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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. So

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Speaker 1: today we are going to talk about protein intake because

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Speaker 1: I've just done a series on anti aging and I've

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Speaker 1: mentioned before that I think that the recommended guidelines, particularly

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Speaker 1: for older adults, are suboptimal, and there was a study

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Speaker 1: that was recently published that set out to determine just that,

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Speaker 1: and so let's dive into the details of the study.

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Speaker 1: It was a twelve week randomized control trial in older

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Speaker 1: adults and their average age was around sixty years old. Now,

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Speaker 1: they all had type two diabetes and signs of sarcopamia,

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Speaker 1: which is that loss of muscle mass and strength and

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Speaker 1: bone that is associated with aging, and what they find

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Speaker 1: was really significant. Twenty six participate were split into two groups.

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Speaker 1: One group consumed a higher protein diet, which was about

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Speaker 1: one point two to one point five grams of protein

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Speaker 1: per kilogram of body weight per day a've reached over

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Speaker 1: the period, and the other group had a lower protein

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Speaker 1: diet around not pointing it to one grams per kilogram

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Speaker 1: and that not point eight, you might remember, is the

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Speaker 1: Recommended Daily Alliance or RDA. So they were consuming the

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Speaker 1: RDA or slightly more and after twelve reeks. The results

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Speaker 1: were pretty down clear appendicular lean mass, so that's the

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Speaker 1: amount of lean mass in your arms and legs dropped

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Speaker 1: by almost two kilos. It was just over one and

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Speaker 1: a half kilos actually in the lower protein group. But

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Speaker 1: in contrasted increase by a kilo in the high protein group,

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Speaker 1: So that's a two kilo swing or almost five pounds,

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Speaker 1: which is really really significant in twelve weeks. And on

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Speaker 1: top of that, physical function was better in the high

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Speaker 1: protein group. They had improvements in handgrip strength, in gate speed,

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Speaker 1: and balanced test performance, and these are all very important

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Speaker 1: tests as you age. Interestingly, though, there weren't any differences

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Speaker 1: in a sit to stand or a timed up and

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Speaker 1: go test between the two groups, and it may just

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Speaker 1: have been that it was a little bit short for that.

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Speaker 1: But here's the kicker. Our muscle tissue is constantly being

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Speaker 1: broken down and built back up because we don't have

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Speaker 1: a big storage capacity for amino acids, and we need

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Speaker 1: a constant supply of amino acids. Your organs all need

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Speaker 1: amino acids. They are the building blocks of life. And

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Speaker 1: the key player in building muscle and maintaining your muscle

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Speaker 1: is something called muscle protein synthesis. So for muscle mass

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Speaker 1: to increase, muscle protein synthesis needs to exceed the rate

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Speaker 1: of muscle protein breakdown. And as we age, this process

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Speaker 1: becomes less efficient, and that's a phenomenon that is known

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Speaker 1: as anabolic resistance. So we actually become slightly resistant to

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Speaker 1: building muscle as we age. And what this means is

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Speaker 1: when an older adult eats protein, their body doesn't ramp

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Speaker 1: up muscle protein synthesis as much as a younger person's

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Speaker 1: body would. In fact, older adults may need nearly twice

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Speaker 1: as much protein per meal to get the same response,

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Speaker 1: and yet we have these very low recommended guidelines. And

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Speaker 1: what we also know from studies is that as people

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Speaker 1: get older, they tend to eat less and eat less

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Speaker 1: protein and to put numbers on it, and young adults

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Speaker 1: can achieve maximum protein synthesis according to studies with a

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Speaker 1: male containing around not zero point two five grams of

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Speaker 1: protein per kilogram of body weight, so about a quarter

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Speaker 1: of a gram of protein per kilogram of body weight,

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Speaker 1: But older adults need more like zero point four grams

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Speaker 1: of protein per kilogram of body weight. That's per meal,

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Speaker 1: and that's a big, big difference and that brings us

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Speaker 1: back to this study. So the lower protein group, the

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Speaker 1: one that lost muscle, was consuming the RDA as I

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Speaker 1: said earlier, which is that it's actually the RDA is

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Speaker 1: the minimum needed to prevent deficiencies. That's what it was

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Speaker 1: established as. It's not designed to be optimal, but people

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Speaker 1: think it's a recommendation. What is clear is it's not

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Speaker 1: the minimum needed to prevent deficiencies in older adults. It

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Speaker 1: may be in younger adults, but not older so it's

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Speaker 1: not surprising that muscle mass and grip strength declined in

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Speaker 1: that group, and it's not a one off result. There's

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Speaker 1: another randomized trial in older adults showed that consumers I

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Speaker 1: mean one point five grams per kilogram of protein per

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Speaker 1: day resultant in significantly higher muscle protein synthesis over a

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Speaker 1: twenty two hour period compared to consuming the RDA of

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Speaker 1: zero point eight grams per kilogram, and long term observational

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Speaker 1: studies show the same thing. People sticking to just the

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Speaker 1: RDA tend to lose muscle over time, and you do

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Speaker 1: not want to lose muscle as you age. And in fact,

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Speaker 1: going back to the data here, a metaaly meta analysis

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Speaker 1: published in twenty twenty concluded that protein integrates averaging one

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Speaker 1: point three grams per kilogram today led to greater muscle

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Speaker 1: mass gains than sticking with the RDA. So the evidence

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Speaker 1: is becoming really clear and we need to change these recommendations,

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Speaker 1: particularly for older adults. So how much is ideal based

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Speaker 1: on this and other research? I would say at least

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Speaker 1: one point two grams per kilogram per day, but really

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Speaker 1: you should be looking at I think one point six

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Speaker 1: grams per kilogram per day up to two grams per

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Speaker 1: kilogram today, and that's not just my opinion, that's looking

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Speaker 1: at lots of different studies that might be optimal one

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Speaker 1: point six grams per kilogram of body weight to two

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Speaker 1: grams of kilogram of bodyweight per day if you're an

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Speaker 1: older adult who wants to maintain their muscle mass. And

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Speaker 1: then obviously adding in strength training is really really key.

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Speaker 1: And one study of people aid is fifty to seventy

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Speaker 1: those who consumed one point six grams per kilogram of

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Speaker 1: bodyweight per day of protein over twenty four weeks gained

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Speaker 1: more muscle than those consuming one point two grams per kilogram.

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Speaker 1: So that really tends to suggest that one point six

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Speaker 1: should be your bottom number here and why we don't

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Speaker 1: have enough long term studies and older adults at higher intakes.

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Speaker 1: The younger adult studies show a clear dose response. More protein,

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Speaker 1: even up to three and a half grams per kilogram

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Speaker 1: per day equates to more muscle mass. So the takeaway

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Speaker 1: here is very clear if you're an older adult, and

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Speaker 1: we know that anabolic resistance can start to kick in

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Speaker 1: at the age of forty or fifty for people, so

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Speaker 1: if you're over the age of forty, I think to

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Speaker 1: be see if your protein intakes should be a minimum

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Speaker 1: of one point six grams per kilogram per day and

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Speaker 1: up to two or it may be even more, particularly

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Speaker 1: if you're doing resistance training and you want to avoid

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Speaker 1: scyclopedia which I think we should be avoiding like the plague.

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Speaker 1: That's it for this week, folks, catch you next time.