Publisher's Synopsis
Healthy Ageing is the process of developing and maintaining the functional ability that enables wellbeing in older age. Functional ability is about having the capabilities that enable all people to be and do what they have reason to value.Many seniors lose interest in cooking as they get older, but proper nutrition and staying hydrated are vital for healthy aging. Medication side effects, changing taste buds, physical difficulty, and eating alone are all reasons older adults may not cook foods they used to enjoy. Another common reason seniors avoid the kitchen is burnout from decades of the same family recipes.Improved social, medical, economic, and environmental hygiene conditions have led to a population explosion over the course of little more than a century. The resultant demographic shift represents a fundamental transition towards a new paradigm, with over-65-year-olds now the fastest growing age group globally and over 2 billion estimated to be aged over 60 years old by 2050. Yet despite life expectancy near doubling since the start of the Victorian era, these gains have not necessarily translated to an increase in years lived without disability and disease. Rather, the greatest proportion of healthcare expenditure is now concentrated in old age, with age a determinant for a number of diseases including cardiovascular disease, cancer, dementia and respiratory tract infections. Improving health in old age (termed, 'healthy ageing') is therefore important both for individual quality-of-life (QoL), and in order to avoid the predicted social and financial strain on healthcare systems globally. These changing demographics are adding urgency to the need to understand the role of nutritional interventions in aiding healthy ageing.
