The Healthy Aged
SIR,—A recent investigation among elderly people in institutions appears to show that much of the mental and physical deterioration we associate with old age is due to poor diet, in particular to lack of vitamin C and the vitamin B group.
This may explain why our association of compost- using amateur gardeners has so many mentally alert and vigorous over-nineties growing their own veget- ables and eating wholemeal bread, often home-baked. We are beginning an investigation of the healthy aged and appeal to readers of eighty-five and over who have had this kind of diet for over ten years to write to us with full details for study by our doctor members. We wish to compare enough cases to be statistically significant with the comprehensive study that has already been made of old people on cheap, high carbohydrate, institutional diets.
Extending the life span with the expensive marvels of medicine is merely a burden without the health and mental fitness to enjoy the added years. We therefore hope that the ageing pioneers of now widely accepted dietary reforms will help our attempt to improve the health of others less fortunate. It might even be cheaper for our institutions to spend less on drugs and more on better food.
Bocking, Braintree, Essex
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