@biolayne1 Says to Eat More Protein to Live Long and Be Strong (RESPONSE)

Study Overview and Healthy Aging Definition 0:00

You want to live long and be strong? Eat protein. So a new study came out published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition looking at protein intake and then different kinds of protein and take and its effects on healthy aging. And healthy ageing was defined as being free from some of the major diseases that are the cause of not just death, but also drastically impaired lifestyle during aging. Now this was a cohort study of about 50,000 people, and they followed them for about 30 years. Protein intakes that were higher were associated with healthier aging, but what was very interesting is they did an analysis where they substituted various

Protein Intake and Macronutrient Substitution Results 0:31

macronutrients with either total protein, animal protein dairy protein or plant protein. When you look at the forest plots, it almost favors protein with every single one. That's not really true. Substituting total protein in place of carbs or specifically refined carbs and fat or, specifically, monounsaturated fat was beneficial, but replacing polyunsaturate fats, carbs from whole grains, or even saturated fat, was not associated with significant benefit. And the results were generally similar for animal protein, without even a significant benefits compared to refined carb.

And if we look at the individual components of the healthy aging criteria, animal protein was associated with a lower odds of being free of 11 chronic diseases compared to pretty much every macronutrient, including refined carbs and saturated fats. So I'm not sure this data really offers strong support for increasing animal-protein intake. Plant protein, on the other hand, was beneficial across the board with a 38% greater odds of healthy aging compared to animal protein and a 26% higher odds healthy ageing compared dairy protein specifically.

So this does actually support swapping out animal proteins for plant protein. But in fairness, he does touch on impressive results for Plant Protein. Each 3% increase in animal protein, there was a 7% beneficial effect.

Animal vs Plant Protein Findings 1:43

It was 14% benefit from dairy protein. A 38% relative increase benefit for every 3 percent increase plant protein intake. I think that this is likely explained by the fact that people eating more plant proteins are eating fiber. My take home is protein good for healthy aging, animal proteins, dairy proteins neutral or positive effect, and plant-protein positive effects. That's not a bad take-home message, but I would emphasize that the animal protein could be detrimental depending on what you're replacing and which outcomes you are looking at as I've highlighted.

So I wouldn't just say neutral to beneficial. And regarding fiber driving the benefits of plant protein, I don't think it's necessarily the full story. Some of it could due to the addition of beneficial compounds like polyphenols or the removal of potentially harmful components of certain animal foods like dietary cholesterol or heme iron, for example. And another reason I don't think fiber explains the whole result is that replacing carbohydrates from whole grains with plant protein was associated with

Why Plant Protein May Help 2:39

a 50% greater odds of healthy aging despite whole-grains also being very rich in fiber. And his claim about fiber may actually apply to the supposed benefits of total and animal protein as well. This is because those who ate more protein, which was driven mostly by animal protein also had much higher diet quality and ate far more vegetables. And these weren't accounted for in the main analysis. But when the researchers adjusted for fruit and vegetable intake, there was no longer any clear benefit to total animal or dairy protein.

The plant protein still was beneficial. So the irony is that at least some of the supposed benefits of animal proteins may actually be due to plants.