The prevalence of overweight and obesity generally increases with advancing age, and then starts to decline among people over 60.

Adults to elders that are at a healthy weight, are less than half of the US adults with a weight (BMI>18.5 to <25) [9]

• All adults and elders (20-74 years old): 67.3million (33.5 percent)
• Women (20-74 years old): 36.7 million (35.3 percent)

• Men (20-74 years old): 30.6 million (31.8 percent). (“Statistics”)

The American Society for Nutritional Sciences did a study on the elder Hispanics that were living in Massachusetts to identify their dietary patterns and compare them to those of non-Hispanic whites. The association of dietary patterns and obesity, particularly in Hispanics, is relatively poorly understood.

The large U.S. population has a high prevalence of obesity and associated chronic conditions, and Hispanics are changing their dietary practices as they acculturate. The acculturation was assessed by evaluating language use. The studies showed that Hispanics were less likely to follow the fruit and cereal diet or sweets patterns, and more likely to follow the starchy vegetables or milk patterns, than non-Hispanic whites. Also, only Hispanics followed the rice pattern.(“Statistics”)

The studies proved that elderly Hispanics living in Massachusetts have a higher prevalence of obesity, diabetes, systolic hypertension and physical disability than a neighborhood-based sample of non-Hispanic white elders.