Older Adults' Awareness and Knowledge of Beans in Relation to Their Nutrient Content and Role in Chronic Disease Risk.

Doma Doma,Duncan Duncan,Farrell Farrell,Leith-Bailey Leith-Bailey,Soucier Soucier

doi:10.3390/nu11112680

Abstract

Awareness and knowledge of nutrient-dense foods are important for older adults to help them make dietary choices that support a food-first approach to healthy aging. This is especially important since age is a major risk factor for chronic disease and the proportion of older adults in North America is increasing. Beans can contribute to a food-first approach to healthy aging as they are nutrient-dense and can reduce the risk of chronic diseases. However, studies exploring awareness and knowledge of beans in older adults are lacking. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore older adults’ awareness of beans in relation to their nutrient content and role in chronic disease risk. Community-dwelling older adults (≥65 years old) were recruited and completed a validated researcher-administered questionnaire (n = 250), which was followed by 10 focus groups (n = 49). Results showed that the majority of older adults considered beans as a healthy food and thought consuming them could improve their health (99.2% and 98.0%, respectively); however, only 51.2% were bean consumers. While the majority (83.6%) of older adults were aware that a serving of beans is high in dietary fibre, bean consumers were significantly more likely to think that consuming beans could improve health areas related to dietary fibre including body weight management and constipation. Furthermore, most (84.8%) older adults thought consuming beans could improve heart health; however, bean consumers were significantly more likely to be aware that one serving of beans is low in nutrients relevant to heart health including total fat, saturated and trans fat as well as cholesterol. This research can help to inform healthcare professionals and public health agencies to create specific dietary strategies focusing on increasing older adults’ awareness and knowledge of beans in relation to their nutrient profile and role in promoting health.

Highlights

Awareness and knowledge of the nutrients that healthful foods provide and their potential to promote health can contribute to their increased consumption [1]
Prevalence of bean consumption was 51.2% with 128 older adults categorized as bean consumers and 122 older adults categorized as bean non-consumers
Beans are a nutrient-dense food that help reduce chronic disease risk; research regarding awareness of the nutrient content of beans and the role beans play in health and disease is lacking

Summary

Introduction

Awareness and knowledge of the nutrients that healthful foods provide and their potential to promote health can contribute to their increased consumption [1] This is important for older adults since the need for a nutrient-dense diet is enhanced by age-related declines in nutrient intake and absorption due to several factors. While most micronutrient requirements remain constant or increase with age, energy requirements decrease [3,4], requiring less food intake which may result in less nutrient intake. These factors could contribute to the 34%. Awareness and knowledge of nutrient-dense foods and their potential for health promotion and disease risk reduction can benefit older adults by better equipping them with dietary strategies to optimize healthy aging

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