In May of this year, the Alliance For Aging Research conducted our annual survey on Baby Boomers. This year, with the help from Quaker Oats, we focused our attention on Baby Boomer attitudes toward aging and nutrition.

We found some really interesting results! The survey, "A New Age of Aging - A Study of Baby Boomer Behaviors on Growing Older," shows that while they express anxiety about aging, America's 75 million Baby Boomers as a group are only taking baby steps to good health. The survey uncovered a disconnect between the knowledge Baby Boomers have about responsible nutrition and the actions they actually take towards good health. Half of them confess they aren't eating as well as they should. Overall, we found one similar characteristic with respect to aging and nutrition: FRUSTRATION!

Previous research has indicated that Boomers feel youth is slipping away and, increasingly, are receptive to anything that makes them feel younger -- whether it's vitamins or vacations. But in the midst of trying to find the silver bullet, Boomers are becoming downright annoyed with having to deal with managing their own health.

We asked Boomers the following question: If you had the choice of eating whatever you wanted and living only 10 more years or going on a strict diet and living as long as you'd like, which would you choose?

A startling 43 percent of Boomers claim they would rather eat what they want and live just 10 more years, suggesting a level of frustration when it comes to managing their own health. This statistic is even more remarkable when you consider that the average age of the Boomers surveyed was 46 years old. Are we to believe that nearly half of those surveyed would be content living to only 56, 20 years less than their average life expectancy, just to be able to eat a hot-fudge sundae and not feel guilty?

Basically, no. What does this question reveal? In one word, defeat. The Boomers are filled with denial about getting older and overwhelmed with anxiety about the inability to properly translate nutrition information to benefit their own personal health. Therefore out of diet rage, they are choosing to hoist the white flag and dive headfirst into a plate full of Alfredo crème sauce. Unfortunately for many Boomers, they are about to have a close encounter of the most serious kind with diseases associated with aging. Mentally and physically, they're not ready.

Nutrition and diet choices can make a significant difference in quieting some of those fears, and Boomers appear to understand that. Fifty-four percent of them, significantly higher than the 40 percent of Matures, agree that their generation has more health-related information available than their parents' generation did. However, not all of this information is helpful to the boomer generation. In all likelihood, the frustration that they feel about their own health is caused by the conflicting reports they often receive on health issues, and their inability to sift through what is just the next new craze or fad in dieting, and what is a nutritionally sound dietary plan.

This eventually leads to a lack of confidence and then a lack of commitment to a good nutritious diet. Fifty-one percent of Boomers who have made dietary changes in the past year admit: "I realize that I should be eating healthier food, but I'm not." Why? Of all those not doing enough, seventeen percent concede they're not disciplined enough while 12 percent say they don't have time to eat healthfully.

This means that the fear of contracting some type of debilitating disease is one of the only factors for the motivation to eat healthy. The survey suggests that science needs to provide more effective health management tools regarding behavioral changes and healthier lifestyles. Dietary changes prove extremely difficult for the Boomers; therefore introducing easier, simpler ways to alter their diet is necessary.

Boomers are making modest changes in their eating and lifestyle habits -- but are they making these changes for the right reasons or is the need to loose 10 pounds cosmetic? Boomers are worried about getting older, but what worries them most? Disease? Loss of hearing or sight? Nope. Gray hair and wrinkles were cited as the most frightening factors of getting older.

According to the survey, 89 percent of Boomers say they've done something to fight getting older and 86 percent say they've made dietary changes in the past year. But given the incidence of obesity, high blood pressure and other health-related problems among Boomers, this generation knows that they should be doing more. The Boomer generation's credo seems to be: The heart is willing, but the flesh is weak. Click here to take the survey or to see more results!