Does Eating Less Protein Produce Healthier Aging and Metabolism? (abcnews.com) 59
"A major scientific review is challenging the idea that more protein is always better," reports ABC News:
The review, led by pathologist and biomedical researcher Dudley Lamming and published in the journal Cell Press Blue, examined more than 350 studies involving humans, mice, insects, yeast, and other organisms. The review found that eating less protein, or less of certain amino acids that make up protein, may turn on body processes linked to healthier aging, as well as metabolism, the process by which the body turns food and drinks into energy...
For adults who already get enough, eating more protein may offer little benefit, while some research suggests that eating less protein could support healthier aging... Lamming reviewed the effect of reducing protein in many body processes. One of the processes involves a hormone called FGF21. "There's an increase in a hormone called FGF21 that promotes energy expenditure [when protein intake is reduced]," Lamming said. "It essentially increases thermogenesis in your adipose tissue, so you don't just store fat, but actually burn it as fuel." This may help explain why some studies connect lower-protein diets with less body fat, better blood sugar control and a healthier metabolism. Eating less protein may also affect signals that tell cells when to grow, repair damage or recycle old cell parts. These jobs may play a role in aging.
However, protein restriction is not the same as protein deficiency. The goal is not to deprive the body of an essential nutrient. Instead, the research raises the possibility that avoiding unnecessary excess could benefit some people who already consume enough... Before reaching for another high-protein product, a better question may be: How much protein does my body actually need?
For adults who already get enough, eating more protein may offer little benefit, while some research suggests that eating less protein could support healthier aging... Lamming reviewed the effect of reducing protein in many body processes. One of the processes involves a hormone called FGF21. "There's an increase in a hormone called FGF21 that promotes energy expenditure [when protein intake is reduced]," Lamming said. "It essentially increases thermogenesis in your adipose tissue, so you don't just store fat, but actually burn it as fuel." This may help explain why some studies connect lower-protein diets with less body fat, better blood sugar control and a healthier metabolism. Eating less protein may also affect signals that tell cells when to grow, repair damage or recycle old cell parts. These jobs may play a role in aging.
However, protein restriction is not the same as protein deficiency. The goal is not to deprive the body of an essential nutrient. Instead, the research raises the possibility that avoiding unnecessary excess could benefit some people who already consume enough... Before reaching for another high-protein product, a better question may be: How much protein does my body actually need?
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is the latest food-fad for MAGA, like seed oil.
I hear that semen is high in protein. Coincidence? I think not!
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Better eat bulls testicles then ...
Considering that semen is more than 90% water ... high protein is relative :P Of course, the little things swimming around are nearly 100% protein, until you put them on a microscope and look more carefully.
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There are some studies showing more protein helps one lose weight, but losing weight and being healthy are not necessarily the same thing.
Re:Protein (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Eat food, not too much, mostly plants
2 Everything in moderation, including moderation
Re:Protein (Score:4, Informative)
WTF? The protein "fad" has been going on since, at least, 1980. Nothing to do with MAGA.
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No it's pretty recent. Protein water anyone? https://teamready.com/collecti... [teamready.com]
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No, the last fad was antioxidants. Bodybuilders being obsessed with protein is entirely different from maxing protein in normal consumer food products (even things as non-protein-related as water itself)
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Yeah, the grocery stores in Iceland stock huge amounts of "Collab" sparkling water [preview.redd.it], whose main selling point is that it contains "marine collagen". Aka fish skin. People are buying fish skin soda. En masse.
This world is insane.
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And BTW, to all the people obssessed with "paleo" / "cave men" diets and think that means "meat":
While there certainly were (just like today) some hunter-gatherer societies (such as in the high arctic) that got most of their calories from meat, the average hunter-gatherer got the majority of their calories from plants. But not highly bred high-calorie plants, but rather high-fibre wild plants, meaning that they had to eat significantly more of these fibre-loaded plants. Your average hunter-gatherer ancest
Proteinaholic: How Our Obsession with Meat is... (Score:5, Informative)
Killing Us and What We Can Do About It by Garth Davis M.D., Howard Jacobson: https://www.amazon.com/Protein... [amazon.com]
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An acclaimed surgeon specializing in weight loss delivers a paradigm-shifting examination of the diet and health industry's focus on protein, explaining why it is detrimental to our health, and can prevent us from losing weight.
Whether you are seeing a doctor, nutritionist, or a trainer, all of them advise to eat more protein. Foods, drinks, and supplements are loaded with extra protein. Many people use protein for weight control, to gain or lose pounds, while others believe it gives them more energy and is essential for a longer, healthier life. Now, Dr. Garth Davis, an expert in weight loss asks, "Is all this protein making us healthier?"
