Cathy writes: “Twenty years ago we were told that we were eating too much protein. And now the advice is to eat more protein, especially for middle-aged women. What changed in that time?”
What's the latest guidance on how much protein we should eat, and what sources of protein are best, especially as we age?
Nutrition Diva is hosted by Monica Reinagel. A transcript is available at Simplecast.
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Happy New year and welcome to episode 699 of the Nutrition Diva podcast. I’m your host, Monica Reinagel and today’s show—like so many episodes before it—was suggested by a listener.
Cathy writes: “Twenty years ago we were told that we were eating too much protein. And now the advice is to eat more protein, especially for middle-aged women. What changed in that time?”
For the record, there are still a lot of people claiming that we are eating too much protein. But we need to look a bit closer at what they mean by “too much.” They often mean that we are eating more than the minimum recommended amount of protein. And, in the developed world, that is generally true. Most Americans eat about one and a half to two times as much protein as is absolutely essential to keep their bodies functioning.
However, Americans are still eating substantially below the upper end of the recommended range for protein intake. This is an important point, because when you hear people say that we’re eating “too much” protein, it sounds like we’re exceeding the recommended limits, and this is simply not the case.
But, by the same token, when people say that we need to be eating “more protein,” we need to ask: more than what? It may sound like they’re suggesting that we should increase the amount of protein we are currently eating. But they may simply be pointing out that there are benefits to eating more than the recommended minimum—which most of us are already doing.
A diet that gets 20% of calories from protein (instead of the bare minimum of 10%) has some advantages—including better appetite control, a slightly increased metabolism, and more lean muscle tissue (especially for those who do strength training).
The easiest way to see where you might fall on that spectrum is to spend a few days logging your diet on a diet-tracking app like My Fitness Pal. That’ll give you a rough estimate of how many calories you are taking in every day and what percentage of them are coming from protein. It can also help you learn which foods provide protein, and how much.
We can also get more benefits from the protein we’re already eating by distributing it more equally throughout the day. Americans typically eat the lion’s share of their daily protein at the evening meal. Reducing the amount of protein at dinner and increasing the amount of protein in your breakfast and lunch could maximize those protein benefits without actually increasing the amount of protein you’re eating.
See also: How to build more muscle with less protein
And here’s a tidbit that may be of particular interest to women in midlife: Australian researchers Stephen Simpson and David Raubenheimer, who are pursuing something they call the protein leverage hypothesis, cite evidence that increasing the percentage of calories that come from protein as women go through menopause could help to mitigate the weight gain (especially around the belly) that frequently accompanies this transition. Even a relatively modest bump, from 15% of calories from protein to 18%, could be impactful.
Keep in mind that if you are increasing calories from protein, you need to decrease calories from other foods in order to avoid gaining weight. Fortunately, calories from protein tend to keep you full longer than the same number of calories from other nutrients.
We also need to remember that protein is not the same as meat. Because I think that a lot of the people arguing that are eat too much protein are less concerned with how much protein we’re eating and more concerned with how much meat we’re eating.
There are valid concerns that the amount of meat we currently consume is not sustainable from an ecological or environmental point of view. Others point out that the land, water, and other resources that we currently use to raise meat could feed a lot more people if we used them to produce other types of food. But protein is not the same as meat. You can increase your protein intake without increasing your meat intake.
It may also be true that we tend to eat protein in ways that are not terribly good for us—in the form of cured and processed meats that contain nitrates or smoked and char-broiled meats that contain carcinogens. Avoiding these foods might well make your diet healthier. But that has nothing to do with their protein content.
Finally, you could argue that we are simply eating too much of everything, including protein. Cutting back on portion sizes could help reduce overweight and obesity. But that's not about cutting protein, per se. That's about cutting calories. In fact, if you want to cut calories from your diet, I'd suggest trimming calories from refined carbohydrates first before you start reducing your protein intake.
While most Americans are getting plenty of protein, there is one group that is not getting enough: older women. On average, protein intake among older women hovers right at the minimum—and close to 1 in 10 are sinking below that minimum.
What’s more, newer research suggests that these minimum intake requirements are actually too low, especially for seniors. If that’s true, then significantly more women (and some older men) are actually falling short of the amount of protein they need to thrive.
In particular, we need more protein as we age in order to offset the age-related loss of muscle tissue. Losing muscle mass as we age is a big deal because when we lose muscle mass, we tend to lose bone mass as well, initiating a whole downward spiral of increased frailty and diminished function.
See also: How to prevent age-related muscle loss
One of the best ways to stave off age-related muscle mass is to keep up that protein intake (and, as I mentioned earlier, distribute it more evenly throughout the day). But here’s where it gets a little tricky: while protein requirements go up, our calorie needs decrease with age. That means we need to get a bigger and bigger percentage of our calories from protein. But that’s exactly the opposite of what happens. Protein intake—for both men and women—tends to start falling off around the age of 50. Right when we can least afford it.
Now, as I pointed out earlier, meat is not the only source of protein. There are all kinds of vegetable protein sources as well. However, for all their many advantages, you just have to eat a lot more legumes, grains, nuts, seeds, and vegetables to get the same amount of protein as you do from animal sources.
See also: Protein density: how to get more protein with fewer calories
This may explain a study out of Japan which found that elderly men who ate the most animal protein showed the least physical and cognitive decline compared to those who ate the least. I know this confused a lot of folks because we’ve heard almost nothing but bad news about meat lately, in particular, how high intake of meat throughout life is linked to decreased lifespan.
But, for all its environmental and ethical baggage, animal protein is the most concentrated and bioavailable source of protein. It could be that older men who eat more animal protein—which, by the way, includes fish and eggs as well as chicken and beef—are just a whole lot more likely to meet their protein requirements than those who are relying on vegetable sources.
But the take-home for those listeners over 60 is that keeping protein intake up as you age looks like a very good hedge against aging and disability. Aim for between 60 to 80g of protein per day, and try to get at least half of that from animal sources. And remember that it takes more than just protein to build strong muscles and bones. You’ve also got to make sure you’re getting enough vitamin X (as in Xercise).
To my listener Cathy: as you can see, protein recommendations are a complex topic. I hope at least I’ve helped clarify what may have seemed like competing recommendations.
To recap:
I’ve included links in the show notes to the other episodes on protein that I mentioned today. Those are at nutrition-diva.simplecast.com, where you can browse the entire archive. And if you find the Nutrition DIva podcast interesting and informative, do me a favor and share it with a friend that you think would also enjoy it.
And if you have a question you’d like me to tackle in an upcoming episode, you can email me at nutrition@quickanddirtytips.com. You can also leave me a message at 443-961-6206.
I’d also like to invite you to check out my other podcast. It’s called the Change Academy, where Brock Armstrong and I explore the art and science of behavior change. You can find it on all the major podcast platforms, so whatever app you’re using right now to listen to me, just head to the search bar and type in “Change Academy.”
Nutrition Diva is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. It's audio-engineered by Nathan Semmes with script editing by Adam Cecil. Thanks also to Morgan Christianson, Holly Hutchings, Davina Tomlin, and Kamryn Lacy.
That's all for this episode. Thanks for listening! I'll see you next week.