This study was undertaken to identify nutrition interventions that could provide a basis for designing effective and measurable nutrition education programs for older adults. The authors conducted a literature search of articles published from 1990-2003 using Medline and Agricola. Key words were "elderly," "older adults," "nutrition intervention," and "nutrition education." Of 128 references identified, 25 studies included intervention and/or evaluation components and targeted adults over age 55 years. Although interventions tended to report limited success in behavior change, certain features had positive outcomes. These included limiting educational messages to one or two; reinforcing and personalizing messages; providing hands-on activities, incentives, cues, and access to health professionals; and using appropriate theories of behavior change. Based on these findings, a theoretical framework that includes these features but is set within a social and environmental context is proposed as a guideline for designing nutrition interventions for older adults.