Nutrition for Elderly

"The
older you get, the less food you need" is a commonly quoted bit of
advice. This may be true if you just mean calories, because elderly
people usually do use less energy than they did when they were younger.
But when it comes to other nutrients, the elderly need just as many as
they ever did.”



So why is good nutrition for the elderly important?
Changes, in the workings of the body, that take place as it ages
impacts on the need for several essential nutrients. Decreased
metabolic rate, chronic disease, social conditions, and medicine intake
effect the nutritional needs of the elderly. Changes in basal
metabolism and reduced physical activity will reduce energy needs. Loss
of taste and smell allow the elderly to neglect their diets.
With an increasingly house bound lifestyle, often as a result of
institutional living decreases exposure to sunlight and thus reducing
the production of Vitamin D this occurs at just the time when the
skin’s ability to process the sunlight it receives has also diminished,
leaves many elderly deficient in Vitamin D.

Why do the elderly have poor diet?
1. Food is no longer as enjoyable because of declining taste and smell. Medication further impairs these senses.
2. Dentures or poor dental health make chewing difficult.
3. Arthritis, walking problems and lack of transportation make cooking and shopping difficult.
4. Loneliness and depression in the elderly cause a loss of appetite.
5. Much of the elderly population is on a fixed income and healthy food is often more expensive.
6. An elderly body no longer processes nutrients as well as it once
did. Their dietary needs change and the elderly often do not realise it.

Predictably the classical response is to reject the use of
nutritional supplements, in favour of changing the elderly diet to
predominantly consist of foods of high nutritional content.
As an ideal one can’t fault this approach, any more than the advice
that everyone should eat 5 to 10 (or is it 10 to 20) serves of raw
fruit and vegetables a day - even though it is obvious to blind Freddy
that virtually no one follows this advice for various reasons, I won’t
go into here.
But if one turns to the elderly one can see various problems with this approach.
A. The changes required imply changing a lifetimes eating and
cooking habits at a time when the person is at the least flexible part
of their life.
B. The suggested food with elevated nutritional value is
commensurately more expensive and its unlikely the elderly would in the
main see the merit of such expenditure.
C. Sourcing such foods may be outside the reach of their range of
mobility, although improved choices at their local store, would be an
assistance.
D. Many of the elderly have little or no say in their diet, being
dependant on external sources for prepared foods (no doubt often produced
under strict budgetary guidelines) hostel kitchens, Meals-on Wheels etc.