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Fall 2004 Our Guest EditorsTo show why it is crucial that older people “make every bite count” and to present the latest in the science and practice of nutrition to help them do so is the stated goal of the guest editors for this issue of Generations. Nationally recognized researchers who also have the human touch, they are perfectly qualified for the task. Nancy Wellman is a professor of dietetics and nutrition at Florida International University in Miami, where she directs the National Policy and Resource Center on Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Aging. Mary Ann Johnson is a professor of foods and nutrition and a member of the gerontology faculty at the University of Georgia in Athens. In this issue, they meld the perspectives of healthcare and social service for a much-needed holistic look at how healthy eating can postpone, prevent, or manage chronic disease, enhance function and independence, and improve the quality of later life. Throughout her career, Nancy Wellman has worked to further the science of nutrition and its application through her own work in aging research, nutrition screening, public policy, and advocacy, as well as consumer education and food labeling. Wellman holds a Ph.D. in education and a master of science degree from the Columbia University Institute of Nutrition. She is a member of a number of national scientific advisory committees. During Wellman's tenure as president of the American Dietetic Association, the nation's largest organization of food and nutrition professionals, she chose aging as her strategic focus. “The minimal attention to aging and nutrition in healthcare was a serious gap,” she says. Wellman was instrumental in launching the Nutrition Screening Initiative, a national coalition with nutrition, health, and aging organizations to fight malnutrition among older people, which she headed for fifteen years. “It has been rewarding to advocate for a multidisciplinary approach to reduce nutrition risk and promote healthier aging,” Wellman says. “Nutrition is an emerging science. The media are anxious to give us the latest information, even though each headlined study is just one piece of the puzzle. Advertising, another factor that may distract us from healthy eating, often plays on our desire for convenience and taste as it shapes our food preferences.” To educate the public, professionals, and policy makers, Wellman served as the ada's national media spokesperson for ten years, testifying before congressional and fda advisory committees and appearing regularly in the popular media. She currently serves on the board of the International Food Information Council Foundation. “I hope older people will make a personal commitment to eat healthier,” she says. “And I hope the aging network will help broaden access to food and nutrition services so that more older adults can enjoy healthier aging.” Mary Ann Johnson too has worked to bring the benefits of the science of nutrition to the lives of older people, particularly through teaching and laboratory and community-based research. She holds undergraduate and doctoral degrees in chemistry and nutritional sciences and has taught courses in nutrition, chronic diseases and aging, mineral nutrition, and contemporary issues in foods for more than twenty years. She was named the 1997 Teacher of the Year in her department. She is currently studying vitamins D and B12 because they are common and important nutritional deficiencies among elders. The work is particularly satisfying, she says, because the vitamins can be monitored in the blood relatively easily. “And so, we can study their effects and our findings have the potential of being transferred into practice quickly. For example, based on such research, a new report in August almost doubled the amount of vitamin D recommended for older people. And they could begin to benefit right away.” Johnson also headed a pioneering study in which provision of nutrition education programs at senior centers was combined with evaluation of physiological outcomes among the participants, using blood tests and other measures. “But even though we have made a lot of progress in the past few years in what know about nutrition and health in later life, it still seems that the field has a way to go before being completely accepted,” she says. “Today, even many healthcare professionals don't realize the power of nutrition. Because food is so familiar, people take it for granted. We need to do a better job of communicating how important good nutrition is for health and function -- and not least among older people. My students come in thinking that once you are age 50, it doesn't matter what you eat. Nothing could be farther from the truth.”- Mary Johnson
From Generations Fall 2004 issue, 28(3): 4. © 2004 American Society on Aging
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