually mean they trouble me, I mean they are not quite normal for people in general.

I think food and eating with dementia is a very complex thing, much more so than people realise, especially when you live alone.  The usual questions at the GP or Memory Clinic appointments are:

Q.  Do you cook for yourself okay?      A. yes

Whether or not I finish eating it or not is another matter, or indeed whether I can save some of the excess to keep for another day.

I still don’t get hungry and have to look at the time to see whether I should eat or not.  I could quite happily go all day without food.  On average I would say that half the time I have one cooked meal a day and nothing else, the other half I manage to get a Gluten Free sandwich or snack at lunchtime.  There lies another problem being Gluten Free I don’t always have any bread and everything else is a poor quick snack substitute so I don’t bother. Regulating how much I eat can be tricky sometimes, especially if there is something I really like the taste of because I just want to experience that taste till whatever it is has all been consumed.   For instance I cooked a ham joint and wanted to finish the whole thing because I like the taste, I did manage not to though !    A lot of food has lost its taste for me and things I used to enjoy seem..tasteless and I can’t really be bothered to finish eating something that doesn’t have that – taste appeal.

Drinking enough fluid can be a problem although I try my hardest to drink a fair amount of water and other drinks, weak coffee or fruit teas, throughout the day.    It is, for me, something that it a conscious effort I have to make.

So when you ask a person in the very early stages of dementia if they have eaten, or are they okay with cooking for themselves fine, understand that the answers are far more complex than the question.

Note:  I am not managing to lose any weight so I am definitely not starving myself!!