Always saying you are getting old? Please pay attention, getting old starts with eating!

Some moments will make us sigh, "Ah, I'm old."

For example, a gray hair suddenly appeared near my mouth, but I just couldn’t remember my account password, or my growing waistline…

Among the many signs of aging, there is a change that many people have not noticed, but it actually affects the health of our parents.

It is - taste degeneration.

Signs of aging

Start with a meal

Although the highest praise for food is "tastes like mom's", many people may have a feeling: the food cooked by parents is getting saltier and saltier.

The truth behind this may not be that they don’t know to use less salt, but that they really can’t taste it.

As parents age, their sense of taste also deteriorates[1].

One of the functions of the tongue is to perceive taste, and it's a good thing. It can distinguish between 4,000 and 10,000 flavors, which can be generally divided into five basic tastes: salty, sour, sweet, bitter and umami.

What happens to your tongue as you age?

To study this issue, an article published in Chemical Sensing in 2007 selected 46 elderly people aged 61 to 86 and 36 young people aged 18 to 25, trying to find out the perception of cherry flavor and spicy taste in different age groups.

The results showed that compared with young people, the elderly group had a decreased perception of cherry flavor.

Image source: Reference 1

The older group also had a decreased perception of the taste of chili peppers relative to younger people.

Image source: Reference 1

That is to say, whether it is the flavor of chili or cherry, the elderly need higher concentrations to experience the same feeling as young people [1].

Not only the two foods mentioned above, more studies have found that the elderly will have the same phenomenon when tasting other foods.

In 1991, a study published in the Journal of Taste found that when tasting tomato soup, the sodium chloride concentration in the elderly group was more than twice that of the young people, and they could barely feel the saltiness [2].

The older you get, the duller your tongue becomes.

Food that young people find too salty may be just right for older people.

People’s sense of taste begins to decline gradually from around age 60, and the decline is even more pronounced in people over 70 years old [3].

The salt and sucrose detection threshold of people over 60 years old is 1.5 to 2.2 times higher than that of people aged 20 to 40 years old. In other words, if the elderly want to taste the same flavor as young people, they need to add salt and sucrose to a concentration of 1.5 to 2.2 times higher [4].

Food that young people find too salty may be just right for older people.

Knowing this, will you still yell at your parents for eating too salty food?

A dull tongue is not just a simple matter of "strong taste" or "bad taste", but it can bring real health risks to parents.

Taste loss

Be careful about malnutrition of parents!

Have you ever heard your parents complain, "My mouth has a bad taste and I don't want to eat."

Casual complaints may be a dangerous sign of anorexia for some elderly people.

The most direct manifestation of taste degeneration: gradually losing interest in food, becoming picky about food, and even experiencing loss of appetite and anorexia.

Anorexia is actually very common among the elderly. Studies have found that nearly 20% to 30% of the elderly suffer from anorexia.

In order to make food "tasteful", some elderly people will unconsciously increase the amount of various condiments, including salt. Excessive intake of salt will bury hidden dangers for parents who are already at high risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

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The most direct consequence of poor eating habits is malnutrition among the elderly[6].

According to the second round of data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), the prevalence of malnutrition among the elderly in China is 12.6% [7].

According to rough estimates, there are about 20 million elderly people suffering from malnutrition in China. In addition to loss of taste, decreased digestive function, decreased chewing function, and diseases are also important causes of malnutrition.

The older your parents are, the more you need to worry about nutrition. The risk of malnutrition increases by 8.5% for every additional year of age.

Malnourished elderly people are more likely to feel "weak." "Weakness" is an overall feeling, including feeling tired, unable to lift heavy objects, walking slowly, and having difficulty doing anything.

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A study published in J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci analyzed the nutritional data of 802 Italian elderly people aged 65 to 93 years old. It was found that people who were insufficient in essential nutrients such as protein, vitamin D, and vitamin E were more likely to experience fatigue and decreased muscle strength[8].

Even if the total calorie intake of the elderly is sufficient every day, the reduced intake of essential nutrients makes them more likely to become "weak".

Malnourished elderly people are more susceptible to illness. For example, a lack of protein and trace elements reduces muscle mass and leads to weakness. It also impairs immunity, especially cell-mediated immunity, increases the risk of infection and delays recovery from illness. [9]

It is said that "nothing can buy you slimness in old age", but being excessively thin in the elderly is actually a dangerous sign.

Malnutrition is as harmful to the body as being overweight/obesity.

It must be taken seriously.

Helping heavy-tasting parents

There are 4 things you can do

Regarding the nutritional problems of your parents at home, the following methods may help you.

