The human population is getting older – it has been the case for decades and it will continue to do so, if current projections hold up.
Between 1970 and 2019 the global median age increased from 21.5 to over 30 years.
In countries like Spain, Switzerland, Italy and Australia life expectancy now averages 83 years. In Japan the number is a quite staggering 85 years.
While big differences between the developed and developing world remain, global life expectancy stood at 72.6 years in 2019. In 1950 it was 47.
Two major factors are at play:
- People are living longer thanks to medical, lifestyle and nutritional advances
- Shifts around gender roles and family structures and environmental concerns have meant lower birth rates
By 2050, when the planetary population will have jumped from 7.9 billion today to an expected 9.7bn, one in six people will be aged 60-plus.
Yet the same number of babies will be born that year as now – 140 million.
These seismic demographic shifts are impacting the way societies form and function from the organization of labor to retirement ages and pension funding; to the structure and interactions of families; to the way people eat and understand nutrition.
The US-based Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics estimates 70% of the physiological deterioration experienced by the elderly is linked to physical inactivity, lifestyle choices like drug and alcohol consumption and poor nutrition.
About 90% of older American adults have at least one of diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol.
Nutrition and older adults
This bulging band of older adults have different dietary and nutritional needs than younger people, and this difference is the fundamental reason healthy aging has become such a huge focus within the food and nutrition space.
Older people don’t just want to live longer, they want to live longer and healthier and they are increasingly dialed into the fact the right diet and nutrition is vital to achieve that.
Complicating the picture is the fact the elderly are not just ‘the elderly’ – one size does not fit all. It’s an increasingly broad range of people with a diverse range of needs from those who are typically still active in their 60s and 70s to those in their 80s or 90s where things can become a little more fragile.
As Rousselot global business development manager, Florencia Moreno Torres, explained in a recent presentation, elderly nutrition “is a very wide segment. Someone in their 60s has completely different aims, ambitions, goals, capabilities than someone in their 90s.”
“As we are living longer the way in which we are perceiving aging is changing.”
Modern food, supplement and nutrition firms are responding to this bigger, broader group – tailoring dietary solutions to the different need states of older adults.
Elderly health issues
While these needs are many and varied there are some commonalities when it comes to the aging process.
Physical challenges faced by older people include:
- Bone, joint and skin decline
- Muscle wasting (sarcopenia)
- Higher risk of fractures
- Compromised agility/mobility
- Strength, tone, flexibility and balance decline
- Increased rates of arthritic forms (Around 65% of adults aged 50+ have osteoporosis or osteopenia, according to Nutrition Australia)
- Less lean body mass
- Lower metabolism
- Neurological decline
- Increased disability rates
- Decreased taste perception (often provoked by medication)
- Appetite loss
- Swallowing or chewing issues (dysphagia)
- Increased risk of malnutrition
- Slower recovery from illness
Dietary requirements also shift as the years advance including:
- Lower energy needs
- Increased protein needs (The common RDA of 0.8g/kg body weight/day is well below the 1.2-2g/kg/day often recommended by nutrition experts for older adults. Yet a third or more of elderly Americans don’t even achieve the lower RDA)
- Increased calcium needs, especially for women
Healthy aging nutrition
With a list this long the challenges of aging are apparent, but so is the ability of smart nutrition to gift the aging process independence, and physically and socially active health.
Nutrients like calcium, vitamin D, omega-3s and collagen are playing important roles in reducing and mitigating the impact of these physiological shifts to boost quality of life for over-60s.
Advances in nutrition science are solidifying the links between these nutritional interventions and many older adult health challenges.
Coupled with this, evolved food technologies mean a better and wider array of consumption occasions are available for formats ranging from pills to gummies to innovative age-adapted functional foods and drink matrices like jellies, bars and ready-to-drink (RTD) formulations.
Such products offer science-backed efficacy across a range of elderly health concerns..
Collagen healthy aging benefits
Collagen forms like Peptan peptides and ProTake hydrolyzed collagen are finding more and more avenues to aid elderly food and nutrition solutions. Across demographics, food and drink products making collagen claims surged 70% between 2015 and 2020, according to Mintel’s Global New Products Database.
These natural protein sources are backed by an ever-expanding research base in areas like sarcopenia, osteoarthritis, bone and joint health, skin health, mobility and more.
Lab advances mean collagen is playing an important role in the ever-present elderly nutrition need to raise protein intakes and reduce collagen loss, in formulations that permit increased collagen content while reducing fat and sugar.
Sustainably sourced porcine, fish, beef-sourced pure collagen powder also possesses the advantage of being taste and odor neutral, making it inherently adaptable to a broad range of applications and taste and texture targets.
This means older adult foods that might, say, seek to intensify flavor profiles to suit older palettes or develop easier to swallow/chew foods can easily win collagen’s efficacious protein advantages.
Examples include flavorful chocolate drinks with 200% more protein than standard on-market versions and soups with almost 500% more protein than regular products.
Offerings like these are making it easier for older adults to raise their nutrition game and, more importantly, their quality of life at a time of life when nutrition can have such a huge impact.
Register to watch on-demand webinar on elderly nutrition and discover how the exceptional sensory and functional properties of Rousselot Health & Nutrition’s collagen solutions make them ideal for the elderly nutrition market.
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Rousselot makes no representation or warranty, whether expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of the information, nor does it assume any legal liability, whether direct or indirect, for any information. Use of this information shall be at your discretion and risk. Nothing herein relieves you from carrying out your own suitability determinations and tests and from your obligation to comply with all applicable laws and regulations and to observe all third-party rights. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.