Influence of age on mastication: effects on eating behaviour

Abstract

The present review covers current knowledge about the ageing of oral physiology related to mastication and its effects on eating behaviour. Mastication is the first process undergone by a food during feeding. It has a key role in the maintenance of nutritional status in two respects. First, the perceptions of food's sensory properties elicited during chewing and swallowing are one of the major determinants of the pleasure which drives us to eat; second, the properties of the swallowed bolus are affected by oral conditions and this may modulate the subsequent phases of digestion. Ageing in healthy dentate subjects induces moderate changes in oral physiology. Changes in neuromuscular activity are partly compensated by changes in chewing behaviour. No clear age effect is seen in texture perception, although this does impact on food bolus properties. In contrast, great alterations in both chewing behaviour and food bolus properties are observed when ageing is associated with a compromised dentition, general health alterations and drug intake. Eating behaviour is far more complex than just chewing behaviour and the concerns of the elderly about food cannot be explained solely by oral physiology. Discrepancies are often noticed with older subjects between various objective measurements of oral performance and corresponding measures of self-perception. In addition, although more foods are recognised as hard to chew with increasing age, there is no clear shift in preference towards food that is easy to chew. Food choices and food consumption are also driven by memory, psychology and economic factors. Advances in the understanding of food choice in the elderly need a sustained collaborative research effort between sensory physiologists, nutritionists, and food scientists.

Object-oriented knowledge framework for modelling human mastication of foods

“…For a common food, the volume of saliva, also known as saliva addition rate, is determined by subtracting the initial weight of the food sample from that of the food bolus and saliva mixture (Gavião, Engelen, & van der Bilt, 2004). For some juicy foods, the lost juice during chewing should be considered (Mioche, Bourdiol, & Peyron, 2004). The different measurements of saliva are given in Fig.…”

“…Furthermore, the effects of more socio-economical parameters should be considered, such as employment status, occupation, income, marital status, number of children, etc. In addition, the object Appetite contains the slots (attributes) to describe subjective factors, such as food preference, satiety, hunger and anxiety (Bellisle, Lucas, Amrani, & Le Magnen, 1984;Bellisle et al, 1990;Mioche et al, 2004;Yeomans, 1998), can, respectively, influence the mastication. …”

“…The fruit includes fresh coconut, banana, apple (peeled and unpeeled, curls of peel, or apple puree), orange (Bourdiol & Mioche, 2000;Hennequin et al, 2005;Mioche et al, 1999). The meat includes beef, pork, sausage, chicken spread, blue squat lobster Hennequin et al, 2005;Mioche et al, 1999Mioche et al, , 2004Pérez-Won et al, 2006). Cheeses were also used, such as French Comté, Swiss Sbrinz, mild Gouda, aged Gouda, Canadian cheddar (FontijnTekamp, van der Bilt, Abbink, & Bosman, 2004;Gavião et al, 2004;Mioche et al, 1999), and 18 sorts of cheeses in (Agrawal et al, 1997).…”

“…But if the same food is chewed in different days, the day-to-day variability should be considered (Lassauzay et al, 2000). The recording of the mastication is carried out over the specified number of chewing cycles (Anderson et al, 2002;Fontijn-Tekamp et al, 2000;Prinz & Heath, 2000), or until the first safe swallow (Agrawal et al, 2000;Hennequin et al, 2005;Mioche et al, 2004;Peyron et al, 2004). Consequently, the object Session control contains three slots: Number of sessions, Day-to-day variability, and Recording termination.…”

Relação entre nutrição de idosos e dentição: Revisão de Literatura

“…Segundo Campos et al (2000), a intensidade das doenças bucais, o estado de conservação dos dentes e a prevalência de edentulismo são reflexos principalmente da condição de vida do idoso e do seu acesso inadequado às ações e serviços em saúde bucal, com forte componente social. Estudos de Locker & Slade e Strauss & Hunt (1993), observaram que os aspectos funcionais, sociais e psicológicos são significativamente afetados por uma condição bucal insatisfatória, corroborando com Nogués (1995), Mioche;Bourdiol;Peyron (2004). Especificamente no Brasil, dados do Ministério da Saúde (2004), mostram que cerca de 54,8% da população com idade entre 64 e 74 anos é totalmente desdentada, da qual 18,7% não faz uso de nenhuma prótese dentária (HUGO et al, 2007).…”