Ability to regulate eating declines in elderly, study finds
BATON ROUGE (Oct 14, 1995 - 20:42 EDT) -- The body's ability to
regulate food intake declines markedly with age, according to a new
study presented here Saturday at a conference on obesity and "ingestive
behavior."
While obesity and the problem of excess weight preoccupy much of America,
about one-third of people over 65 have just the opposite problem -- what
doctors describe as the "anorexia of aging." For them, drinking food
supplements to boost nutritional and caloric intake may be one solution,
the study suggested.
A number of factors contribute to being underweight in later life,
including illnesses, poverty and feelings of satiety that may kick in
too soon.
In fact, one of the most important factors, said Barbara J. Rolls,
professor of nutrition at Pennsylvania State University, is the
age-related decline in the body's ability to know how much to eat.
In a study of 16 men, aged 18 to 35, and 16 men, aged 63 to 84, Rolls
and her team first determined each man's normal or base-line consumption
of calories at lunch.
She then gave all the men a snack of yogurt about 30 minutes before
lunch. They were then asked to select a healthy lunch. The younger men
compensated for having eaten yogurt by eating less than they would
have otherwise.
The older men overate up to 30 percent more than usual despite the
yogurt snack. "The point is that the elderly are not adjusting as
well," Rolls said.
"The elderly did overshoot, but the good news is that if you give
energy supplements, you could improve nutritional status," she said
after her presentation at the conference, the combined annual meeting
of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity and the
Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior.
Rolls' study adds to a growing body of knowledge about the age-related
decline in the ability to regulate food intake. Other studies, at
Tufts University for instance, have shown that if researchers
deliberately "underfeed" young and old men for three weeks, then allow
them to resume normal eating habits, the young men quickly bounce back
to normal intake and body weight, but older men do not.
Because women's eating behavior is viewed by some researchers as more
complex, many of the studies so far have been done only on men.
Dr. William Dietz, director of clinical nutrition at the Floating
Hospital at the New England Medical Center, agreed in an interview
here that undernutrition is an increasingly recognized problem among
older people.
Dietz, who helped write federal nutrition guidelines that are to be
released in December, said when lean or nonfat body mass drops too low
in older people, the risk of health problems increases, including falls
and problems associated with frailty.
For older people, the new guidelines will stress the importance of
maintaining proper weight, he said.
Ironically, Rolls said, while public health recommendations to eat
lower-fat and lower-calorie diets often seem to fall on deaf ears
among younger people, older people may take such advice too much
to heart. Several years ago, she noted, researchers found the
fastest-growing market for low-fat food products was older people.
While overweight older people clearly benefit from this, she said,
the underweight elderly do not.
"Older people with low weight or who are losing weight should
consider supplements," she said.
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