However, from maturity up to 60 years of age, the
diet is altered by the conditions already mentioned, namely weight,
size, sex, climate, and work or exercise. At the age of 60, the amount
of food required begins to decrease, for as a person grows older, the
body and all of its organs become less active. Then, too, there is a
reduced amount of physical exercise, which correspondingly reduces the
necessity for food. At this time, an oversupply of food merely serves to
overwork the organs, which being scarcely able to handle the normal
quantity of food certainly keep in better condition if the amount of
work they are called upon to do is decreased rather than increased.
It has been estimated that persons 60 years of age require 10 per cent.
less food than they formerly did; those 70 years old, 20 per cent. less;
and those 80 years old, 30 per cent. less. Usually the appetite
regulates this decrease in food, for the less active a person is, the
less likely is the appetite to be stimulated. However, the fact that
there is also a great difference in persons must not be lost sight of.
Some men and women at 70 years of age are as young and just as active as
others at 50 years.
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