Older Americans need to make every calorie count

Food Review, Summer-Fall, 2002 by Joanne F. Guthrie, Biing-Hwan Lin

As individuals age, their declining energy needs mean they must eat better while eating less. USDA food consumption survey data indicate that most older Americans are having trouble fitting the recommended number of daily food group servings into their decreased "calorie budgets."

While the basic nutrition advice in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Food Guide Pyramid applies to healthy adults of all ages, the elderly face some special challenges, particularly declining energy (calorie) needs as metabolism slows down. For some older adults, decreased physical activity may further reduce energy needs, although the Dietary Guidelines emphasize that healthy seniors, just like younger adults, should be physically active each day.

Because the amount of food they can eat while maintaining calorie balance is more limited than when they were younger, older individuals must choose wisely, selecting nutrient-dense foods and limiting "extras." To help older adults and others visualize what this means, researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University created an "elderly pyramid" that is narrower than the Food Guide Pyramid for the general population (see box). The more narrow shape of the elderly pyramid indicates that most individuals age 70 and older should choose the smaller numbers of servings within the range recommended by the Food Guide Pyramid.

A more quantitative way of providing food choice guidance would be to compute benchmark food densities for younger and older men and women. A benchmark food density is the number of servings per 1,000 calories an individual consuming a given number of calories would need to consume to meet the Food Guide Pyramid recommendations. For example, a person son who consumes 2,200 calories daily should consume four servings of vegetables, according to the Food Guide Pyramid. This consumption level would translate into a benchmark density of 1.8 servings of vegetables per 1,000 calories.

Data from USDA's Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals, 1994-96 (CSFII 1994-96) were used to examine food intakes of younger men and women, age 1959, and seniors, age 60 and older. Survey respondents lived in household settings, not in institutional settings, such as nursing homes. Data were collected from a nationwide sample, yielding results representative of the noninstitutionalized American population. The survey collected information on what, when, where, and how much individuals ate during the 3-year survey period. We used 1-day dietary intake data from this survey to examine how much younger and older adults ate, to compute benchmark food densities for each age group, and to compare actual intakes of Food Guide Pyramid food groups with recommendations.

As expected, younger adults ate considerably more than their older counterparts. Men age 19-59 reported consuming an average of 2,535 calories per day, compared with 1,940 calories consumed by men age 60 and older. Women age 19-59 reported average intakes of 1,676 calories daily, compared with 1,413 calories per day for women age 60 and older. These figures represent calories from foods consumed, as reported by survey respondents. Previous studies indicate individuals often underreport food intakes, so these figures may be considered lower bound estimates of daily intake. However, the trend to decreased caloric intake with increasing age is clear.

The differences by age and gender in caloric intake indicate that food group benchmark densities would tend to be higher in women and in older adults. The benchmarks computed confirm this suggestion. Benchmark servings for the five food groups are lowest for young men and highest for older women, the group with the lowest calorie intake (table 1). These numbers show just how important it is that older individuals, particularly women, make every calorie count.

More Older Men Than Women Meet Food Guide Pyramid Recommendations

Comparisons of average food group intakes of older men and women with intakes of younger men and women indicate that older individuals eat fewer servings of most food groups than their younger counterparts (table 2). Older men consume fewer servings of grains, vegetables, and meat and meat alternates than younger men, but their intakes fall within the ranges recommended by the Food Guide Pyramid. Older men actually consume more fruit than younger men and meet the minimum recommended number of servings, whereas younger men do not. Neither group meets recommendations for the milk, yogurt, and cheese group.

Younger women are less likely than men to consume recommended numbers of servings; older women are even less likely. Younger women, on average, consume fewer than the minimum recommended number of servings of all of the five food groups except for vegetables. Mean food group intakes of older women are below recommended levels for all food groups. Like older men, older women consume more fruit than their younger counterparts, but their mean intake level of 1.8 servings per day still falls below the recommendation for at least 2 servings daily.