16160--Easy to Chew and Swallow Diet (patient handout view) (2024)

FAQs

Which type of food are easiest to chew and swallow? ›

Try ready-made or convenience foods such as frozen dinners, packaged or canned foods. Remove the skins on fruits and vegetables if they are difficult to chew or swallow. Avoid foods that are dry or require a great deal of effort to chew such as bagels, tough meats, raw vegetables and fruits.

Which foods should not be included in an easy to chew diet? Hard or dry foods, for example nuts, raw vegetables (such as carrot, cauliflower or broccoli), dry cakes, dry bread or dry cereals. Tough, stringy or fibrous foods, including steak, rhubarb, beans, celery or pineapple.

Meats and Meat Substitutes:

Poached, scrambled, or soft cooked eggs. Slightly mashed, moist legumes (baked beans) Tofu. Tuna or egg salads (without large chunks, celery, or onion)

Pureed canned or home made soups with meat, vegetables, barley, canned legumes, cooked split peas or pasta. Pureed casseroles or stews. Very moist scrambled egg or moist, steamed fish. Serve with well mashed or pureed vegetables.

Avoid tough meats, fresh “doughy” bread or rolls, hard bread crust, and abrasive foods. Sip fluids when taking solids at meals and snacks to moisten foods. Stop eating when you start to feel full. Eat slowly in a relaxed atmosphere.

Choose foods that are easy to swallow.

For a main dish, try chicken, tuna or egg salad, soups and stews, soft cooked fish, tofu, and meatloaf. Pick side dishes like cottage or ricotta cheese, macaroni and cheese, mashed white or sweet potatoes, and rice or risotto.

Even eating 1 food that is not approved can greatly raise your risk for aspiration. Foods you can eat: Pureed breads (also called pre-gelled breads) Cooked cereals with little texture, such as oatmeal, or slightly moistened dry cereals with little texture, such as corn flakes.

Cook foods so that they are moist and easily swallowed. Mash vegetables like potatoes or squash, using milk or cream. Moisten meat or poultry with gravy or broth. Cheese sauce can be used to moisten vegetables or rice.

What foods are not allowed with a regular easy to chew diet? ›

Avoid any hard, tough, chewy, fibrous, stringy, dry, crispy, crunchy or crumbly bits. See over for further details. Avoid round or long-shaped foods e.g. grapes, sweets. No hard chunks e.g. pieces of apple.

potatoes, macaroni cheese, cauliflower cheese, risotto, rice or pasta served with a sauce. Cooked tender meat with bone and gristle removed. Examples: lasagne, spaghetti Bolognese, tender meat stews, curries, shepherd's pie, stovies, skinless sausages, pate.

Cows deer, sheep, goats, and antelope are some instances of pets or animals that chew their cud. When cud-chewing animals eat their food, most of the food is trapped in a special sack within its abdomen. It later regurgitates this stored food, or cud, and commences to chew on it again.

making changes to what you eat and drink, such as softer foods and using thickener in drinks. using special spoons, plates and cups. feeding tubes through your nose or a hole into your stomach. surgery to widen your oesophagus.