Why do some older people eat less even when they're hungry?
Appetite, food intake, and plasma concentrations of cholecystokinin, ghrelin, and other gastrointestinal hormones in undernourished older women and well-nourished young and older women.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Undernourished older women had higher ghrelin levels than both young and well-nourished older women, yet reported lower basal hunger and ate less.
Common belief: low ghrelin = less hunger. This shows high ghrelin can coexist with low hunger—meaning the brain isn’t responding to the signal.
Practical Takeaways
If caring for an older adult who eats little, don’t assume they’re full—try making meals more appealing, social, or habitual rather than relying on snacks to reduce appetite.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Undernourished older women had higher ghrelin levels than both young and well-nourished older women, yet reported lower basal hunger and ate less.
Common belief: low ghrelin = less hunger. This shows high ghrelin can coexist with low hunger—meaning the brain isn’t responding to the signal.
Practical Takeaways
If caring for an older adult who eats little, don’t assume they’re full—try making meals more appealing, social, or habitual rather than relying on snacks to reduce appetite.
Publication
Journal
The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism
Year
2003
Authors
Kerstin Sturm, C. MacIntosh, B. Parker, J. Wishart, M. Horowitz, I. Chapman
Related Content
Claims (6)
When people eat a small snack before lunch, most people eat less at lunch—but undernourished older adults don’t cut back, even when they’ve already eaten something.
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.
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.
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.
Masticatory activity triggers the release of cholecystokinin and suppresses ghrelin, reducing subjective hunger independent of nutrient intake.