Essay Sample on Impact of Food Selection on Nutrition

Introduction

The process of aging incorporates a number of changes. These could be psychological, physiological, social and also pathological conditions of a person. Proper nutrition is a significant factor that contributes to the health of the elderly people and thus it impacts the larger aging process. Due to the increasing process of malnutrition in the current population, there is still an association of declining in the functional status, poor muscle functioning, a decrease in the bone mass, increased rates in readmissions in hospitals and mortality in the old age (Hodgin et al, 2015). As a result of changing the socioeconomic environment, the older generation is most of the times left to tackle care of their own health and thus it may impact habits of good nutritional status. Conducting a regular diagnosis of malnutrition to older patients like Miss E leads to an increased need for a better education that regards nutritional status for people of her age. In this article, the purpose is to give incites that entail an educational overview of important nutritional aspect that comes as a result of old age like the case of Miss E.

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In any population, older people are always subjected to age-related diseases and impairments in the functionality of major body activities that go as far as physical inability that interferes with a good nutritional status. Aging is defined as a multidimensional process of physical, psychological and social changes. Physically, the energy that Miss E spends was reduced as there was reduction of physical activity and this acted as the most significant factor that contributed to the reduction of energy in Miss E. Miss E had restrictions in her ability to swallow hard foods since she had already developed a number of degenerative and chronic diseases, the type of disease that blocks airway disease. Also, arthritis is an example of a disease that could have caused Miss E to develop new habits of eating soft foods. Physical activity is the main contributor to better physical and psychological health at various ages. On the other hand, inactivity becomes associated with small illnesses in elderly people like Miss E that always leads to losing the muscle tone and mass. Thus, the physical activity levels in an elderly person are never regained.

Physiological Changes

Miss E age had started experiencing an alteration in her body composition and that has a number of consequences on health and physical functionality. Progressively, there is a decrease in lean body mass as well as increased body fat (Sabharwal et al, 2015). The said changes in the composition of the body are usually associated with the changes in Miss E physiological functions that affected her body metabolism.

All these changes have effects in her overall status in a number of ways. One, the changes affect her nutrient intake and thus she is forced to concentrate on some diets. Secondly, Miss E has to experience physical activity and she is at great risk for contracting chronic diseases. Additionally, the bone density alternated I Miss E and this ended up into decreased mineral content that was as a result of her old age.

The old lady could have experienced an evolutionary loss of fat-free and this is a result of diseases as well as the physiological factors and thus there are overall negative balances of energy. This condition is called Cachexia. The condition with Miss E is that she is losing weight. The weight loss is caused by waste, which is an involuntary loss of weight as a result of bad dieting and this leads to a number of diseases. The nutrients that she is lacking are like Sacorpenia which is a reduced skeletal muscle mass and this I related to physiological changes in older people.

Her dietary habits have been affected. She is now under protein undernutrition which is a factor referred to as pathogenesis of main osteoporotic fractures in the old people. Definitely, no known definition of malnutrition in elderly person energy. There is a dimension that categorizes the protein malnutrition to be an adequate calories intake as well as protein intake. In addition, there is metabolic stress due to insufficient protein intake in the bodies of older people (Maiano et al, 2017). There are possible effects of hepatic or the bowel disease that further brings impairment on the elder people's nutritional impairment like Miss E. lack of proteins in the elderly people cause injuries in the patients.

Taking foods that are rich in proteins and other bioactive components like photochemical helps protect people against age-related disorders. A number of changes, however, are identifiable in the quality of food or the amount of food that is consumed regardless of the person taking them. The old generations who fail to take the quality and quantity of food are at a bigger risk of malnutrition. Thus, the elderly should be guided on eating healthy foods so that they can maintain good health.

References

Graham, D. J., Heidrick, C., & Hodgin, K. (2015). Nutrition label viewing during a food-selection task: front-of-package labels vs nutrition facts labels. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 115(10), 1636-1646.

Amarya, S., Singh, K., & Sabharwal, M. (2015). Changes during aging and their association with malnutrition. Journal of Clinical Gerontology and Geriatrics, 6(3), 78-84.

Rey, O., Vallier, J. M., Nicol, C., Mercier, C. S., & Maiano, C. (2017). Effects of combined vigorous interval training program and diet on body composition, physical fitness, and physical self-perceptions among obese adolescent boys and girls. Pediatric exercise science, 29(1), 73-83.