Cyra-Lea Drummond, BSN, RN, is a writer and nurse specializing in heart health and heart care.

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You may have heard of turning lemons into lemonade, but what about making ice cream with nutritious drinks? One hospital does this to help patients get the nutrition they need.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, nutritionists at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel noticed a disturbing trend: Many of their patients—especially the elderly—are malnourished.

The reasons for this trend vary. Some patients find that the food in the hospital does not meet their appetites or does not meet their nutritional needs. Other patients felt isolated or frustrated due to visitor restrictions and did not want to eat. These restrictions also prevent families from providing emotional support or bringing more palatable food to their loved ones.

In order to meet their dietary needs, many patients need to start drinking nutritional supplements such as Boost, Ensure or Glucerna, while others need feeding tubes to solve the problem of malnutrition.

Patients who are sick or hospitalized may face the challenge of getting the nutrients they need. For the elderly, it is even more difficult.

Michelle Rauch MS RDN, a registered dietitian at the Englewood Actor Fund House in New Jersey, told me very well that one cause of malnutrition in many elderly people is age-related changes.

"As far as eating is concerned, taste and smell are very important," Rauch said. "As we age, our senses change. The taste and smell of elderly people often decline, resulting in a lack of interest in food. The number of taste buds decreases and certain Some medicines can make food less palatable."

The nutritional status of our patients is critical to their recovery.

Rauch added, “Missing teeth or inappropriate dentures can also make it difficult for the elderly to chew, cause dietary fatigue and lead to weight loss.” Taken together, these factors "cause a decrease in appetite, which in turn reduces the amount of meals."

Rauch said that if these factors are not addressed, older people may experience weight loss and malnutrition.

Dana Weiner, RD, MSc, Director of Nutrition at Sheba Medical Center in Israel, has a clever idea to help patients get nutrition. She suggests using an ice cream machine to turn nutritional supplements into delicacies, which makes people feel more like an indulgence than a medical treatment.

Sheba Medical Center's ice cream recipe is very simple: 4 bottles of nutritious drinks, placed in an ice cream machine for 1 hour, can produce about 2 liters of ice cream.

Initially, Weiner focused on elderly patients and long-term hospitalized patients at Sheba Medical Center.

"We know that about 50% of hospitalized patients have some degree of malnutrition or are at risk," Weiner told Verywell. "Patients at risk of malnutrition will stay in the hospital longer and are more susceptible to infection, morbidity, and mortality. The nutritional status of our patients is critical to their recovery."

In geriatrics, Weiner said: “There are many patients suffering from decreased muscle mass, and the only way they can improve is physical therapy. But if they don’t have protein in their diet to build their muscles, they will not get better. . The important thing is not to let them deteriorate to the point where we can no longer help them."

Wiener said that it’s okay to eat real ice cream in moderation, but nutritional supplement beverages provide more protein, vitamins and minerals than other frozen desserts. They are also more suitable for patients who may have dietary restrictions. For example, diabetic patients can also use supplements designed to control blood sugar to make a cold drink that does not increase blood sugar like ordinary ice cream.

For caregivers interested in this idea, Weiner said that the cost of turning the supplement into ice cream is not much higher than the cost of renting or buying an ice cream machine. There is no need to add anything to the beverage when making ice cream, but some patients may require flavoring such as fruit or mint.

Weiner said that in addition to the taste of the final result, there is a personal healing feeling in this process.

"I realized how much comfort food can bring," Weiner said. "The fact that someone prepares something for them makes patients feel that we have invested in them and we care about them."

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