The USDA makes recommendations concerning several food types. These recommendations are age and gender specific. The average male over 50 years old should be eating 2,000 calories including 2.5-3.5 cups of vegetables, 2-2.5 cups of fruits and 3 cups of dairy daily. The average female over 50 years old should eat 1,600 calories including 2-3 cups of vegetables, 1.5-2 cups of fruits and 3 cups of dairy daily. The recommendations were the same between the age matched genders with 2,300mg of sodium daily, 11% of the daily calories coming from saturated fats and 1,200-1,800 calories of added sugar daily.
The average daily nutrition servings for vegetables, fruit, grains, dairy, protein, added sugar, saturated fats, sodium, and the overall daily calories are compared to the recommended daily serving size for males and females. The statistical significance of the differences is calculated using a one-sample t-test & computed using SPSS.
When comparing to the recommended daily servings for men over the age of 50, all nutritional benchmarks were significantly different from the recommended daily servings, except for grains. Vegetables, fruit, and protein were significantly less than recommended & percentage of saturated fats and daily calories were significantly more.
When comparing to the recommended daily servings for women over the age of 50, all nutritional benchmarks were significantly different from the recommended except for fruit. Vegetables & protein were significantly less, while grains, percent of saturated fats, & daily calories were significantly more than the recommended daily servings. For combined recommendations, dairy and added sugar are significantly less and sodium is significantly more. All values are denoted in the table below.
Table 1.
Nutrition Goal
|
Average Daily Serving
|
Recommended Daily Serving
|
Statistical Significance
(p-value)
|
Mean Difference
|
Male
|
Female
|
Male
|
Female
|
Male
|
Female
|
Vegetables (cups)
|
1.58
|
2.5 – 3.5
|
2 – 3
|
<0.001
|
0.006
|
-0.92
|
-0.42
|
Fruit (cups)
|
1.26
|
2 – 2.5
|
1.5 – 2
|
<0.001
|
0.096
|
-0.74
|
-0.24
|
Grains (grams)
|
317.47
|
170 – 283
|
141 – 198
|
0.384
|
0.006
|
34.47
|
119.47
|
Protein (grams)
|
101.58
|
155 – 198
|
141 – 170
|
<0.001
|
<0.001
|
-53.42
|
-39.42
|
Saturated Fats (%)
|
30.33
|
10.8 – 11.2
|
11
|
<0.001
|
<0.001
|
19.13
|
19.53
|
Daily Calories
|
2527.92
|
2000
|
1600
|
<0.001
|
<0.001
|
527.92
|
927.92
|
Dairy (cups)
|
0.79
|
2.9 – 3.1
|
<0.001
|
-2.11
|
Added Sugar (kcal)
|
118.52
|
1200 – 1800
|
<0.001
|
-1081.48
|
Sodium (mg)
|
5308.20
|
2300
|
<0.001
|
3008.20
|
The following charts demonstrate the USDA recommendations and nutritional data from the 3 different nursing homes that we investigated. As demonstrated in Chart 1, on average the patients received 1.58 cups of vegetables with a standard deviation (SD) of 0.31 per day and had a statistical significance with a p value < 0.001 for males. Each day patients got 1.26 cups of fruit (SD of 0.08) which was statistically significant for men. With only 0.79 cups of dairy (SD of 0.26) this was statistically significantly low for both men and women.
There was only 474.08 mg of added sugar (SD of 137.88) in a day which is demonstrated in Chart 2 and was significantly different than recommendations with a p<0.001. Saturated fats made up 10.86% (SD of 0.01) of the daily calories. There were statistically significant differences between the average daily serving of saturated fats and the recommended (p < 0.001) when compared to both the male & female recommendations. The percentage of saturated fats served was about 19.5% higher for females & 19.1% higher for males.
Chart 3 shows there was 5,308mg of sodium (SD of 770.4) in a typical day which was about 3008 mg higher than the recommended serving and significantly significant with p < 0.001. This chart also demonstrates the average daily caloric serving of 2528 calories (SD of 437.32) which was significantly higher than recommendations (p < 0.001) for both males and females.