With the improvement of health care and living standards, life expectancy has increased. The new health goal for the elderly is to prevent or reduce disability with emphasis on living as independently as possible. Nutrition Science plays a major role in this complex area.
The Third in the series of the European Congress on Nutrition and Health in the Elderly People was held in Madrid, 23-25 November, 2000. Its main objective was to provide a forum for expert nutritionists all over the world interested in health and nutrition of the elderly. About 12 years ago Europe had been considered by the Euronut-SENECA study as a great laboratory where the association of different European food cultures and lifestyles to different morbidity and mortality patterns could be observed and analyzed. This study was the starting point of these meetings.
The program gave the opportunity for plenary sessions overviewing issues such us: body composition; energy balance and physical performance; intake, status and recommendations of micronutrients; appetite, thirst and taste; nutrition and mental performance; nutrition and lifestyle predictors of survival, and the revision and update of the SENECA study remarking priorities for research in Europe.
The key conferences gave experts the chance to put forward hypothesis and to provoke very stimulating discussions. Oral communications and posters indicated the high interest in this field and where research was going on.
These Proceedings contain the expression of all this work. But also, in all of us, it remains the friendly memories of those days and the feeling of a very gratifying meeting organization which, we are sure, has been on step more for the better knowledge of how to achieve that, at the same age, we are younger and, so, more alive, with more future.