Restrictive diets no good for seniors

New American research reveals it may not be a case of ‘you are what you eat’ after finding consuming high sugar and fat diets may not affect the health outcomes of people aged 75 years and older.

Researchers at Penn State and Geisinger Healthcare System conclude that placing aged care residents on “overly restrictive diets” to treat excess weight or other conditions may have little benefit.

The study discards the stereotypical view that all older people are “tiny and frail”.

“We all know adverse dietary patterns, such as a Western diet containing high amounts of fat or a diet containing high amounts of refined sugar – both of which may contribute to obesity – are associated with adverse medical conditions and health outcomes for many people, but until now, the health effects of these types of poor diets have not been characterised for people who live to 75 years of age and older,” Pao Ying Hsao, postdoctoral fellow at Penn State, says.

The team’s research is part of a decadeslong collaborative study between Penn State and the Geisinger Healthcare System on the effects of nutritional status and diet on the health of more than 20,000 older people living in Pennsylvania.

The team followed 449 individuals for five years who were on average 76.5 years old at the beginning of the study.

The team then assessed the participants’ dietary patterns by calling each of them by telephone four or five times during a 10 month period and questioning them about their diets over the previous 24 hours.

The participants were categorised as adhering to one of three different dietary patterns. The ‘sweets and dairy’ pattern was characterised by the largest proportions of energy from baked goods, milk, sweetened coffee and tea and dairy based desserts, and the lowest intakes of poultry.

The ‘health conscious’ pattern was characterised by relatively higher intakes of pasta, noodles, rice, whole fruit, poultry, nuts, fish and vegetables, and lower intakes of fried vegetables, processed meats and soft drinks.

The ‘Western’ pattern was characterised by higher intakes of bread, eggs, fats, fried vegetables, alcohol and soft drinks, and the lowest intakes of milk and whole fruit.

Using outpatient electronic medical records, the researchers identified whether the participants developed cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, hypertension (high blood pressure) and metabolic syndrome during the five year period.

They found no relationship between dietary pattern and prevalence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome or mortality in the participants; however, they did find an increased risk of hypertension in people who followed the ‘sweets and dairy’ pattern.

“We don’t know if the participants had been following these dietary patterns their entire adult lives, but we suspect they had been because people don’t usually change dietary practices all that much,” the researchers say.

“The results suggest if you live to be this old, then there may be little to support the use of overly restrictive dietary prescriptions, especially where food intake may already be inadequate. However, people who live on prudent diets all their lives are likely to have better health outcomes,” they add.