The answer, he emphatically argues, is NO. Too much protein is actually making us sick, fat, and tired, according to Dr. Davis. If you are getting adequate calories in your diet, there is no such thing as protein deficiency. The healthiest countries in the world eat far less protein than we do and yet we have an entire nation on a protein binge getting sicker by the day.
As a surgeon treating obese patients, Dr. Davis was frustrated by the ever-increasing number of sick and overweight patients, but it wasn't until his own health scare that he realized he could do something about it. Combining cutting-edge research, with his hands-on patient experience and his years dedicated to analyzing studies of the world's longest-lived populations, this explosive, groundbreaking book reveals the truth about the dangers of protein and shares a proven approach to weight loss, health, and longevity.
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Also: "How Do You Prevent Protein Deficiency? Dr. Joel Fuhrman"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
"In this informative discussion, Dr. Joel Fuhrman breaks down the importance of protein adequacy and optimal macronutrient ratios for longevity on a plant-based diet. Learn about the surprising fat content of meat, the risks associated with low-carb diets like keto and carnivore, and the science-backed approach of the Nutritarian diet. Discover the crucial role of nuts and seeds in promoting longevity, as demonstrated in the Adventist Health Study, and gain practical tips for fueling athletic performance with whole plant foods."
Meat has been marketed based on scaring people about protein.
Dairy has been marketed based on scaring people about calcium.
You can generally get enough of each if you eat a varied whole-foods plat-based diet especially one including beans and nuts and seeds etc.. Calcium is actually the harder one than protein (since if you get enough calories from whole foods you generally get enough protein):
https://www.worldofvegan.com/v... [worldofvegan.com]
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Absolutely yes. If you are wealthy enough to buy most protein at $20/pound. And not poison yourself on pine-nuts or rhubarb or mushrooms or mercury-laced Tuna. But, you can get sausage and 4% cottage cheese for 1/4rd that price.
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Treat your cows better then, moron.
"But that cow shouldn't exist!" Perhaps neither should you?
Here's an IQ test for you: "Some dairy cows are mistreated. Therefore, all dairy cows are mistreated. T/F?"
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https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj... [vrg.org] ... In both cities, dried beans cost the least per serving, followed by canned beans, then by
"In 2023 we reported a study that we conducted comparing the prices of meat-like veggie burgers and vegan ground meat to animal meat. We recently expanded our study to include canned and dried beans because these products are often less expensive sources of protein, iron, and other nutrients that are also supplied by veggie burgers and vegan ground meat.
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What you just posted is patently false and easily dis-proven. Since you won't click through a bunch of links, I will just suggest one:
https://gemini.google.com/app [google.com]
Go there and paste this prompt: Do vegetarian diets that give growing children and/or adults sufficient protein cost more than meat-based diets?
A journey of discovery and improved health begins with less effort than it took you to type up your misinformative post.
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surgeon specializing in weight loss
Is a book by a plastic surgeon really the best place to get nutritional advice, though?
Wouldn't something by a nutritionist make more sense?
This seems like getting climate science from a dentist. "But he's a doctor!"
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"If you are getting adequate calories in your diet, there is no such thing as protein deficiency."
Protein is an essential nutritional component of a healthy diet. Being in protein deficiency is actually painful. But then if you read the quote from the actual book, it has this:
"Protein is not the key to weight loss. Animal protein is not the healthiest food we can eat. Carbs are not the enemy."
That part is true. The key to weight loss is calorie restriction over a sustained period (good rule of thumb: it takes three days of reduced calorie intake).
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Re: protein, they're surely talking about "in a modern diet, without disease, alcoholism, etc". Of course people in sustenance diets can readily end up with protein deficiency. Some diseases can cause it, and severe alcoholism can lead people to it as well. But a "normal" person eating any "normal" modern diet doesn't really need to think about whether they're getting enough protein.
Now, deficiency aside, people working on muscle building do need to actually think about what they're eating. But again most
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] ...
"Garth Philip Davis (born January 28, 1970) is an American bariatric surgeon, physician, and author. Davis specializes in weight management and is known for his advocacy of plant-based nutrition.
Davis is a board-certified surgeon who specializes in bariatric surgery and Medical Weight Loss at Mission Weight Management Center in Asheville, North Carolina.[2][5]He is now back in Houston, Texas, working for Houston M
Re:Proteinaholic: How Our Obsession with Meat is.. (Score:4, Informative)
If you are getting adequate calories in your diet, there is no such thing as protein deficiency.
This part is absolutely false. Several proteins are essential amino acids, which means your body cannot synthesize them itself. They MUST be eaten. It doesn't matter how many calories are in your diet, if you do not eat those amino acids, you will have a protein deficiency.
Maybe this doctor is being misquoted, but you do need protein in your diet.
Protein not an issue on a varied plant-based diet (Score:2)
Yes, that statement should come with an asterisk proviso. If people get all their calories from table sugar, then yes, they won't be getting any protein (as you say). But if people get all their calories from a variety of whole plant foods, then they will essentially get enough protein. So yes, there is an assumption there that people are not eating some monodiet of, say, all fruit (which is low in protein).
