Nutrition and aging

Nutritional concerns are common among older adults seen in the primary care office. The food pyramid for people over the age of 70 years is a useful starting point for discussions about what reasonably healthy older adults should be eating and drinking. If there is a decline in the ability to perform IADLs or if there is a decrease in appetite or the discovery of unintended weight loss, careful assessment followed by targeted interventions may improve health outcomes and the quality of life. Restrictive diets are often not well tolerated, especially by frail older adults. Dietary recommendations blending the elements of the pyramid and the essential components of accepted medical nutritional therapy that are most consistent with the patient's lifelong eating patterns are most likely to succeed.