Protein: How Much and What Kind Is Best for Healthy Aging | Educational Video | Biolayne

Summary

This educational video discusses a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which examines the relationship between protein intake and healthy aging. The study, involving 50,000 participants over 30 years, found that higher protein intakes were associated with healthier aging, contrary to claims that high protein might lead to diseases. The video highlights that all types of protein, including animal, dairy, and plant, showed beneficial effects, with plant protein having the most significant impact. The presenter suggests that a variety of protein sources, including plant proteins, can contribute to a healthy diet and aging process.

Takeaways

• 📚 The video discusses a study on protein intake and its effects on healthy aging, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
• 🏅 Healthy aging is defined as being free from chronic diseases, having no impairments in cognitive or physical function, and maintaining good mental health.
• 🔍 The study was a cohort study of approximately 50,000 people, followed for about 30 years, with an average starting age of 48 years old.
• 📊 Higher protein intakes were associated with healthier aging, contrary to some claims that high protein intake could contribute to diseases like cancer and heart disease.
• 🍽️ The study looked at four different quartiles of protein intake, ranging from about 57g to 90g, and from 14% to 23% of total calorie intake.
• 🧐 The study attempted to control for confounding variables using multivariant models, although it's acknowledged that not all variables can be accounted for.
• 🏋️‍♂️ People with higher protein intakes had lower energy intakes, suggesting that protein's satiety benefits might play a role.
• 🥗 The study analyzed the effects of substituting various macronutrients with different types of protein, finding mostly neutral or positive effects.
• 🌱 Plant protein showed the most significant beneficial effects, possibly due to its association with higher dietary fiber intake.
• 🏁 The video concludes that protein is not an evil nutrient and may be important for healthy aging, with a wide variety of protein sources, including plant proteins, being beneficial.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the study discussed in the video?

The main focus of the study is the relationship between protein intake and healthy aging, specifically looking at how different types of protein intake affect the likelihood of aging without chronic diseases and maintaining cognitive and physical function.

What is defined as 'healthy aging' in the context of this study?

Healthy aging in this study is defined as being free from chronic diseases such as cancer, type 2 diabetes, heart diseases, and others, and not having impairments in cognitive or physical function, along with good mental health.

How many participants were involved in the study, and for how long were they followed?

The study was a cohort study of about 50,000 people, and they were followed for approximately 30 years.

What were the average protein intakes in the lower and higher quartiles of the study?

The average protein intake in the lower quartile was about 57-58 grams, and in the higher quartile, it was about 90 grams.

What is the significance of the different quartiles of protein intake in the study?

The study looked at four different quartiles of protein intake to see the association between higher protein intake and healthier aging, with the lower quartile being around 14% of calories from protein and the higher quartile being up to 23% of calories from protein.

What were the findings regarding the association between higher protein intake and chronic diseases?

The study found that higher protein intakes were associated with lower rates of chronic diseases, contradicting claims that high protein intake could contribute to diseases like cancer and heart disease.

What are some of the confounding variables mentioned in the study?

Some confounding variables mentioned include the fact that people with higher protein intakes had progressively lower energy intake, and there was a reduction in alcohol intake as protein intake increased.

What did the study find when analyzing the substitution of macronutrients with different types of protein?

The study found that substituting total protein, animal protein, dairy protein, or plant protein for other macronutrients generally had a neutral or positive effect on healthy aging, with plant protein showing the most beneficial effects.

What was the effect of each 3% increase in protein intake from different sources?

For every 3% increase in total protein intake, there was a 5% increase in the possibility of healthy aging. For animal protein, it was a 7% beneficial effect, for dairy protein it was 14%, and for plant protein, it was a 38% relative increase in benefit.

What is the speaker's opinion on the importance of protein for healthy aging?

The speaker believes that protein is important for healthy aging, and that there is no need to worry about protein intake being detrimental to health, based on the study's findings and other research on high protein diets.

What is the speaker's recommendation regarding the types of protein to include in one's diet?

The speaker recommends getting a wide variety of protein sources, including plant protein, and not being overly concerned about the specific type of protein as long as it contributes to overall health and aging.

Outlines

00:00

🥚 Protein Intake and Healthy Aging

This paragraph introduces a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that investigates the relationship between protein intake and healthy aging. Healthy aging is defined as being free from chronic diseases and maintaining cognitive and physical function along with good mental health. The study, a cohort study of approximately 50,000 individuals followed for 30 years, found that higher protein intakes were associated with healthier aging. The video creator commends the study's authors for their methodological rigor in controlling for confounding variables. The study also examined different types of protein intake, such as animal, dairy, and plant proteins, and their effects on aging.

