If you’ve met my mom, you know that she’s a wisp of a per­son, not some­one I’d take with me if I was a tor­na­do chas­er. I vis­it­ed her a few weeks ago on my way home from a Dan­non Insti­tute Nutri­tion Lead­er­ship Insti­tute meet-up at the Exper­i­men­tal Biol­o­gy meet­ing and was tipped off by one of my broth­ers that my mom was­n’t doing so well in the eat­ing depart­ment. Indeed, my mom ver­i­fied that she just was­n’t hun­gry. I made sure we shared lots of meals togeth­er, even man­ag­ing to help her near­ly pol­ish off a car­ton of Trad­er Joe’s ice cream in the few days I was there.

Her lack of appetite is not unusu­al in an old­er adult. For some­one in rel­a­tive­ly good health like my mom, it may be that cook­ing and eat­ing alone isn’t very inspir­ing or fun. My broth­er com­ment­ed that my mom eats more when she has meals at his house and I found the same thing when she and I ate togeth­er. Sev­er­al years ago when I was work­ing with Dr. Bar­bara Rolls on her most recent Vol­u­met­rics book, we looked at stud­ies on the effects on body weight of eat­ing alone ver­sus with oth­er peo­ple. Some stud­ies found that solo din­ers eat more calo­ries and oth­ers found that peo­ple eat more when they’re with friends. For old­er adults, it seems that din­ing with oth­ers, whether in a com­mu­nal din­ing room, at a restau­rant, or at each oth­er’s homes, would be a good idea.

Before I left, I cooked up a pot of soup for my mom. I have been encour­ag­ing her to eat enough pro­tein so I chose one of my favorite recipes, a red lentil soup inspired by a dish I tast­ed years ago by Chef Anya von Bremzen. This is the sim­pli­fied ver­sion cre­at­ed for my mom, with orange in the title because that’s the col­or the lentils turn. Look for red lentils in stores that sell them in bulk bins if you don’t want to com­mit to buy­ing a one-pound pack­age.

Ruth’s Triple Orange Lentil Soup

Makes 4 serv­ings

1 table­spoon olive oil
1 medi­um onion, fine­ly chopped
1 medi­um car­rot, fine­ly chopped
1 stalk cel­ery, fine­ly chopped (option­al)
1 cup dried red lentils
6 dried apri­cots, chopped (I like Cal­i­forn­ian from Trad­er Joe’s bet­ter than Turk­ish)
Salt and pep­per to taste
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1. Heat the oil in a medi­um saucepan. Add the onion, car­rot and cel­ery and saute until soft, about 5 min­utes.
2. Add the lentils, apri­cots and about 4 cups of water. Sim­mer until the lentils are soft, about 40 min­utes. Add more water if too thick.
3. Add salt, pep­per, and lemon juice.
4. Serve as is or puree with an immer­sion blender.
5. Top with plain yogurt, plain Greek yogurt, or light sour cream.