[Nutrition and dietary recommendations for the elderly "Public Health" Working Group of the Spanish Nutrition Society]. / Nutrición y recomendaciones dietéticas para personas mayores. Grupo de trabajo "Salud pública" de la Sociedad Española de Nutrición (SEN).

With the increase of life expectancy, the desire to maintain good health, functionality and maximum quality of life at advanced ages, for which nutrition plays a critical role, is a priority for the elderly. Though genetic factors are a determinant of life expectancy, there are several extrinsic factors which have a great influence on the quality of life of the elderly. Diet and nutritional status have a great influence, especially in the prevention and treatment of several diseases, which affect this heterogeneous and vulnerable age group. The nutritional status and needs of elderly people are associated with age-related biological, psychological and often socio-economic changes. All of these changes can increase the risk of developing a number of age-related diseases. In developed countries the elderly are the most affected by malnutrition, either because of a deficiency (energy and several nutrients) or an excess, leading to obesity and related diseases. This review highlights the most important factors affecting nutritional status in elderly people and focus on the need to maintain adequate physical activity level and an optimal physic, psychic and social functional capacity. It discusses dietary reference intakes and guidelines to improve and/or maintain adequate nutritional status in older people in order to reduce susceptibility to some illness and disease.

School meals in Catalonia: surveillance and quality control.

The Education Council of the Catalonian government drew up a programme to improve the quality control of school canteens in Catalonia. The objectives of this programme were to contribute to developing healthier eating habits in school children through school canteens and to improve school canteen services considering other aspects such as service, operation, management, end-users, frontline staff and supervisors of menu planning. This paper deals with two programme components aiming at introducing Nutrition in the school syllabus and school menu assessment. Various departments, organisations and associations were involved in programme development and implementation. Initial analysis was based on information collected from formal administrative reports completed by a survey on 100 primary schools. From this preliminary analysis it was concluded that problem identification needs to be completed by an understanding of underlying reasons in order to design adequate solutions and guarantee implementation.