SENIOR CITIZENS & SENSES

« At my age, I don’t need to eat as much as I did when I was young », true or false? Contrary to popular belief, it is not because you’re getting older that you should eat less. The mechanisms of food digestion and the assimilation of nutrients are far less effective with age. In addition, for the same level of physical activity, energy expenditure is greater in an elderly person than in a younger person. For example, for people over 65 it is recommended to consume 1 to 1.2 g of protein per kilo of body weight per day compared with 0.8 to 1 g/kg in younger people. For a woman weighing 60 kilos, this would correspond to a bowl of milk, a beef-burger, a wedge of camembert, a slice of quiche Lorraine, a yogurt and half a French loaf.