Does appetite really diminish as we grow older?

I am finding that as I get older I seem to enjoy different foods . In the past I always enjoyed sweet food more than savoury, but now I would rather eat something savoury than something sweet. It was the same with fruit and veg, I used to enjoy fruit and I was not keen on veg, but now I would rather have vegetables than fruit because I do not think that fruit tastes like it used to. Oranges were my favourite but they do not seem to taste as good as they used to. Other people who I speak to have mentioned this too.

I actually do believe it does. I still very much enjoy food, but I am content to eat less of it now than I ever was. It used to be, if I went to a buffet, for example, I'd eat so much food I wanted to burst. Now I am content to just get full with what I want and that's that. When I cook dinner, we also eat less of what we would have eaten in the past.

I believe it is true that I must gradually reduce my intake of certain foods, and there are times when the food I despised as a child has come to taste better now that I am older. I believe it is true that appetites change over time. Sometimes we do not notice the change because it happens slowly and gradually.

I have heard many older folks, including my parents, say that they don't really too much anymore. Maybe older bodies don't use as much energy as in their youth . . . so they don't require so much food intake? I don't know. For myself, I do think I eat a little less than before. I used to be able to "stuff myself", but I don't even care to do that anymore.

YES! Absolutely, I do not even eat the half of what I used to eat 30 years ago.

With my personal experience, I do feel that all the factors that you mentioned like age, health, mood and definitely season plays an important role. My appetite has reduced a lot in the last one year, after I turned 45.