① Pay attention to your parents’ weight. The thinner the elderly are, the better.

It is not good for the elderly to be too fat or too thin. A meta-analysis published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2014 found that there is a U-shaped relationship between BMI and mortality in the elderly, with both ends of the curve - that is, very low or very high BMI ranges - increasing the risk of death[10].

Image source: Reference 10

The key to the weight of the elderly is to have a proper body weight. The ideal BMI for the elderly is to control it within the range of 20 to 26.9 kg/m2, which is higher than that of young people.

Let’s weigh our parents today and calculate their BMI.

② You can always keep MSG/spices at home. Delicious meals can increase appetite.

Adding richer flavors to food is an important way to improve loss of appetite in the elderly.

In addition to controlling the amount of condiments with high sodium content such as salt and soy sauce, the flexible use of chili, vinegar, pepper, garlic, and seasoning ingredients such as leeks, coriander, tomatoes, etc. are all good cooking tips.

These taste stimulations can make parents feel that food is more delicious, increase the secretion of saliva in the mouth, and improve appetite[11].

The "umami" in MSG and chicken powder can make the flavor of dishes more layered, but they contain sodium, so be careful to use them in moderation. Don't worry, eating too much MSG will not cause cancer.

③ Take your parents to the dentist regularly. Bad teeth can easily lead to malnutrition.

It may be difficult for us who enjoy the crunch of food to appreciate how bad teeth really are for the elderly, and this is also a major risk factor for malnutrition[12].

Brush your teeth twice a day, morning and evening, use dental floss as a family, take your parents to have their teeth cleaned once a year, treat caries and periodontitis in a timely manner... Together with your parents, start to make changes by starting with the little things in life.

④ Go home more often and eat with your parents more often

This is not just empty talk... Studies have found that participating in group meals more often helps improve the appetite of the elderly.

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Some of our parents’ body functions are slowly deteriorating, and from one day on, we become the stronger ones to take care of them.

We always say that we love our parents. Love is not elsewhere, but in our daily lives.
For example, accompany and care about their three meals a day. ‍

References

[1]Kremer S, Bult JH, Mojet J, Kroeze JH. Food perception with age and its relationship to pleasantness. Chem Senses. 2007 Jul;32(6):591-602.

[2]Joseph C. Stevens, William S. Cain, Annick Demarque, Amy M. Ruthruff,

On the discrimination of missing ingredients: Aging and salt flavor,

Appetite, Volume 16, Issue 2, 1991, Pages 129-140

[3]Hoffman HJ, Cruickshanks KJ, Davis B. Perspectives on population-based epidemiological studies of olfactory and taste impairment. Ann NY Acad Sci. 2009;1170:514-530.

[4] Wang Tinghuai. Physiology (9th edition). Beijing: People's Medical Publishing House. 2018. 291-292

[5]Donini LM, Poggiogalle E, Piredda M, et al. Anorexia and eating patterns in the elderly. PLoS One. 2013;8(5):e63539. Published 2013 May 2.

[6]Susan S. Schiffman, Intensification of Sensory Properties of Foods for the Elderly, The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 130, Issue 4, April 2000, Pages 927S–930S

[7]Wei JM, Li S, Claytor L, et al. Prevalence and predictors of malnutrition in elderly Chinese adults: results from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Public Health Nutr. 2018;21(17):3129-3134.

[8]Bartali B, Frongillo EA, Bandinelli S, et al. Low nutrient intake is an essential component of frailty in older persons. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2006;61(6):589-593.

[9]Norman K, Haß U, Pirlich M. Malnutrition in Older Adults-Recent Advances and Remaining Challenges. Nutrients. 2021;13(8):2764.

[10]Winter JE, MacInnis RJ, Wattanapenpaiboon N, et al. BMI and all-cause mortality in older adults: a meta-analysis. Am J Clin Nutr. 2014 Apr;99(4):875-890.

[11]Susan S. Schiffman, Intensification of Sensory Properties of Foods for the Elderly, The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 130, Issue 4, April 2000, Pages 927S–930S

[12]Lee JS, Kritchevsky SB, Tylavsky F, Harris TB, Ayonayon HN, Newman AB. Factors associated with impaired appetite in well-functioning community-dwelling older adults. J Nutr Elder. 2006;26(1-2):27-43.

Planning and production

Source丨This article is authorized to be reproduced from DingXiang Doctor (ID: DingXiangYiSheng) and may not be reproduced again without authorization.

Author: Xiao Yi, Jiang Yongyuan, Master of Internal Medicine, Third Military Medical University

Editor: Wang Mengru