Basic Dietary Recommendations

The National Institute on Aging recommends that an older person s daily diet include the minimum number of servings outlined in the following table. Sugar, salt, and fats should be used sparingly alcohol should be consumed only in moderation, defined as one drink a day for women and two for men (see Gardner, 1982 Weiss, 1997). 

At least five servings Whole grains, breads, and cereals brown rice, kasha, millet, and other grains dried beans, peas, lentils, and other legumes potatoes, pasta, and other starchy foods 

At least five servings Fresh vegetables and fruits, including dark green leafy vegetables, such as broccoli, cabbage, kale, and spinach yellow vegetables, such as carrots and squash citrus fruits, berries, tomatoes, bananas, and other fruits 

At least two servings Lean beef, lamb, chicken and other poultry fish and other seafood eggs, tofu, and a combination of grains and legumes 

At least two servings Low-fat milk, cheese, yogurt, and other milk products (Choose lactose-reduced milk and yogurt if one has trouble digesting regular milk) 

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RDA have been established for many essential nutrients however, present knowledge of human nutritional needs of pantothenic acid and biotin is incomplete. Therefore, to ensure adequate nutrient intake, obtain the recommended allowances from as varied a selection of foods as possible. Nutritionists suggest that dietary planning include regular intake of each of the four basic food groups ... 

The basic function of vitamin C is the prevention of scurvy. The current recommended dietary allowance of the Food and Nutrition Board of the United States National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, 45 mg/ day for an adult, is adequate to prevent scurvy in essentially all normal persons. The question of whether or not a larger intake could lead to better health and a greater control of disease was raised almost as soon as the pure compound became freely available, and the debate continues. 

Vitamins function in two basic ways, either as a nutrient or vitamin or as a chemical (Herbert, 1980). When the function is known, fat-soluble vitamins function as regulators of specific metabolic activity, and the water-soluble vitamins function as coenzymes. Although rather exact roles for some of the vitamins in the chain of metabolic events are understood, it is safe to say that the complete function of any one of the vitamins in the body is unknown. What we do know about specific coenzyme functions is that the encouragement of doses of at least tenfold above the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) serves no nutritional function (Herbert, 1977). Vitamins enter the body as a component of food, travel to the tissues/cells that need them, are taken into the cells, and converted into a coenzyme form. In some cases the vitamin enters the cell as the coenzyme form already. A protein within the cell, called apoenzyme, combines with the vitamin coenzyme to form a holoenzyme. The holoenzyme or enzyme then serves the vitamin function of catalyzing certain specific metabolic-biochemical reactions. It appears that only when combined with its apoenzyme within the cell can a vitamin function as a vitamin. Since the quantity of protein, as well as the quantity of apoenzyme, any cell can make per unit time is limited (Schimke and Doyle,... 

The basic recommendations on dietary nutrition, directed to reduction of the risk of oncological diseases and their treatment, consist in the following ... 

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