05:02

📊 Analysis of Protein Intake and Its Impact

The second paragraph delves into the analysis of protein intake, focusing on the effects of substituting various macronutrients with different types of protein. The study found that for every 3% increase in total protein intake, there was a 5% increase in the likelihood of healthy aging. Animal protein showed a 7% beneficial effect, dairy protein a 14% benefit, and plant protein an impressive 38% relative increase benefit for every 3% increase in intake. The video discusses the potential confounding variables, such as dietary fiber, which could contribute to the observed benefits of plant protein. The creator suggests that a variety of protein sources, including plant proteins, can be beneficial for healthy aging.

10:03

🏋️‍♂️ The Role of Protein in Longevity and Quality of Life

The final paragraph summarizes the video's main takeaways regarding protein's role in longevity and quality of life. It challenges the notion that protein is detrimental to health, citing the lack of evidence from the study and other randomized control trials. The video emphasizes the importance of protein in maintaining muscle mass and strength, which are crucial for a healthy end of life. The creator concludes that there is no need to worry about protein intake and encourages viewers to include a variety of protein sources in their diet, including plant proteins, without being overly concerned about potential negative effects.

Keywords

💡Protein Intake

Protein intake refers to the amount of protein consumed through one's diet, typically measured in grams per day. In the video, protein intake is a central theme as it is studied for its effects on healthy aging. The script discusses different quartiles of protein intake, ranging from 57-90 grams per day, and how higher protein intakes are associated with healthier aging, contradicting some claims that high protein might lead to diseases.

💡Healthy Aging

Healthy aging, as defined in the video, is the state of being free from chronic diseases and maintaining good cognitive and physical function along with mental health. The study mentioned in the script explores how protein intake affects healthy aging rather than just longevity. It's used as a measure to evaluate the quality of life as people age.

💡Chronic Diseases

Chronic diseases are long-term health conditions that are not acute and can include conditions like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. The video script lists several chronic diseases that the study defines as excluding someone from being considered as aging healthily. These diseases are used as parameters to measure the outcomes of different protein intake levels on aging.

💡Cohort Study

A cohort study is a type of epidemiological study design where a group of subjects is followed over a period of time to observe outcomes. The video script mentions a cohort study of about 50,000 people followed for 30 years, highlighting the robustness of the study in terms of sample size and duration.

💡Confounding Variables

Confounding variables are factors that can distort the relationship between a cause and an effect. The script discusses how the study attempted to control for these variables using multivariant models. An example given is that people with higher protein intakes had lower energy intakes, which could confound the results if not accounted for.

💡Satiety

Satiety refers to the feeling of fullness or satisfaction after eating, which can influence overall energy intake. The video mentions that protein has satiety benefits, which might explain why those with higher protein intakes had lower overall energy intakes.

💡Macronutrients

Macronutrients are nutrients that the body needs in large amounts, including carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. The script discusses an analysis where different macronutrients were substituted with various types of proteins to see the effects on healthy aging.

💡Odds Ratios

Odds ratios are a statistical measure used to describe the relationship between two events. In the video, odds ratios are used to describe the increased likelihood of healthy aging with each 3% increase in protein intake from different sources.

💡Sarcopenia

Sarcopenia is the loss of muscle mass and strength that occurs with aging. The video script emphasizes the importance of protein in preventing sarcopenia, which is a significant factor in the quality of life and health span of older individuals.

💡Dietary Fiber

Dietary fiber is the indigestible part of plant foods that is beneficial for health, particularly for gut health and disease prevention. The script suggests that the beneficial effects of plant protein on healthy aging might be due to its higher fiber content, which is associated with reduced risks of various diseases.

💡Micronutrients

Micronutrients are nutrients needed by the body in small amounts, including vitamins and minerals. The video mentions that plant proteins are often associated with beneficial micronutrients that could have positive effects on inflammation and oxidation, contributing to the overall health benefits observed.

Highlights

This week's video discusses the relationship between protein intake and healthy aging.

A new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition is the focus of the discussion.

Healthy aging is defined as being free from chronic diseases and having no impairments in cognitive or physical function.

The study is a cohort study of about 50,000 people followed for about 30 years.

Higher protein intakes were associated with healthier aging across the board.

Protein intake at the lower quartile was about 57-58g, and at the highest quartile was about 90g.

The study controlled for many confounding variables using multivariant models.

People with higher protein intakes had progressively lower energy intake.

Higher protein intake was associated with reduced alcohol intake.

The study analyzed the effects of substituting various macronutrients with different types of protein.

