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Food transition and demographic Recent Blog Entries

change: the role of nutrition in Grandparents’ Day in Brazil

(/blog/grandparents-day-in-
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04 Aug 2021
populations Five Innovations in Healthy
12 Mar 2019 Ageing (/blog/five-innovations-
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The improvement in population longevity is a very complex phenomenon in which a range of Impact of COVID-19 on Consumer
environmental, behavioural, sociodemographic and dietary factors all influence physiological Behaviour of Older Adults: a
mechanisms relevant to ageing. The control of infectious diseases, as well as improvements in consumer revolution or a passing
standards of living and nutritional status, are known to have large effects on life expectancy. phase? (/blog/impact-of-COVID-
19-on-consumer-behavior-of-
To support a healthy lifestyle, diet must be complete, balanced and adequate
older-adults)
(http://www.aecosan.msssi.gob.es/en/AECOSAN/web/home/aecosan_inicio.htm), with sufficient,
20 Jul 2021
practical, attractive, varied and regular food portions. This is important in all stages of life, but
especially in older adults because to a large extent dietary habits determine health status. Hand in hand: an argument for an
analytical alliance on young and
Older adults experience biological changes related to the digestive system (e.g. in the mouth,
older people (/blog/argument-
oesophagus, stomach, intestine and liver) and psychosocial changes (e.g. lack of knowledge about for-an-analytical-alliance-on-
balanced diets, mobility problems, poverty, lack of appetite, social isolation and loneliness), all of young-and-older-people)
which can affect their nutritional status.
14 Jul 2021
It is widely recognised that nutrition has an important impact on mortality and morbidity and that it Lockdown Baby Boom to
plays a major role in maintaining and improving physical and mental performance and delaying the Pandemic Baby Bust: Impact of
emergence of chronic disease. This relationship has become one of the principles that guide health the COVID-19 Pandemic on
policies round the world. According to various international reports, including the 2002 World Health Fertility (/blog/Impact-of-the-
Report (https://www.who.int/whr/2002/en/), the 2004 Global Strategy on Diet COVID19-Pandemic-on-Fertility)
(https://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/strategy/en/), Physical Activity and Health and the 2015 07 Jul 2021
World Report on Ageing and Health (https://www.who.int/ageing/publications/world-report-
2015/en/), the increase in the prevalence of chronic non-communicable diseases is responsible for ICD-11 and an argument about
two-thirds of deaths and 46% of global morbidity. Five of the ten risk factors most closely associated "old age" (/blog/ICD-11-and-an-
with the development of chronic non-communicable diseases are directly related to diet and physical argument-about-old%20age%20)
exercise. The argument that the world has been moving quite rapidly towards a diet strongly 30 Jun 2021
associated with NCDs is a now a familiar one Long-term implications of high-
(https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/84/2/289/4881816). stress occupations in midlife:
Numerous authors have highlighted the relationship between nutrition and overall standard of living. The role of resilience resources
The health status of populations is fundamentally associated with adequate coverage of basic needs (/blog/Long-term-implications-
including food. Health status indeed is one of the dimensions of well-being that best reflect a of-high-stress-occupations-in-
population’s standard of living. midlife)
23 Jun 2021
Several areas in the world have been identified where the population presents remarkable longevity.
These areas, called longevity “Blue Zones Reconnecting society after the
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6125071/)”, are defined as “areas where the pandemic: a practical proposal
population is characterised by a significantly higher level of longevity compared with neighbouring (/blog/Reconnecting-society-
regions, provided that the exceptional longevity of people in this population has been fully validated”. after-the-pandemic)
16 Jun 2021
Four longevity “Blue Zones” have been validated in the world:
Conditioned thinking as a risk
1. The Okinawa islands, southern Japan. factor in older migrants' health
2. The province of Ogliastra and Barbagia in the province of Nuoro, Sardinia (/blog/Conditioned-thinking-as-
(https://www.bluezones.com/exploration/sardinia-italy/). a-risk-factor-in-migrants-health)
09 Jun 2021

https://www.ageing.ox.ac.uk/blog/the-role-of-nutrition-in-ageing Page 1 of 3
Food transition and demographic change: the role of nutrition in ag…d longevity of populations | Oxford Institute of Population Ageing 08/08/2021, 10(54

3. The Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica. Redundant After 65: The Hidden
Effects of COVID-19 on
4. The Island of Icaria, Greece
Intergenerational Solidarity in
Although these populations are located in different parts of the world, they all present several Turkey (/blog/Redundant-After-
characteristics in common. Their diet is based on food produced by themselves or locally; they usually 65-The-Hidden-Effects-of-
have a family vegetable plot; and animal husbandry is combined with hunting or fishing. The people COVID-19-on-Intergenerational-
also make good use of all available resources and comprise largely self-sufficient societies. In Solidarity-in-Turkey)
nutritional terms, these practices mean that they eat whole foods that are rich in polyunsaturated fatty 02 Jun 2021
acids and have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties; these have a proven relationship with low
morbidity and mortality from some chronic diseases and are associated with longevity and a reduced
risk of age-related diseases.

I am at the moment engaged in a research study on Sardinia, and our focus is the Blue Zone, in the
province of Nuoro. The hypothesis we want to test is that the exceptionally long-lived cohorts in the
local population of Nuoro experienced a sustained period of caloric restriction which coincided with
their early life development; and then in adulthood benefited from a quantitative and qualitative
improvement in their diet, which marked a major nutritional transition for the population as a whole.
The idea is that this sequence of nutritional patterns at key stages in the life cycle was decisive for
longevity.

It is known that caloric restriction in early life has the effect of reducing the number of adipocytes in
the adult organism, and this acts as a protective effect for some chronic diseases. The downside of
course is that a long period of exposure to caloric restriction leads to malnutrition. To put it another
way, the sustained period of caloric restriction has to occur at the right time of life, and it has to last
long enough but not too long.

What also matters is the quality of the diet that marks the nutritional transition for the population as a
whole. In this instance, not only does the population have access to more food, but what they are
eating has all the hallmarks of what is sometimes called a Mediterranean diet - a high consumption of
whole foods, rich in polyunsaturated acids, and foods with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory
properties.

What we are going to do is collect and analyse mostly historical data for different cohorts that will
enable us to test this idea that an extended period of caloric restriction was followed by a major
nutritional transition.

About the Author:

Dr Eva Trescastro (https://www.ageing.ox.ac.uk/people/view/456) was an Academic Visitor at the

Oxford Institute of Population Ageing in 2018. Currently she is a PhD Assistant Professor at the
University of Alicante and has been accredited as a temporary lecturer and private university lecturer
by the Valencian Agency for Evaluation and Planning (AVAP).

Opinions of the blogger is their own and not endorsed by the Institute

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Eva Maria Trescastro Lopez

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Eva Maria Trescastro Lopez

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