Plenary 5: Nutrition and Ageing Nutrition for older people

People are living longer. Australia now has the second longest life expectancy (at birth) in the world: about 71 years for males and 74 for females. At 60 years our average health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE) is another 16.9 in men and 19.5 in women (mortality is longer). Around 20 % of Australians are now over 65 years old. Many occupations are no longer obliged to retire people at a fixed date and a number continue working past 65. “70 is the new 60! ” So we have to adjust the cut offs for “older ” people and “elderly”. Nutrition research in older people is handicapped by (i) great heterogeneity of the people’s health and conditions, (ii) special problems with access, (iii) confounding by medications, (iv) the varied, often indirect criteria used for nutritional status. Nutrition science’s concerns with this age group can seem to be looking in two opposite directions. “Don’t eat too much, so you’ll stay healthy for longer ” (and there’s the calorie restriction hypothesis) OR “We’ll help you get more to eat to keep you healthy for longer”. Which direction depends partly on interpretation of the limited research. It depends more on the stage an individual is at: third age or fourth. Chronological timing of aging is more variable than the timing of growth in teenagers. For the third age there is much good advice in the NHMRCs ‘Dietary Guidelines for Older Australians ’ (1999) (1). Among the messages to be found in it:- “Anyone refusing to give a sprightly 66 year old dietary advice to preven