Plant protein showed beneficial effects when substituted for most other nutrients.

For every 3% increase in total protein intake, there was a 5% increase in the possibility of healthy aging.

Animal protein showed a 7% beneficial effect for every 3% increase in energy intake.

Dairy protein had a 14% benefit for each 3% increase in energy from dairy protein.

Plant protein had a 38% relative increase benefit for every 3% increase in plant protein intake.

The study suggests that protein, including animal and plant sources, may be important for healthy aging.

The video concludes that there is good evidence to suggest that protein is not detrimental to health.

Transcripts

what's up guys we're back with another

educational video and this week we are

talking about protein intake and healthy

aging But first you know the drill make

sure you like the video subscribe to the

channel and leave a comment for the

algorithm so a new study came out

published in the American journal of

clinical nutrition looking at protein

intake and then different kinds of

protein intake and its effects on

healthy aging and healthy aging was

defined as being free from chronic

diseases including and I'm reading off

the paper cancer except for non-melanoma

skin cancer type 2 diabetes mardal

inunction coronary artery bypass grass

surgery or percutaneous transluminal

coronary angioplasty congestive heart

failure stroke kidney failure chronic

obstructive pulmonary disease

Parkinson's disease multiple sclerosis

and ALS basically some of the major

diseases that are the cause of not just

death but also drastically impaired

lifestyle during a so the study wasn't

really looking at longevity it was more

looking at what we call Health span as

people age are they healthy or not and

so they looked at these diseases and

they also uh assessed healthy aging as

not having impairments in either

cognitive or physical function and

having good mental health so I think

that's pretty cool that they included

all those things in this bucket now this

was a cohort study of about 50,000

people and they followed them for about

30 years so a pretty long time the

average age in the study was 48 years

old when they started so by the end the

average age is going to be in the 70s

now I want to compliment the authors

because they did do a good job using

different multivariant models also

trying to co-variate out a lot of

different confounding variables now

again as I've talked about many times

you can't covariant out everything

covariant is where you attempt to

control for confounding variables it's

just not possible to covariate

everything out but it's a cohort study

large population of people long time

there's not going to be a high level of

control what was very interesting is

across the board for protein intake

protein intakes that were higher were

associated with healthier aging and they

looked at four different quartiles of

protein intake and just using absolute

gram amounts protein intake at the lower

quartile was about 57 G on average or 58

G and at the highest quartile was about

90 G not a huge difference and in terms

of percent of calorie intake it was from

14% of calories all the way up to

23% of calories the lower end is what we

call kind of your normal protein intake

it's right in line with the dietary

guidelines up to 23% would be considered

high protein and a lot of people have

made claims that protein could

contribute to various diseases like

cancer heart disease I mean this study

doesn't really support that because

people who were eating higher protein

intakes had lower rates of these now I

want to point out a few confounding

variables just because it's important to

point these out and remember I have a

bias towards high protein I'll freely

admit that I think high protein diets

have a lot of utility I think they're

very important for healthy aging my

research was on high protein diets that

is my bias I'm being upfront with it

some confounding variables are people

with higher protein intakes actually had

progressively lower energy intake so the

average energy intake amongst low

protein intake was about 19900 calories

a day the average intake amongst the

highest protein intake was about 1,5 70

calories that's a pretty big difference

I mean you're looking at like well over

300 calorie difference but you can call

it a confounding variable it is but we

also know that protein has some satiety

benefits and so this could be a function

of protein having a benefit of satiety

now you could also argue people who are

eating higher protein maybe prone to

other health promoting behaviors and in

fact they did see progressively reduced

alcohol intake as protein went up so

again you can't co-variate out all these

confounding variables what I thought was

very interesting is they did an analysis

where they substituted various

macronutrients with either total protein

animal protein Dairy protein or plant

protein versus uh total carbohydrate

refined carbohydrate carbohydrates from

whole grains total fat saturated fat

polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated

fats and looked at you know did the

substitution favor protein or not favor

protein some of the effects weren't

significant but I got to be honest when

you look at the forest plots it almost

favors protein with every single one the

one nutrient that total protein animal

protein and dairy protein were either

the same as or a little bit worse than

was polyunsaturated fats so sorry seed

oil demonizer uh polyunsaturated fats

are the only ones that came out looking

good in this study uh compared to

protein at least plant protein had

beneficial effects in substitution for

all of these things so and in fact it

was pretty powerful I'm going to talk

about that here in a second but

basically for any of these nutrients

substituting protein either had a

neutral or positive effect You could

argue like on the animal side

