Our research group has been the first to study the nutritional, immunological, and health status of Ecuadorian older people, who live in poor peri-urban neighbourhoods of Quito, a city on the Andean Region. The investigators carried out a preliminary study of 145 older people (age ≥65 years), which revealed inadequate intake of protein and multiple micronutrients as well as high prevalence of recalled infectious diseases assessed by physician or hospital visits [12 ]. To better define these findings, the investigators performed a larger and adequately powered cross-sectional study in Quito with 352 older people (225 women), whose results have been published in two articles.[1, 11 ] Substantial deficiencies (> 30% of subjects) of serum/blood concentrations were found for vitamins C (47%), folate (32%), and zinc (43%) [1]. More than 20% of subjects were also vitamins B6, and B12 deficient [1]. Severe vitamin D deficiency was found in <15% of subjects and moderate deficiency was found in 65% of males, and 87% of females [11]. Moreover, 30% of men and 40% of women were anaemic based on altitude-adjusted haemoglobin values [1, 13]. When dietary intake was assessed the percent of deficient subjects was even higher [11].