But all fruit and sugar are the rare exceptions of being low protein. For example, eating just potato
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here is an approximation of a day of plant-only food I ate a while back showing enough protein (even not eating any beans that day): https://meal.food-nutrients-ca... [meal.food-...ents-ca...] [food-nutri...ulator.com]
Looks good, you would be much better off if you switched out the lettuce for spinach.
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Interesting. Thanks for the suggestion! Here is a nutritional comparison on the lettuce with frozen spinach and yes the spinach has a lot more of various things (although they don't mention oxalates in that comparison which spinach also has more of):
https://comparator.food-nutrie... [food-nutri...ulator.com]
I was trying a McDougall-ish approach then which is why the fat is so low on purpose. In general I otherwise have some nuts and seeds (and occasionally avocados too) which also add micronutrients (and protein for the nuts and se
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Yeah, even on a vegan junk food diet, it's almost impossible for a modern person to not get all the amino acids they need, for the simple reason that there's not just one plant used in vegan junk food - corn, wheat, potato, soy, etc - and together, even if their protein is watered down with a lot of carbs and fat, any realistic mix still hits sufficient levels of essential amino acids, as the required amounts of each to avoid deficiency aren't huge.
Vegans have other actual things to worry more about. B12, f
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Yes, and again, if eating adequate calories from a variety of sources, it's nearly impossible to be deficient in protein. That means all the essential amino acids. Pretty much every plant-based food contains all the essential amino acids, it's not hard getting them.
That's why "protein deficiency" diseases are nearly non-existent in people eating sufficient quantities of food.
Nutritionsts always trying to restrict good things (Score:3)
Protein intake increases thermogenesis. This FGF21 is probably being released when protein is low because more body heat is needed when digestion and absorption aren't producing it, but we know protein-rich diets result in more total thermogenesis.
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Yes. Some masochistic "anything that helps has to hurt" pathology is definitely going on in food "sciences". They really need to fix their act and start producing reliable results. Of course that also means no "flashy" and "revolutionary" results, but that is how Science you can depend on works.
weasel word (Score:2)
Six times in the summary it says that eating protein "may" do this, or that, or may not do this or that.
They leave out: "or may not."
That's not weasel words (Score:1)
The issue here is that you haven't been taught these things. All the little tricks that go into ma
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"This new drug we came up with may cure everything... don't take it is you're allergic to it (like 99.99999999999999999% of humans are, side effects can include drastic weight loss similar to bulimia, random sudden cancerous tumors, serious explosive diarrhea, sudden disappearance of your pets, spontaneous human combustion... and a few dozen thing we don't have words for... talk to your doctor who gets massive payouts about our new drug!"
Bet that tainted lettuce sounds really good now!
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nutrition is a staggeringly difficult subject, the very basics are simple and there is a (reasonably) ample margin for what works or is needed to sustain life, we have millions of years experience there, but optimizing beyond that is far too complex for our current ability to tackle with any rigor due to the sheer amount of variables in everything involved: in the diet (composition, quality, processing), in the subject (genetics, conditon, behavior) and in the environment. something that works in isolation
Meta-Analysis (Score:4, Interesting)
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One of the major problems we have is that we don't have good science communication because everything depends on eyeballs and clicks so that you can get attention and put advertisements in front of people. So a study like this
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It is meant to be a useful piece of information for somebody who might do more research on the topic that is all.
I'm not convinced at all at human nutrition and yeast nutrition are actually the same subject that would be studied together by the same people. This may just be publishing slop.
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What?! THey included studies on mice, worms, bugs, and yeast, so it's gotta be pretty complete and sciencerific!
My favorite part was the circular, "For people who already get enough, eating more... might offer little benefit."
They accidentally said those people are eating at least a little bit less than enough, which would imply the recommended amounts should be increased. Of course, from the context I would infer that they actually meant, "For people who get enough, they got enough!" So if the recommendati
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The trick is knowing how much is enough.
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The issue is that this is only relevant to sustenance farmers, people with certain diseases, and alcoholics.
It's almost impossible to end up with an essential amino acid deficiency eating any "normal" modern diet. Even a vegan eating junk food is going to get sufficient quantities (they're going to suck at bodybuilding, but they're not going to get deficiency symptoms). There's too many staples that go into modern food. Nobody eats "only corn", "only wheat", "only potatoes", "only soy", or whatnot; it's
Food-"Sciences" habe been pathetic (Score:2)
They have now flip-flopped so often on everything that beyond a few very basic facts (essentially, too much sodium and too much energy intake is bad) nothing they find can be trusted. They really need to fix their act and find reliable basic insights. Research like this one here that comes with a flashy title and a mountain of caveats is not helpful at all.
