Healthy ageing has become a major focus in Asia, as many countries in the region experiencing rapidly ageing populations such as Japan, Singapore and China.
By 2050, one in four people in the Asia Pacific region is expected to be above 60 years old, with about one-third of Japan’s and around half of Singapore’s populations aged over 65.
Asia also has one of the most diverse demographic landscapes in the world, so industry players have many factors to take into consideration when it comes to innovation, new product development and research focus areas.
This was the focus of an expert panel that convened at our recent Growth Asia Summit 2025 in Singapore, comprising Temasek Operating Partner Ralph Graichen, Global Centre for Asian Women’s Health Senior Professor Professor Jeyakumar Henry, consultancy firm Bibliosexual Founder Dave McCaughan, Blackmores Head of Product Development (BioCeuticals) Madeleine Ong, and dsm-firmenich Associate Director of Global Marketing for Healthy Longevity Endrigo Ramos.
We bring you three of the key learnings that emerged from this session:
1) It is never too early – or too late – to start better nutrition
A common dilemma when it comes to healthy ageing is ‘when is best’ to start changing diets or taking supplements to be nutritionally prepared for this stage – and the answer is always ‘now’, according to the panel.
“The truth is that it is never too early to start thinking about good nutrition because healthy ageing is taking place throughout the life cycle, and even if your genes are fixed there are also epigenetics to consider which can affect ageing, disease and other processes,” Ong told the floor.
“It is also never too late to consider making any positive changes, as epigenetics are responsive to environmental changes and can be changed for the better.”
Epigenetics refer to factors that can turn genes ‘on’ or ‘off’ depending on external environment and behaviour, essentially changing characteristics without affecting the underlying DNA.
Prof Henry also highlighted that consumers need to really understand the difference between healthier ageing and longevity.
“There is a paradox to be seen here because scientifically the best way to increase longevity is actually to eat less and restrict calories, but at the same time eating less in either younger or elderly consumers will very likely lead to malnourishment,” he explained.
“So there is an oxymoron here that consumers can find hard to grasp, and the food and nutrition industry needs to resolve this conundrum and demonstrate how consumers can cut calories, but not cut nutrients so that they are still well-nourished.”
Low-calorie foods tend to be low in nutrients, whereas nutrient-dense foods are often high in calories, so if food and nutrition firms can find a mass market solution to this issue, healthy ageing would be within reach for all.
2) Consumers want holistic solutions and fast results
While there are many nutrition products on the market today that are marketed based on healthy ageing, most of these are targeted at specific issues or organs only and are missing an overall picture, Ramos added.
“Many of these solutions are single-ingredient products, and some of these can be very ‘sexy’ ingredients that promise big results, [but on the whole] it is hard to work in isolation because the whole body and the whole system is interconnected,” he said.
“There is a need to bring together the different areas for innovation, perhaps take a deeper look at cellular health, to find a clearer way forward and more all-in-one solutions.”
Ong added that single-ingredient solutions can appeal to consumers with a higher level of understanding about the ageing process and what they need, but would not necessarily resonate with the average consumer.
“The point of developing single-ingredients is to be able to get a certain synergy when these are combined – but the caveat is that the user must be able to use them in a way that produces this synergy to get the benefits,” she said.
In terms of food as a solution for healthy ageing, ‘food as medicine’ has attracted a lot of attention as a potential consistent, accessible way of helping consumers – but as yet, too much is still unknown about this area.
“The definition of ‘food is medicine’ is still very vague, even though it would be a good holistic solution that would reach many consumers,” Graichen added.
“But the fact of the matter is that right now solutions are not holistic, and in this day and age consumers want fast, visible results where the impact on their bodies can be seen immediately, otherwise they lose interest fast – so food as a solution may not be impactful enough.”
Social context: Healthy ageing’s biggest missing link
Healthy ageing may be a buzzword in Asia when it comes to food and nutritional product development, but to truly meet the needs of local populations, it is imperative to also prioritise both science-backed solutions and social science insights.
“Data out of Harvard University has already shown that healthy ageing does not only refer to a consumer’s quality of life or the food they have access to, but also the social context and connections they have,” Prof Henry said.
“This is something that is still very much missing in Asia despite the many studies and research that has gone into this topic, as in this region we see that a senior may have many friends online but very few they meet offline so they are missing that close contact.”
So while it is undoubtedly important to develop foods that seniors can swallow better or are well-flavoured enough to whet their appetites, creating products and occasions that help to improve their social connection and their emotional states are also crucial to achieving healthy ageing.
“We talk about healthy ageing as being important to senior consumers, but this is not so – there are massive impacts on entire populations because of the economics involved, where people will be working longer into their life,” McCaughan said.
“There is actually a lot of opportunity here but the truth is that nothing much is being done about it – older people are not being hired in businesses even at a junior level, and it is the companies that are missing out on taking advantage of this ‘silver tsunami’ when they have lots of experience and knowhow to share.”
