That depends completely on how you define the needs of elderly men. As men and women get older their ability to absorb nutrients, vitamins and minerals including iron decreases greatly. This is one of the primary causes of medical problems for elderly people.
This study is brought to us via a publication which calls itself “Nature Communications”. If that does not have the sound of a leftist advocacy group. I don't know what does. Iron deficiency anaemia is extremely common in older age, particularly after the age of 80.
You can simply do a test and compare how much of a nutrient each age group has stored.
With age, iron stores increase, and vitamin A stores increase.
...and the reason we have issues absorbing nutrients as we age is because stomach acid drops drastically. In fact, there’s no such thing as ‘high’ stomach acid; all symptoms that cause antacid consumption are caused by LOW stomach acid.
We don’t break down our food when acid is low and therefore nutrients are not absorbed.