I was shocked by a recent AP article about a ban on the donation of doughnuts to nursing homes in Putman County.
Health care officials in the region are concerned that unhealthy food donations have gotten out of hand and that making sweets available to seniors enables poor nutrition.
Many seniors in the county have been protesting not the lack of sweets, but the lack of consultation.
Medicine has evolved to the point where living to be 100 is no longer a rarity.
Fifty years ago Americans did not need to worry about what was going to happen to mom and dad.
But today, nursing homes are on the rise and the elderly are all too often abandoned with few visitors and a regimented daily schedule.
At what point does prolonging life start interfering with quality of life?
The issue is about respect.
Whether we recognize it or not, there comes a point when senior citizens are looked upon as a burden to society.
I've heard people refer to the elderly as “cotton heads,” stripping individuality from an entire generation of people.
The doughnut ban seems to imply that senior citizens are too senile to make their own dietary decisions, a ridiculous notion when you consider America's long-standing struggle with obesity and fast-food culture.
Newsbreak: Doughnuts aren't a healthy breakfast! Yet Dunkin' Donuts seems to be doing a good business.
Besides, it's logical to assume that people who live to enjoy their golden years make good dietary decisions anyway.
Those who don't must be doing something right, especially if they've made it to 90, so who cares what they eat?
The bottom line is compromise.
When people are in the care of medical professionals it is the doctors' responsibility to make a patient's health the top priority.
But to me it makes more sense to focus on the dietary habits of America's youth to prevent health issues before they start.
As for America's seniors, I feel confident that anyone born before 1925 has survived worse than a jelly doughnut.
Estabrook's column appears Mondays and she can be reached at estabrookcarole@yahoo.com
Many seniors in the county have been protesting not the lack of sweets, but the lack of consultation.
Medicine has evolved to the point where living to be 100 is no longer a rarity.
Fifty years ago Americans did not need to worry about what was going to happen to mom and dad.
But today, nursing homes are on the rise and the elderly are all too often abandoned with few visitors and a regimented daily schedule.
At what point does prolonging life start interfering with quality of life?
The issue is about respect.
Whether we recognize it or not, there comes a point when senior citizens are looked upon as a burden to society.
I've heard people refer to the elderly as “cotton heads,” stripping individuality from an entire generation of people.
The doughnut ban seems to imply that senior citizens are too senile to make their own dietary decisions, a ridiculous notion when you consider America's long-standing struggle with obesity and fast-food culture.
Newsbreak: Doughnuts aren't a healthy breakfast! Yet Dunkin' Donuts seems to be doing a good business.
Besides, it's logical to assume that people who live to enjoy their golden years make good dietary decisions anyway.
Those who don't must be doing something right, especially if they've made it to 90, so who cares what they eat?
The bottom line is compromise.
When people are in the care of medical professionals it is the doctors' responsibility to make a patient's health the top priority.
But to me it makes more sense to focus on the dietary habits of America's youth to prevent health issues before they start.
As for America's seniors, I feel confident that anyone born before 1925 has survived worse than a jelly doughnut.
Estabrook's column appears Mondays and she can be reached at estabrookcarole@yahoo.com
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