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This issue of Generations explores a very basic human need: food. The issue focuses on the nutrients in food that nourish our bodies as we age. It brings to readers information that is based on a field of scientific study that continues to grow, particularly in relation to healthier aging.
Eating is so much more than just appeasing hunger. As Juengst (1992) reminds us,
Eating is a social activity that includes sharing, celebration, learning from one another, and providing for the helpless, a ritual that brings comfort, satisfaction, pleasure, creativity, sustenance, nurture, appreciation and healing. It satisfies many levels of human needs, (p. 15)
While our need for food to enrich social bonds and to sustain life is rooted in earliest society, today's two distinct but parallel systems that provide services to older Americans view food and nutrition quite differently. The social service system, including the aging network, tends to view food as nurturing, emphasizing die emotional, social, and qtiality-of-life aspects of eating. The healthcare system has traditionally focused on food and nutrition primarily as therapeutic treatment for chronic diseases and more recently has come to value the heath-promoting and disease-preventing attributes of a healthy diet. In this issue, we look at nutrition from both healthcare and socialservice perspectives.
Today's abundant food supply in the United States and our greater understanding of the health benefits of foods and nutrients present both challenges and opportunities. Challenges include ensuring that people of all ages have access to wholesome foods that meet their cultural, health, social, and other needs. One article in this issue examines aging and hunger- still, unfortunately, a major issue among older people in our wealthy country. Another article reviews nutrition assistance programs.
Among the opportunities is die application of recent discoveries of how certain foods, nutrients, and dietary patterns help prevent, lessen the risk of, and manage many chronic diseases. In our aging society, die connections between nutrition and health and independence and die relationship between food and quality of life are merging into a more holistic view of food and nutrition.
HEALTH AND QUALITY OF LIFE
We now know that eating healthy diets and maintaining an appropriate body weight along with other healthy lifestyle practices can delay disability, improve quality of life, and...