Demographic and cultural differences in older people's food choices and meal patterns

[[abstract]]Food choice affects healthy ageing and ageing affects food choice. The antecedents of food choice may be remote and even intergenerational. Culture and ethnicity are enduring influences on food choice whether from within one's group or through the pressures of conformity to a majority in a minority culture. This is particularly relevant to indigenous and migrant peoples and where older people are marginalized or isolated for economic, health or societal reasons. Different food cultures, from China, Japan and Korea in North East Asia to Sub-Saharan Africa, to Southern and Northern Europe, to Australasia may allow similar health outcomes. But food patterns for the age dare optimal where there is variety, especially of plant-derived food, regular consumption of legumes (pulses) and even small quantities of animal-derived food such as eggs, dairy, lean meats and fish, especially where energy through-put is low. The interplay of older people's food choices and meal patterns with gender, substance abuse (especially smoking) and activity (social, mental and physical) continues to be important with advancing years. The role of elders in enabling the value of traditional food cultural knowledge to be transmitted to grand children and the wider community should be acknowledged