Older people don’t feel hungry after eating because their body doesn’t release the right hunger hormone the way younger people do.

Scientific Claim

In older adults over 75 years of age, postprandial ghrelin suppression is absent and ghrelin levels fail to recover after a meal, compared to younger adults aged 25–65, which may be linked to altered hunger signaling.

Original Statement

“Frail persons showed no postprandial ghrelin suppression, and old subjects, frail and nonfrail, showed no significant postprandial ghrelin recovery compared with young adults.”

From study:Effect of age and frailty on ghrelin and cholecystokinin responses to a meal test.

Evidence Quality Assessment

Claim Status

overstated

Study Design Support

Design cannot support claim

Appropriate Language Strength

association

Can only show association/correlation

Assessment Explanation

The abstract describes observed patterns but does not establish causation. The claim implies a biological mechanism without experimental control. Verb strength must be conservative.

More Accurate Statement

“In older adults over 75 years of age, postprandial ghrelin suppression is absent and ghrelin levels fail to recover after a meal, compared to younger adults aged 25–65, which is associated with altered hunger signaling.”

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

Effect of age and frailty on ghrelin and cholecystokinin responses to a meal test.

Cross-Sectional Study

Human

2009 May

In older people over 75, their stomach hormone that tells them they’re hungry (ghrelin) doesn’t drop after eating and doesn’t bounce back afterward, unlike in younger people—so they might not feel hungry even when they should.

Contradicting (0)

No contradicting evidence found

Source Study

Effect of age and frailty on ghrelin and cholecystokinin responses to a meal test.

Score: 32

DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.2008.27076

Similar Assertions

Even though undernourished older women have more of the hunger hormone in their blood, they still don’t eat more—so high hunger signals don’t always make people eat.

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Frail older people have less of the hunger hormone in their blood even before they eat, which might make them less interested in food.

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Older women who aren't eating enough feel less hungry than younger women, even though their bodies are making more of the hunger hormone, which might explain why they eat less as they age.

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Even though hunger and fullness hormones are different in older women, those differences don’t match up with who eats less—so the problem probably isn’t the hormones themselves.

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