Nourishing Aging: Nutrition Interventions and the Future of Older Adult Health

Why It Matters

Improving nutrition for older adults can preserve muscle mass and function, reduce hospitalizations and lower health-care spending; scaling evidence-based food-as-medicine programs and targeted research could yield large public-health and fiscal benefits.

Summary

At a Food & Society/Aspen Institute and NASAP forum, experts emphasized that targeted nutrition interventions—especially increasing protein intake and addressing dehydration, oral health, polypharmacy and mobility barriers—are critical to preventing malnutrition and sarcopenia among older adults. Panelists highlighted evidence-based tools such as medically tailored meals, produce prescriptions and nutrition counseling, while warning that physiological aging (e.g., reduced B12 absorption) changes nutritional needs even for those consuming otherwise healthy diets. Speakers called for wider implementation of proven programs and stronger, integrated research—citing NIH’s elevation of nutrition research—as essential to tailoring interventions and filling knowledge gaps. The discussion framed nutrition as health care, not just social support, with implications for independence, hospitalization risk and system costs.

Original Description

As Americans age, nutrition becomes one of the most important—and often overlooked—drivers of health, independence, functional ability, and quality of life. Older adults face unique nutritional challenges shaped by chronic disease, social isolation, mobility limitations, medication interactions, fixed incomes, and barriers to food access. Addressing these challenges requires more than emergency food support alone; it requires coordinated nutrition interventions that support healthy aging across health care and community settings.

In recognition of Older Americans Month, Food & Society at the Aspen Institute and the National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs convened this timely discussion featuring panelists: Robert Blancato, Executive Director, NANASP; Kathleen Graim, Chief Program Officer, Feedmore NY; and Patrick Stover, Professor of Biomedical Sciences, and Director of the Institute for Connecting Nutrition and Health (ICON-Health) at Florida State University. Moderated by Corby Kummer, executive director of Food & Society. Recorded live on May 29, 2026.