Sweet and sour discrimination abilities of elderly people compared to those of young adults in apple purée

The number of elderly people is growing in Europe. A decrease in gustatory capacities (detection, identification, discrimination) is associated with aging. In the literature, discrimination abilities have been studied mainly in aqueous model solutions, but less is known about sensitivity in real food matrices. Moreover, in foods, taste interactions can occur and modify perceptions (masking effect). This study aimed to compare the discrimination abilities of elderly people and younger adults when tasting apple purées and hypothesized that: discrimination abilities are lower in a group of elderly people (H1) and that taste interactions can modify discrimination performances (H2). A total of 105 young adults (18–40 years-old) and 130 elderly people (65+ years-old) were recruited in France and Poland. Their discrimination abilities were measured for sweet and sour tastes in apple purées. Pairs of apple purées with different sugar/acid concentrations were presented to participants and they were asked to indicate the sweetest/sourest sample. The results showed that the performances of the elderly people group were as good as those of the young adults group for sweetness (chi2 = 0.036, p = 0.850) and sourness (chi2 = 0.271, p = 0.603) discrimination. For both groups, a difference of 10 g/kg of sucrose or 0.25 g/kg of malic acid was enough to discriminate two samples (p < 0.001). In our experimental conditions, no significant masking effect was found. These results could help food industries to develop new fruit-based foods that match the sensory perceptions of elderly people

Perception of Difficulties Encountered in Eating Process from European Elderlies' Perspective

To maintain wellbeing, independence and nourishment of elderly population, one promising strategy is to provide home care by delivering food using “meals on wheels” (MoW) system. Even when the food is home-delivered, the difficulties encountered by elderlies during the overall eating process can be a limiting factor. Hence, the objective of this self-reported study was to explore the difficulty perception in the entire eating process from opening up the package, reheating, hand manipulation and oral processing of the food to bolus swallowing in 405 elderly consumers from five European countries (Finland, France, Poland, Spain and United Kingdom) with three different levels of dependency (category 1: participants living at home with help needed for food purchasing; category 2: participants living at home who need help for meal preparation or meal delivery; category 3: participants living in nursing homes/sheltered accommodation). Frequencies of responses and cross tabulation test were calculated for the difficulties perceived. Results show that the most difficult package to open was the cap irrespective of country or dependency levels (at P < 0.05). Although, glass was the most preferred packaging material, category (P = 0.034) and country (P = 0.001) had significant influence. Self-feeding dependency was correlated with the eating difficulties perceived, category 1 participants did not perceive difficulties in the meal preparation and reported minimal difficulties in the hand manipulation and oral processing (<30%), whilst the difficulties perceived by categories 2 and 3 were significantly higher (∼60% of participants). The insights generated might be helpful for designing efficient MoW systems with appropriate user-friendly features

Fruit and vegetables liking among European elderly according to food preferences, attitudes towards food and dependency

As the population ages and dependency for food-related activities increases, it becomes crucial to better understand food expectations of elderly consumers. Fruit and vegetables (F&V) are generally appreciated by elderly people. However, few studies have investigated elderly peoples’ F&V liking, taking into account their dependency and countries’ specificities. The present study aims to identify the liking of F&V, eating styles and food selectivity depending on the country of residence and levels of dependency. A European survey was conducted with 420 elderly people delegating meal-related activities, living at home or in nursing homes. Based on general food preferences, three eating styles were identified. Results showed that F&V liking is a segmenting variable. Elderly people from the style 1 (n = 145) do not really appreciate fruits nor desserts. On the contrary, elderly people from style 2 (n = 121) are really fruit lovers. Finally, elderly people from style 3 (n = 126) liked desserts, fruits, and even more vegetables. Results showed that elderly people were nor selective towards F&V, even if there were some exceptions as exotic fruits (disliked by 19%) and fennel (disliked by 33%). Fruit and vegetables selectivity was significantly different between countries (p 0.05 in both cases). Selectivity for F&V was very variable and could reach 32 vegetables among 42 and 28 fruits among 34. The most selective participants were from Finland and the least ones, from the UK. These results can be used to design and/or adapt F&V-based products according to elderly consumers’ liking, taking into account their country of origin and their dependency

In vitro gastrointestinal digestion of pea protein isolate as a function of pH, food matrices, autoclaving, high-pressure and re-heat treatments

This study investigated the influence of pH and processing conditions (autoclave at 93 °C/13 min or high pressure processing (HPP) at 600 MPa/5 min without/with follow-up reheating at 80 °C/30 min) on the digestibility of pea protein isolate. Both aqueous solutions and real food matrices (apple and carrot purees) containing pea protein was examined at 37 °C. In vitro gastrointestinal digestion was followed using sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, titrimetric techniques and theoretical calculations. Pea protein with HPP followed by re-heating showed the highest rate of proteolysis in gastric conditions. In case of sequential intestinal digestion of the gastric chyme, pea protein at pH 6.2 demonstrated higher degree and rate of digestibility as compared to that at pH 3.6, the latter being close to the isoelectric point of pea protein. However, autoclave treatments overshadowed such pH effects. Processing-induced enhancement in digestibility might be attributed to the unfolding of the globular pea protein subunits. Pea protein in the carrot puree was more digestible than in the apple puree, due to apple procyanidins binding to pea protein. These new findings might have important implications in designing the process parameters and selection of appropriate food matrices for delivering pea protein

Which Internal Medicine Clerkship Characteristics Are Associated With Students\u27 Performance on the NBME Medicine Subject Exam? A Multi-Institutional Analysis.

PURPOSE: To identify which internal medicine clerkship characteristics may relate to NBME Medicine Subject Examination scores, given the growing trend toward earlier clerkship start dates. METHOD: The authors used linear mixed effects models (univariable and multivariable) to determine associations between medicine exam performance and clerkship characteristics (longitudinal status, clerkship length, academic start month, ambulatory clinical experience, presence of a study day, involvement in a combined clerkship, preclinical curriculum type, medicine exam timing). Additional covariates included number of NBME clinical subject exams used, number of didactic hours, use of a criterion score for passing the medicine exam, whether medicine exam performance was used to designate clerkship honors, and United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 performance. The sample included 24,542 examinees from 62 medical schools spanning 3 academic years (2011-2014). RESULTS: The multivariable analysis found no significant association between clerkship length and medicine exam performance (all pairwise P \u3e .05). However, a small number of examinees beginning their academic term in January scored marginally lower than those starting in July (P \u3c .001). Conversely, examinees scored higher on the medicine exam later in the academic year (all pairwise P \u3c .001). Examinees from schools that used a criterion score for passing the medicine exam also scored higher than those at schools that did not (P \u3c .05). Step 1 performance remained positively associated with medicine exam performance even after controlling for all other variables in the model (P \u3c .001). CONCLUSIONS: In this sample, the authors found no association between many clerkship variables and medicine exam performance. Instead, Step 1 performance was the most powerful predictor of medicine exam performance. These findings suggest that medicine exam performance reflects the overall medical knowledge students accrue during their education rather than any specific internal medicine clerkship characteristics