Menu Ideas That Promote Weight Gain : Booklet Offers Tested High-Protein, High-Calorie Recipes

“Blender-Full,” a booklet offering tested recipes for high-protein, high-calorie dishes, is available from the Los Angeles District Dietetic Assn.

The recipes are for people who have greater than normal nutritional needs; who want to gain weight; who have swallowing or chewing difficulties, or who have medical conditions that involve nausea and poor appetite.

People whose conditions include cancer, stroke, severe burns, physical and developmental disabilities will find the recipes helpful. Athletes desiring to gain weight or looking for ideas to increase caloric intake will find this new publication handy.

The idea for the booklet began in 1984, when dietitians and interns at Memorial Hospital of Glendale kept getting requests for high-protein, high-calorie recipes that were liquid in nature. Elderly and cancer patients needed nourishing recipes to help them gain weight. Many patients found the commercial supplements distasteful, too sweet, too expensive or difficult to purchase at local drugstores.

Patients preferred homemade recipes that were ample in protein and calories and lower in cost, which is important to those with high medical bills. Home health nurses also reported that their elderly patients, who needed to gain weight or had difficulty chewing due to poor teeth, or swallowing due to various intestinal cancers or after a stroke, desired the thick liquids.

A cost analysis found that eight ounces of the recipe booklet’s “Instant Breakfast Beverage” costs 32 cents to 40 cents compared to a commercial supplement at $1.05 per eight ounces.

All recipes in “Blender-Full” are made with foods typically found at the local grocery store. The booklet can be purchased for $3.20 from Los Angeles District California Dietetic Assn., P.O. Box 3506, Santa Monica 90403. All orders must be prepaid.