Market reference note: This article draws on materials from both Korea and the United States. Each piece of information is marked in the text with 🇰🇷 Korea or 🇺🇸 U.S. to indicate which country it applies to.
Have you ever spent the morning cooking soft rice porridge for your elderly parent, spent the afternoon making sure they took their medication, and then found yourself standing blankly in front of the refrigerator by evening, completely drained? The longer caregiving goes on, the more quietly — yet surely — a caregiver's own meals fall apart. Before you know it, saying "I'll eat later" has become a habit you don't even notice anymore.
🇺🇸 U.S. According to the "Caregiving in the US 2025" report released by AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC), approximately 63 million people in the United States are currently taking on a family caregiving role. They collectively devote an average of approximately 49.5 billion hours per year to caregiving — a scale equivalent to roughly 17% of all full-time workers. Within that vast stretch of time, caregivers' own meals are naturally pushed outside the circle of priorities.
🇰🇷 Korea Results from the 여성가족부 (Ministry of Gender Equality and Family) "2023 Family Status Survey" show that 53% of single-person male households identified "eating a balanced diet" as the single most difficult aspect of their daily lives. For caregivers who shoulder caregiving alone, that difficulty is even more pronounced. When you cannot leave your parent's side, grocery runs get postponed and cooking starts to feel like too much effort — and when those days repeat themselves, a caregiver's nutritional status begins to quietly deteriorate.
🇰🇷 Korea A study analyzing data from the 국민건강영양조사 (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2013–2016) found that elderly people living alone consumed less vegetables, fruits, and seafood than elderly people living with family, and that the overall quality of their diet was also lower. This speaks to how heavily an older person's nutritional status depends on whether someone lives with them — but viewed from the other side, it also reveals the reality that caregivers who spend the entire day preparing meals for an elderly person easily lose the capacity to pay attention to their own eating.
So what happens when a caregiver's meals fall apart? Fatigue accumulates, concentration drops, and emotional swings intensify over small things. The quality of caregiving is directly tied to the caregiver's own condition. If you want to care well for your elderly parent, paradoxically, you need to protect your own meals first. This is why a shift in perspective is needed — from viewing meals as something to "manage" to something to "safeguard."
There are ways to start, gradually and realistically. First, try building the habit of setting aside your own portion at the same time you prepare your parent's meal. Even if you don't have the energy to lay out a separate spread, simply ladling out a bowl for yourself from the same pot first makes a difference. Boiling eggs, tofu, or chicken breast in advance and refrigerating them, or keeping a handful of nuts beside your desk, are also practical approaches. A consistent single meal, day after day, matters far more than a perfect diet plan.
🇺🇸 U.S. Caregiving research in the United States has repeatedly confirmed that caregivers tend to be exposed to more physical health risk factors — including inactivity, high blood pressure, and obesity. Irregular eating is identified as one of the factors that accelerates these risks, and experts strongly recommend that caregivers monitor their own health. Remembering that eating a meal is not simply satisfying hunger, but a "choice made in order to keep caregiving going," may give you a little more motivation to do it.
Sources: AARP and National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC), Caregiving in the US 2025; AARP Public Policy Institute, Valuing the Invaluable 2026; 여성가족부 (Ministry of Gender Equality and Family), Results of the 2023 Family Status Survey (as cited by the 국가전략포털 and 한국사회복지관협회); Oh Ji-hong and Jung Bok-mi, "Comparative Analysis of Dietary Behavior and Nutrient Intake of Elderly Men and Women by Whether They Live with Family," Korean Journal of Community Nutrition 24(4), 2019; 질병관리청 (Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency), 국민건강영양조사 (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) (statistics released as of end of 2024).
Note: This article was compiled by AI from the sources cited above. We strive for accuracy, but for decisions about your specific situation, please confirm the latest guidance from a professional or the relevant agency.