
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, October 15, 1995                   TAG: 9510160108
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: THE BOSTON GLOBE
DATELINE: BATON ROUGE                                 LENGTH: Medium

RESEARCH: ABILITY TO REGULATE FOOD DROPS WITH AGE

The body's ability to regulate food intake declines markedly with age, according to researchers who spoke Saturday at a conference on obesity and ``ingestive behavior.''

While obesity and the problem of excess weight preoccupy much of America, about one-third of people over 65 have just the opposite problem - what doctors describe as the ``anorexia of aging.'' For them, drinking food supplements to boost nutritional and caloric intake may be one solution, the study suggested.

A number of factors contribute to being underweight in later life, including illnesses, poverty and feelings of satiety that may kick in too soon.

One of the most important factors, said Barbara J. Rolls, professor of nutrition at Pennsylvania State University, is the age-related decline in the body's ability to know how much to eat.

Because women's eating behavior is viewed by some researchers as more complex, many of the studies so far have been done only on men.

Dr. William Dietz, director of clinical nutrition at the Floating Hospital at the New England Medical Center, agreed in an interview at the conference, the combined annual meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity and the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, that undernutrition is an increasingly recognized problem among older people.

Dietz, who helped write federal nutrition guidelines that are to be released in December, said when lean or nonfat body mass drops too low in older people, the risk of health problems increases, including falls and problems associated with frailty.

For older people, the new guidelines will stress the importance of maintaining proper weight, he said.

Ironically, Rolls said, while public health recommendations to eat lower-fat and lower-calorie diets often seem to fall on deaf ears among younger people, older people may take such advice too much to heart.

``Older people with low weight or who are losing weight should consider supplements,'' she said.

by CNB