Nutritional evaluation in the male and female participants of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA) has been carried out by periodic collection and analysis of 7-day dietary diaries and by measurement of vitamin levels in plasma. The diary technique has provided data over a 30 year period in men and a 10 year period in women. The ages of the participants range from 20 to 95 years. Since the BLSA is a multi- disciplinary study it is possible to carry out correlations between nutritional intakes and levels and other potentially related variables and outcomes. Conclusions - Many analytical studies are currently in progress. Some of the results of recent analyses are presented here. It is of interest that a high percentage of this middle to upper-middle class highly educated population take nutritional supplements, but those who do have less need for them than those who do not; that is, the quality of the diet intake is better in those who take supplements. Among the B vitamins that have been proposed as being potentially related to cognitive decline, B6 intake is the poorest in this population, followed by folacin, with B12 being the least deficient. Cognitive function decline in this analysis was evaluated from repeated administration of the Benton Visual Retention Test. Decline was significantly related only to relatively low total caloric and riboflavin intake. Anti-oxidant vitamins (alpha-tocopherol and retinol) were examined with respect to development of nuclear and cortical cataracts as determined by modern photographic methods. Since knowledge of the presence of a cataract could lead to a change in vitamin intake, vitamins status was determined at least 2 years prior to the photography. Plasma alpha- tocopherol level was significantly related to the presence of nuclear cataract while plasma retinol level was related to cortical cataract. Plasma ascorbic acid level was significantly related to the high density cholesterol (HDL) level as well as to the HDL-2 level. Supplementary C intake led to higher plasma levels only up to a threshold of 250-300 mg intake per day. Above this intake no further increase in plasma level occurred.