Most health science has failed in similar ways (Score:2)
They have now flip-flopped so often on everything that beyond a few very basic facts (essentially, too much sodium and too much energy intake is bad) nothing they find can be trusted. They really need to fix their act and find reliable basic insights. Research like this one here that comes with a flashy title and a mountain of caveats is not helpful at all.
Agreed. Scientists have a decent record at treating late stage disease, but a PISS POOR record at prevention and longevity. Now, I don't blame the scientists. Data is data. It's just ABC news is turning this into a story prematurely. I have a similar struggle in that I have spent my adult life trying to be in good health and I've seen over 25 different doctors and nearly all are useless.
They're basically simple computers. If you can get a perfect diagnosis code, then they can robotically administer
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Do be careful with that. Do remember that inflammation isn't inherently bad. Inflammation is the activity of the innate immune system, doing things like fighting/preventing disease and cancer surveillance/attack. Just shutting down inflammatory reactions (for example, long-term taking prednisone or an equivalent steroid treatment) can certainly make you feel great, but can significantly shorten your expected lifespan.
Don't get me wrong, if you have a chronic inflammatory disease, it absolutely needs trea
Re:Food-"Sciences" habe been pathetic (Score:5, Insightful)
You're confusing mainstream nutrition advice with fad diets. The Mediterranean diet [wikipedia.org] was proposed in 1975, and by the 1980s it was already widely embraced by mainstream nutritionists as the recommended way to eat. In the 40 years since then, that has never changed. The evidence for it has only gotten stronger with time.
Meanwhile, countless fad diets have come along, each based on some fringe theory and unsupported by solid evidence. And every time that happens, the mainstream nutritionists say, "Please ignore them. Eat a Mediterranean diet." And people like you say, "What's wrong with these scientists? Why do they keep recommending new diets that are different from the old ones?"
The Mediterranean Diet Study Nobody Actually Read (Score:2)
by Jeff Nelson, Veg Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
"For years we've been told that if one study proves the Mediterranean diet is the healthiest way to eat, it's PREDIMED.
Doctors cite it. Dietitians cite it. Influencers have built careers on it.
The headline: Mediterranean diet cuts heart disease by 30%.
So I sat down and opened the actual paper. Not the press release -- the supplementa
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They really haven't. Nutrition science has been a process of refinement as we've learned more over time. E.g.:
"Fat is bad"
"Saturated fat is bad, non is good"
"Saturated fat is bad, monounsaturated is good, polyunsaturated is bad. Oh, and trans fat is really bad."
"Well, among the polys, omega 3s are good, others are bad"
Many refinements later: "Concerning this specific fat molecule, the health impacts are X, except there's evidence that people with Y genetics have Z impact..."
The earlier statements weren't
Betteridge strikes again (Score:2)
Another win for Betteridge's law of headlines.
If the question were answered, the headline wouldn't have been in the form of a question.
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That "law" supposes the question is answered, and furthermore supposes what that answer is, and all regardless of the initial question.
Maybe that's why nobody respects that "law".
"A major scientific review is challenging the idea (Score:2)
"A major scientific review is challenging the idea that more protein is always better,
And who exactly came to that idea?
And more important: who is so stupid to believe that?
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People who identify as yeast? "Finally a study of people like me!"
timing (Score:2)
Generally, after eating, humans burn sugar for 12 hours, then fat for 6 hours and finally screwed-up polypeptides
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So where do the calories go?
All these metabolic weight studies crash down when somebody does a study designed to test falsification.
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Protein is necessary (Score:2)
For adults who already get enough, eating more protein may offer little benefit,
Your body NEEDS protein. Once it has enough, any extra is evacuated through urine. The trick is figuring out how much you need.
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Err this isn't practically true.
Yes, you can excrete protein in urine, but it's usually not in healthy people. And it's not how you want to get rid of excessive protein.
More often it's turned to body fat, it's very easy for your body to covert protein to fat.
Try adding six scoops of protein powder to your diet every day. Guarantee you'll put on heaps of body fat. You won't be peeing it out, unless there's something terribly wrong with you.
Personal experience (Score:2)
Every diet fad declares some food group to be the cause of ill health: While 3/4 of diets contradict basic nutritional facts, it's difficult to contradict the rest when the westernized diet concentrates on sugar, milk, wheat and red meat. Our bodies are
Re:Personal experience (difficulty eating healthy) (Score:2)
Indeed. Although it's much easier to eat healthier in, say, Japan than the USA because of a different food culture and different food infrastructure (as mentioned in two videos I linked to in another comment).
BlueZones has supported initiatives to make healthier eating -- and exercise and other good things -- easier to do by default in the USA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
https://albertlea.bluezonespro... [bluezonesproject.com]
"Blue Zones Project(r) is a community-wide well-being initiative that h