Frailty cheats

We ask if there is anything we can do to cheat frailty; the insidious progress of weakness, unplanned weight-loss and disability? That is the wholly unnecessary beginning of the end, long before its time.

It is possible however that everything must change if you are mainly into just tea and white toast for breakfast.

This page was last updated in February, 2022.

We are recommending a fairly simple regimen that will enable you to get sufficient of the four vitamins that are absolutely necessary to prevent disability syndrome, the premature progression of weakness and loss of vitality that leads inexorably to an early demise; first the walker, then the wheelchair and finally bed-ridden, all long before their time.

The four vitamins

Here are the four vitamins that are absolutely necessary to prevent the early onset of weakness; I call them frailty cheats. I would recommend you read the whole page first, to get the big picture, before coming back to look at them individually.

• Vitamin B6, pyridoxine
• Vitamin B9, folate
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin E

In today's world of processed food one does have to work quite hard to get enough of them; the alternative is too ghastly to contemplate. Many manufacturers systemically strip out the best parts and then sell the vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals back to us in supplements.

Worse they may just go for pig-food.

Early morning

A cup of silver tea is the age old start to a good day; a squirt of freshly-squeezed lemon juice into a mug of hot water. It will provide the first vitamin C of the day, and the important phytochemical called limonin.

Add lemons to the weekly shopping list if you do not have a tree in the garden.

Breakfast

Small amounts of these frailty cheats are quite adequate. It does not need to be an enormous breakfast.

Our motto is slow food, made fast; you'll find that most of these suggestions do not take a lot of time once you get organised.

And in any case what can be more important than an extra half an hour spent in ensuring your don't become frail long before your time. I promise you the taste is so much better than cornflakes and sugar, the quick way to obesity and diabetes.

1.  Fruit, choose your own favourite, whatever is in season, for the vitamin C. In addition, five stewed-prunes have been scientifically proven to better any medical treatment for constipation. An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
   
2. 1-3 TBSP of rolled oats; not the refined processed stuff from the supermarket. Boil half a cup for five-minutes and keep the rest in the fridge for tomorrow.
   
3. Lightly blanche a few leaves of spinach, and plop an egg onto the greens to poach; this will provide the B6 and B9. The choline and extra protein is so important.
   
4. Either drop your eggs Florentine onto a half a slice of whole-wheat toast and butter, or have it with marmalade; vitamin E and more C. Never use margarine.
   

Morning tea

A regular cup of tea is just fine, and perhaps just a glass of water, but no refined flour cookies or crackers.

Take a short walk, with a hat, in the sun for the vitamin-D, not one of our four it is true, but very important. Step it out as briskly as you can, with a stick if necessary, keeping in mind that slowness is one of the hallmarks of frailty.

Around the garden would be fine; use the secateurs to pick a few roses and strengthen your hands.

Our four-vitamins are not enough to prevent frailty; daily exercise is also important to stop the progression of weakness and slowness.

Lunch

These easy lunch recipes may give you some new ideas.

Aiming for eight or even more coloured-foods, albeit in small quantities is the goal; a sprig of parsley would count.

The differing greens provide the folate, the cheese or hummus some B6, and drizzle olive oil and lemon-juice for vitamin C over your salad.

Avoid the highly inflammatory salad-dressing from the supermarket.

Wholewheat bread and butter will give you some vitamin E; sprinkle the salad with sunflower seeds.

A canned sardine would provide some omega-3 to help with the arthritis if like me you have no access to salmon.

Afternoon tea

Again, a cup of tea, perhaps a small bunch of grapes, not a biscuit or cookie, and another short walk around the garden or down the street.

Supper

For supper I am not going to be prescriptive. Again adding yet more greens would be good; kale is my number-one choice for the lutein that it also provides to prevent cataracts and macular degeneration.

Cook up enough brown rice to last a few days perhaps; and new potatoes if you can find them. Learn about the importance of allowing starch to cool overnight; read up about retrogradation of carbohydrates.

Some meat, or legumes like green-beans or peas, lentils or chickpeas; a yellow vegetable like butternut or gem squash; carrots, of course.

These pork slithers with chives is one of my favourites. More protein than most of us get is very important.

No more than a tablespoon of a sweet dessert; a maximum of three teaspoons of sugar in all your food for the day should be the goal. Frankly we just do not need a pudding; a light supper is best for your frailty cheats.

See a lot more options if you are plumb out of ideas from our fast healthy dinner recipes.

The vicious cycle of weariness that sucks out our vitality and stops us taking a walk and planting a little patch of spinach can only be broken by an acceptance that everything may have to change; and that usually means initially we need help. Frailty syndrome prevents us from doing the very things that will prevent the relentless march of this disease.

Frailty cheats

Frailty cheats is a basic simple menu and exercise planner to ensure that we stop this progression of disability, weakness and weight loss.

Everything must change

It may mean asking a son to walk with you daily for the first week or two, and your daughter to come vegetable shopping. She will help you to find the chickpeas, and tahini and cumin too should you decide to embrace this new way of living completely, and make your own hummus.

Frailty cheats us of the old age that we so richly deserve, having worked long and hard to bring up the family and make ends meet. Is it not your aim to get to at least one grandchild's wedding?

Try and get the family on board for help. A grandchild could bring you a small glass of kefir once a week; that's a probiotic for a happy intestine. Another could make this authentic hummus recipe and regular bring you a small tub.

Get the family on board so they can learn from your mistakes and begin early on with a sound diet.

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Daily shopping list

• Spinach, Swiss chard or kale
• Lettuce
• Dairy, but it is controversial with some. We love to make our own kefir which is the simplest of the probiotics, and so easy.
  

Weekly shopping list

• Lemons
• Eggs
• Fruit
• Onions, butternut and sweet potatoes
• Peppers and other salads.
  
• Mushrooms.
  
• Parsley, chives, spring onions, chilis.
• Cold water fish like salmon.
• Meat.
• 100% wholemeal bread; freeze the remainder of the loaf for the week.
  

Monthly shopping list

• Tahini
• Chickpeas, lentils, brown rice
• Rolled oats
• New potatoes
  
• Dried prunes
• Canned sardines, tuna or salmon
• Spices like garlic and ginger.
  

To do

Consider making your own hummus; chickpeas are the richest source of vitamin B6. You can either use a can, but we recommend cooking chickpeas, and then freezing them so you have a regular supply on hand. This task could so easily be shared out by the family.

Now you have the piridoxine you need.

The garden

The easiest and perhaps most important when deciding you want to cheat frailty, is to plant a lemon tree. It will start bearing after about three years and once mature will provide literally hundreds of fruit. Freeze the juice and you will have fresh vitamin C year-round.

Consider how to grow spinach; after radishes it is probably the easiest vegetable to grow and the plants go on producing for years. A tiny patch is all the average elderly person needs; add a couple kale seedlings too. They are so rewarding but have to be enjoyed freshly picked; from the supermarket they soon lose their vitality.

Here is all the folate you need.

You may want to keep chickens for free-range eggs and the added piridoxine, vitamin B6, and small amounts of vitamin E; but that is quite hard work.

The exercise from gardening is a profound frailty cheat. It's a variation of what is today being called forest bathing; all your senses coming alive through a walk through nature. Smell the lemon-flowers, sample a few cherry guavas and hear the birds twittering in delight at the worms you expose.

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