The first wave of America’s baby boomers turned 65 last year. The boomers — 78 million people born from 1946 to 1964 — are poised to either overwhelm or overhaul the American health care landscape.
Through sheer numbers and, too often, negative lifestyle choices, this cohort will transform health care one way or another.
Boomers say they want to feel young, stay fit and be active. In other words, they don’t want to grow old. Despite that, they are starting to suffer from degenerative disease. They want smart solutions to their health problems.
Faculty researchers in the College of Health and Human Sciences are exploring the aspects of aging with the hope of finding better ways to optimize health while controlling rising health care costs.
Growing Older — and Wider
According to research conducted by faculty in the Department of Nutrition Science, more than 60 percent of the population is overweight and 25 percent is clinically obese. A disproportional number are baby boomers. A recent AARP study backs up these numbers. Boomers are less healthy and heavier than their parents were at their age. They consume more prescription drugs than the previous generation. In fact, the average 50-year-old man takes four prescription medications daily, the report says.
Postmenopausal women and men in their 60s are the heaviest segment of our population, says Wayne Campbell, professor of nutrition science and researcher in Purdue’s Ingestive Behavior Research Center. “As people transition through adulthood there is a tendency for weight gain. On a population basis that progression peaks in their 60s, then progressively declines as they go into their 70s and 80s.”
One reason for the decline, Campbell says, is that many of the heaviest people have died from obesity-related diseases like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. “The idea that you can extend your life span by maintaining a normal weight is very well documented.”
Also well documented is the reduction in the number of calories needed to maintain body weight as we age. “People need to consume less food as they age, partially because they tend to become more sedentary and because of muscle loss. Your body is burning less calories a day.”
Not all foods are created equal, however. Campbell says that when people cut back on food consumption to maintain or lose weight, they typically eat fewer carbohydrates, fats and protein. But protein is essential for older adults in fighting sarcopenia, the loss of muscle that occurs in aging.
“The body needs the amino acids that protein provides to maintain muscle mass, so if you don’t consume enough protein, your body will go to your muscle to obtain it,” he says.
Although much of nutrition literature is focused on trying to prove the superiority of one protein over another, in reality as long as people consume sufficient amounts of protein, where it comes from becomes less important, Campbell says. That is if the source isn’t highly processed or high-fat meats.
“The highest-quality proteins are animal-based because they contain all of the amino acids that our body needs to build muscle.” Campbell suggests egg whites and low- or nonfat dairy as good sources of protein.
His research focuses on the combination of exercise and a moderately higher protein intake — somewhere between 50 and 75 percent more than the government’s recommended dietary allowance. The results are promising.
The old adage, “use it or lose it” couldn’t be more applicable when it comes to preserving muscle as we age. “You have to have the building blocks that are the amino acids from your diet to repair and build muscles bigger and stronger when you do exercise,” Campbell says. An exciting research finding is the importance of patterning diet to include protein at every meal and in snacks.
Typically people eat the most protein at dinner, a little less at lunch and even less at breakfast, Campbell says. “Instead of having a 7-ounce portion of meat or chicken at dinner to fulfill your protein needs, have an egg white omelet with a glass of milk at breakfast, a tuna fish sandwich or salad with a soy-based product for lunch and a reasonably sized portion of protein at dinner.”
The payoff? Appetite control and an easier way to meet health goals for optimal aging.
