Foods for the Elderly

The aging process of any population is a function of the differences in genetics, lifestyle, and health. The relationship between aging and several diseases of older adults includes loss of appetite, gustatory dysfunctions, declining basal metabolism. Moreover, the situation is aggravated by economic issues that sometimes affecting this fraction of the population. This chapter stresses the relationship between nutrition and the elderly, emphasizing some chronic conditions or clinically identifiable complications that appear during the aging process. Therefore, it is briefly discussed chronic conditions such as anorexia, presbyphagia anosmia or hyposmia, sarcopenia, hypothyroidism, osteopenia/osteoporosis, and constipation. Also, there is a brief compilation of the information on food for the elderly and some home recipes.

Keywords: Anorexia, Constipation, Foods the elderly, Health and aging, Hypothyroidism, Osteopenia/osteoporosis, Presbyphagia anosmia, Sarcopenia.