“Despite the expectations, there were no differences between older and younger Poles in the weekly consumption of more popular and available functional food, such as fruit and/or vegetables, high fibre food and cholesterol lowering spreads or drinks,” the researchers wrote.
However some categories suffered as consumers aged such as probiotic yoghurt drinks, foods with added vitamins and/or minerals and energy drinks.
Metabolic syndrome-centric
The study had a focus on metabolic syndrome and found elderly Poles were more concerned about the carry-all term that grouped such health problems as obesity and diabetes.
“Educational and prevention actions should concentrate on older groups of people, while strengthening and preventing age-related diseases in younger groups,” the researchers wrote.
“This study demonstrates that a greater awareness of high health risks to the elderly can be used by manufacturers and retailers of food and beverages and become an element of functional food advertising.”
Fruit and/or vegetables were consumed at least once a week by 89 per cent of the older sub-sample, high-fibre foods by 36 per cent, probiotic yoghurt drinks by 28 per cent and cholesterol lowering spreads or drinks by 18 per cent.
The study involved a national representative sample of 1005 adults aged 15+.
The study was part-funded by the European Union 6th Framework Food Quality and Safety Program as part of a five-year programme called ‘‘Diet, genomics, and the metabolic syndrome: an integrated nutrition, agro-food, social and economics analysis”.
It sought consumer habits in France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Poland and Portugal.
Source: Food PolicyVolume 34, pp 311-318
“Differences between older and younger Poles in functional food consumption, awareness of metabolic syndrome risk and perceived barriers to health improvement”
Authors: Lidia Wadołowska, Marzena Danowska-Oziewicz, Barbara Stewart-Knox, Maria Daniel Vaz de Almeida