Swallowing Awareness Day 2023

When designing a menu, we balance a number of factors. In no particular order these are nutrition, cost, presentation, cultural appropriacy, taste and texture. I’m sure there are others but what I would like to focus on is texture and its relationship with swallowing.

Food means so much more than simple nutrition. It brings people together. We use it to facilitate celebrations and sometimes sad occasions too. It brings pleasure and breaks down social barriers.

If a person has a specific swallowing issue, this can and does lead to a diet lacking balance nutritionally, anxiety around eating, lack of choice and will at the very least reduce the pleasure of eating with others. Add to this a person requiring a vegan or vegetarian option and it may result in a poor dining experience if they aren’t catered for well.

All of these issues can easily be addressed with a little thought and potentially a chat with the people you cater for. In some cases a joint discussion with a speech therapist may be needed too.

Comfortable swallowing is a combination of a number of actions from the physical act of chewing and swallowing and the automatic production of saliva and breathing. All of these can be disturbed by injury, or physical or mental illness.

IDDSI guidance has standardised the consistency of foods, giving clear practical guidance to those needing a texture-modified diet. So how does this work when preparing vegan or vegetarian meals?

When it comes to following IDDSI guidance, it does not matter what diet you follow. The consistency should still meet the prescribed level.

However, having training in IDDSI preparation may not be sufficient if as a chef you are not familiar with vegan and vegetarian diets. Old stereotypes of vegans and vegetarians only eating salad, lentils and nuts will lead to difficulty in creating delicious and nutritionally balanced food for your residents. Luckily, as attitudes change and availability of vegan foods have increased, as well as more training for chefs, things are getting better.

Being a vegan or vegetarian is very important to the individual. It can be one of the most important parts of their identity, something they may have chosen to be for many years. Helping a person to continue following this choice is supporting them with their identity and feelings of self-worth.

The good news is that here at Vegetarian for Life, we have recently produced a new guide, Vegan Texture-Modified. The guide has a range of delicious recipes for breakfast, lunch and main evening meals. Recipes include pea and mint soup, sweet potato hot pot, lentil lasagne, vegetable terrine, mango and ginger cheesecake and chocolate mousse. All of the recipes were carefully developed to fit a range of IDDSI levels. Although these recipes have been made to fit the IDDSI framework, they can be enjoyed by anyone.

A copy of the booklet has been sent to all care homes on our UK List: over 1,500 across the UK. If you would like a copy you can order one online or simply download a copy from our website.

Creating foods to fit IDDSI levels takes care and can only be done after professional training.  If you’d like further information or would like to book in some training for your chefs around catering for vegans and vegetarians, email us at training@vegetarianforlife.org.uk.

Join Chef Alex for a demo for Swallowing Awareness Day and Global Tea Party inspiration on Wednesday 15 March at 2pm on VfL’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.