The proportion of the population over 65 years of age is increasing steadily in most industrialized countries. In the United States the proportion of elderly people has risen from four percent in 1900 to 11 % in 1978, and is projected to be 14% by the year 2000. The occurrence of debilitating chronic diseases in the elderly increases with each additional year. These diseases, along with the natural loss of tissue function that occurs throughout adult life, impose a heavy burden on the health care system. Nutri tion plays an important etiologic role in many of these degenerative changes. Conse quently, the aging segment of the population presents a challenge to the nutrition scientist, who should be able to recommend optimal intakes of nutrients to minimize the functional losses associated with aging and to optimize the health of those already elderly. This sixth volume in the series Human Nutrition: A Comprehensive Treatise provides a conspectus of the various interactions of nutrition with the aging process and a comprehensive survey of current knowledge of the amounts of individual nutrients needed by the elderly. The volume begins with a general survey of the multifaceted relationship of nutrition to aging, followed by four chapters on how nutrition can affect age-related changes in selected body functions. The next six chapters cover the avail able evidence regarding the needs of the elderly for dietary energy, protein, calcium, trace elements, vitamins, and fiber.

Nutrition and Aging is a collection of papers presented at the Fifth Bristol-Myers Symposium on Nutrition Research, held in Boston, Massachusetts from October 31 to November 1, 1985. Contributors discuss the significant influence of nutrition on aging, and specifically the role of nutrition in preventing and limiting the physical, mental, and emotional problems associated with the aging process. This book reviews findings that include the effects of the aging process on the body's physiological functions and the effects of nutrient intake on organ function. Consideration is also given to the g ...

Methods of Animal Experimentation, Volume V: Nutrition, Aging, and Artificial Organs is a collection of papers that deals with methods to be used in animal experiments to achieve cost effectiveness in their use. This collection discusses laboratory animals used in different experiments such as in nutritional research, aging studies, and artificial organ research. The papers describe the species of animals appropriate for the kind of experiment to be conducted and the criteria that should be followed in choosing a certain species. These criteria include their growth rate, stage of development, as well as existing performance variations. In determining test animals for aging experiments, the book recommends that complete data be available on the genetics of the species, strain, diet history, environmental factors, breeding, and spontaneous diseases to approximate the best test results. The book addresses that the aged are more susceptible to inputs than the young in terms of morphological and functional age. In selecting test animals for artificial organ research, the book notes the importance of animal selection that will be determined, for example, by 1) the size of the prosthesis; 2) the amount of blood flow needed for the device differs in animals and man; and 3) the surgical techniques that will be employed. This book will prove helpful for laboratory workers, veterinarians, and technicians working with laboratory animals. This collection will also be appreciated by researchers designing medical and scientific tests.

Abstract: This text presents current information relating aging and nutrition to the health of the elderly. Specific conditions: such as hematopoiesis, diabetes, and atheroselerosis and the impact of nutrition and aging in these conditions are discussed. General topics such as the nutritional requirements of the elderly and nutritional support for the elderly are included.

This comprehensive, application-oriented resource, written by a team of rehabilitation experts, gives you practical techniques for providing good nutrition to patients with a variety of disorders. Each chapter tackles a specific disease or condition, then gives you background information, The nutritional consequences of the disorder, details on current nutrition and dietetic practice, and strategies for nutritional management.

This edited volume is a compilation of 30 articles discussing what constitutes food for health and longevity. The aim is to provide up-to-date information, insights, and future tendencies in the ongoing scientific research about nutritional components, food habits and dietary patterns in different cultures. The health-sustaining and health-promoting effects of food are certainly founded in its overall composition of macronutrients and micronutrients. However, the consumption of these nutrients is normally in the form of raw or prepared food from the animal and plant sources. The book is divided into four parts and a conclusion, and successfully convenes the well-established information and knowledge, along with the personal views of a diversified group of researchers and academicians on the multifaceted aspects of nutrition, food and diet. The first part reviews the scientific information about proteins, carbohydrates, fats and oils, micronutrients, pro- and pre-biotics, and hormetins, along with a discussion of the evolutionary principles and constraints about what is optimal food, if any. The second part discusses various kinds of foods and food supplements with respect to their claimed benefits for general health and prevention of some diseases. The third part brings in the cultural aspects, such as what are the principles of healthy eating according to the traditional Chinese and Indian systems, what is the importance of mealing times and daily rhythms, and how different cultures have developed different folk wisdoms for eating for health, longevity and immortality. In the part four, various approaches which are either already in practice or are still in the testing and research phases are discussed and evaluated critically, for example intermittent fasting and calorie restriction, food-based short peptides, senolytics, Ayurvedic compounds, optimal food for old people, and food for the prevention of obesity and other metabolic disorders. The overreaching aim of this book is to inform, inspire and encourage students, researchers, educators and medical health professionals thinking about food and food habits in a holistic context of our habits, cultures and patterns. Food cannot be reduced to a pill of nutritional components. Eating food is a complex human behavior culturally evolved over thousands of years. Perhaps the old adage “we are what we eat” needs to be modified to “we eat what we are”.

Answers a variety of questions related to food, diet, and nutrition, offering advice on how diet can be altered to improve metabolism, what diet changes can be helpful in treating different ailments, how different aspects of a person's diet affects specific body systems, and other related topics.