Sustainable and nutritious food consumption for older adults

老年人的可持续和营养食品消费

• 批准号: ES/Y008057/1
• 负责人: Laura Wilkinson
• 金额: $ 6.51万
• 依托单位: Swansea University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FY008057%2F1
• 关键词: Sustainable; nutritious; food; consumption; older

Our older adult community are currently facing the health challenges of obesity and malnutrition, sometimes both at the same time. This can result in increased risk of cardio-vascular disease and type 2 diabetes in the case of obesity and/ or sarcopenia (muscle weakness) in the case of malnutrition. Too often, the proposed solutions to these health challenges rely on an individual to make lifestyle changes (e.g., by following a particular diet using an app). However, sticking to such diets can be extremely challenging when we live in a food environment that encourages over-consumption of foods with little nutritional benefit. Moreover, failure to achieve health goals associated with eating and body weight can lead to the experience of 'weight stigmatisation'. Here we propose a service that aims to improve the overall eating environment for older adults and reduce stigma by avoiding placing responsibility on an individual. We will work with food producers, suppliers to care-homes and the NHS, supermarkets and consumers to change the availability, accessibility and acceptability of products that support the health of older adults. We have conducted research that suggests that foods can be developed with older adult health in mind and acceptability of these foods can be improved by working with older adults to optimise the presentation of these products. This service that will allow, in particular, SMEs producing sustainable and healthy foods, to access expertise and equipment to optimise their product for the older adult community (without having to invest in costly expertise and equipment themselves).

我们的老年人社区目前正面临着肥胖和营养不良的健康挑战，有时两者同时出现。在肥胖和/或营养不良情况下肌肉减少症（肌肉无力）的情况下，这会导致心血管疾病和2型糖尿病的风险增加。通常，针对这些健康挑战的建议解决方案依赖于个人改变生活方式（例如，通过使用应用程序遵循特定的饮食）。然而，当我们生活在一个鼓励过度食用几乎没有营养价值的食物的食物环境中时，坚持这样的饮食是极具挑战性的。此外，未能实现与饮食和体重相关的健康目标可能导致“体重歧视”。在这里，我们提出了一项服务，旨在改善老年人的整体饮食环境，并通过避免将责任放在个人身上来减少耻辱。我们将与食品生产商、养老院和NHS供应商、超市和消费者合作，改变支持老年人健康的产品的可获得性、可获得性和可接受性。我们进行的研究表明，食品的开发可以考虑到老年人的健康，通过与老年人合作，优化这些产品的外观，可以提高这些食品的可接受性。这项服务将使特别是生产可持续和健康食品的中小企业能够获得专门知识和设备，以便为老年人社区优化其产品（而不必自己投资昂贵的专门知识和设备）。