Watanabe Emi, Maeno Masami, Kayashita Jun, Miyamoto Ken-Ichi, Kogirima Miho
Graduate School of Nutrition and Bioscience, Tokushima University.
Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts.
J Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo). 2017;63(4):256-262. doi: 10.3177/jnsv.63.256.
Undernutrition caused by difficulties in masticating is of growing concern among the elderly. Soft diets are often served at nursing homes; however, the styles differ with nursing homes. Improperly modified food texture and consistency may lead to further loss of nutritive value. Therefore, we developed a method to produce a soft diet using chicken. The texture-modified chicken was prepared by boiling a mixture of minced chicken and additive foodstuff that softened the meat. The best food additive was determined through testing cooking process, size after modification and texture. The optimum proportions of each component in the mixture were determined measuring food texture using a creep meter. Teriyaki chicken was cooked using the texture-modified chicken, and provided to a nursing home. The amount of food intake by elderly residents was subsequently surveyed. This study involved 22 residents (1 man and 21 women; mean age 91.4±5.3 y). Consequently, yakifu, which was made from wheat gluten, was the most suitable additive foodstuff. The hardness of the texture-modified chicken, with proportions of minced chicken, yakifu, and water being 50%, 10%, and 40% respectively, was under 40,000 N/m. The intake amount of the texture-modified chicken of subjects whose intake amount of conventional chicken using chicken thigh was not 100% was significantly higher. These findings suggest that properly modified food textures could contribute to improve the quality of meals by preventing undernutrition among the elderly with mastication difficulties.
咀嚼困难导致的营养不良在老年人中日益受到关注。养老院通常提供软食；然而，不同养老院的软食种类有所不同。食物质地和稠度的不当调整可能会导致营养价值进一步流失。因此，我们开发了一种用鸡肉制作软食的方法。质地改良鸡肉是通过将鸡肉末与能使肉质变软的添加食品混合后煮熟制成的。通过测试烹饪过程、改良后的大小和质地来确定最佳食品添加剂。使用蠕变仪测量食物质地，从而确定混合物中各成分的最佳比例。用质地改良鸡肉烹制了照烧鸡肉，并提供给一家养老院。随后对老年居民的食物摄入量进行了调查。本研究涉及22名居民（1名男性和21名女性；平均年龄91.4±5.3岁）。结果表明，由面筋制成的日式烤麸是最合适的添加食品。鸡肉末、日式烤麸和水的比例分别为50%、10%和40%时，质地改良鸡肉的硬度低于40000N/m。使用鸡腿肉的传统鸡肉摄入量未达100%的受试者，其质地改良鸡肉的摄入量显著更高。这些研究结果表明，适当改良食物质地有助于通过预防咀嚼困难老年人的营养不良来提高膳食质量。
