As you age it is vital to keep your muscles and joints moving, therefore exercise is important, by doing so one maintains muscle and bone strength therefore ensuring you have a level of independence.

Sticking to a well-balanced diet will support your nutritional needs and help with your overall health and wellbeing. 

Fluid intake is also important, and one should aim to drink at least 6 times per day.

Good diets have been associated with reducing chronic illness later in life.

There are times where lifestyle changes such as reduced appetite, illness, limited mobility and poor dentures will affect your nutrient intake both from and quantity and quality perspective, resulting in insufficient intake of essential nutrients. 

Bone health & Muscle Mass

Insufficient intakes of calcium and vitamin D is linked with osteoporosis (Ebeling et al. 2013; Hendrickx et al. 2015) Osteoporosis is described as reduced bone density which increases the risk of fractures. Once calcium is lost from the bones it is difficult to replace, but there are ways you can protect your bones. This includes consuming enough calcium and vitamin D. The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend that women over 51 should consume 4 serves of dairy per day, while men aged 50–70 should consume 2,5 serves, and men over 70 should have 3,5 serves of dairy per day. The best source of vitamin D is the sun, but as you age, your change in lifestyle and lack of mobility may impact the time you spend in the sun.  For those who struggle or cannot spend time in the sun, a diet rich in vitamin D such as milk helps.

Older people commonly have a decrease in skeletal muscle mass and strength, which is the result of a decline in the production of muscle tissue. Height may also decrease with age because of changing spinal shape and intervertebral thickness, making it difficult to determine height and therefore BMI (NHMRC). To enhance skeletal muscle mass and strength, exercise is important. Consuming calcium, vitamin D and protein especially from lean meats helps with maintaining muscle mass. (female) 45g – (male) 65g of protein is recommended for Australian Adults aged 31–70.

Memoryloss

As we age, natural subtle changes in memory occur. Sometimes these changes occur sooner than anticipated. Simple forgetfulness (the “missing keys”) and slowing in recalling names, dates, and events can be part of the normal ageing process. Almost 40 per cent of people over the age of 65 experience some form of memory loss. When there is no underlying medical condition, it is known as "age-associated memory impairment," which is considered normal aging process.

Over the last few decades the human diet has changed considerably, diets back then included Phosphatidylserine at an average of 250mg p/day, to less than 130mg p/day today. Phosphatidylserine(PS) is a nutrient essential for optimal brain function. Phosphatidylserine is known to activate proteins essential for cognitive processes such as memory and learning. It is present in the human body, with significantly higher levels in the brain. The body can make phosphatidylserine, which unfortunatelyreduces with age. Therefore, most phosphatidylserine will need to come from foods.