polyunsaturated fats were better to

substitute in place of animal protein

but the effect wasn't significant it's

either a neutral or positive effect when

substituting total protein animal

protein Dairy protein or plant protein

for these various nutrients including

whole grains monounsaturated fats which

are thought to be healthy and again I'm

not saying these other things aren't

healthy what I'm saying is protein in

particular seem to have a beneficial

effect on healthy aging when substituted

from most of these other nutrients now

let's get to the different types of

protein when looking at the effects of

total protein the odds ratios for every

3% increment of protein intake was was

1.05 which basically means for every 3%

increase in total protein intake there

was a 5% increase in the possibility of

healthy aging meaning that they were

free from all these conditions we talked

about if we go back to thinking about

the 14% intake of protein versus 23%

intake in protein we're looking at a 15%

greater probability that those people

eating the higher intake of protein the

highest intake of protein would Age

healthier than the bottom cortile then

if we break it into the specific types

of protein every single type of protein

had beneficial effects for each 3%

increase in animal protein there was a

7% beneficial effect meaning if you

increase your energy intake from animal

protein by 3% you get a 7% reduction in

the risk of developing these diseases or

a 7% increased likelihood that you will

fall under the category of healthy aging

now if we look at Dairy the effect was

more powerful it was a 14% benefit for

each 3% increase in energy from dairy

protein and if we look at plant protein

very powerful a 38% relative increase

benefit for every 3% increase in plant

protein intake and again if we look at

these uh Forest plots plant protein

showed a benefit for every single

nutrient it got substituted for and and

pretty powerful to that effect this will

probably lead some people to say well

focus on just getting a lot of plant

protein in I think eating plant protein

is a great idea but I'm not convinced

it's that the protein itself has

something spectacularly beneficial about

it the amino acids from plants when

they're broken down are still just amino

acids now you can argue well plant

protein has less Lucine Lucine activates

inor that's going to cause all these

problems I don't think that's why plant

protein has this Association one thing

they didn't control for was dietary

fiber plant protein is going to have by

far more dietary fiber than other

sources of protein which are basically

devoid of fiber so if you're eating more

plant protein you're eating more fiber

by default and what do we know about

fiber for every 10 gram increase in

fiber there is a 10% decrease in the

risk of cardiovascular disease the risk

of cancer and the risk of mortality I

think that this is likely explained by

the fact that people eating more plant

protein are eating more fiber with that

being said there's no downsides to

eating some plant protein now do I think

everybody to go out and buy like soy

protein and uh pea protein and rice

protein compared to whey protein or

something like that I don't think that's

going to make a difference really I I

just don't I think that what you're

seeing is an effect of the overall

source of the food animal protein going

to be higher in fat higher in saturated

fat whereas plant protein is going to be

higher in if it has any fat it's going

to be polyunsaturated fat it's going to

be higher in dietary fiber insoluble and

soluble and there's going to be

micronutrients associated with those

plant proteins that may have beneficial

effects on inflammation and oxidation

and those sorts of things My overall

take-home from this is that one protein

is not this evil nutrient that people

have made it out to be two it may be

important for healthy aging and in fact

one of the biggest detrimental effects

during aging is sarcopenia in fact after

age 65 you can tie many many many deaths

back to a lack of muscle mass and

especially inability to live a healthy

end of your life people don't want to

think about this kind of stuff cuz they

just I guess they think when they get to

be 70 all of a sudden they just won't

care about how they feel uh ask

7-year-olds if they care about how they

feel I promise you they do care trying

to build and maintain more lean mass and

strength is going to be beneficial for

not just your longevity but also your

quality of life my take-home is protein

good for healthy aging animal protein

appears to have a neutral slightly

positive effect on that Dairy protein

neutral or positive effect and plant

protein positive effect get a wide

variety of protein sources include plant

protein as part of that you can include

animal protein as part of that if you

choose to I wouldn't really be worried

about protein literally almost all the

research showing protein to be bad is me

me istic in nature in animal models

often times in knockout models that are

genetically altered or it's connecting

random dots through epidemiology and

torturing data apart now you could say

Well Lane this is epidemiology it is but

I got to tell you they did a pretty darn

good job controlling for a lot of

variables here it was a long followup

and it was a lot of people so I do give

this study uh more way again if protein

even animal protein was so bad why do

people who have less risk of having

lower quality of life as they get older

and being at risk for these diseases why

are they better off just slightly

consuming more animal protein for the

hypothesis that protein is uniquely bad

to be true for Health it is hard to

reconcile with the results of this study

and again it's just one study but again

couple this with the data we have on

people who eat high protein diets in

terms of the randomized control trials

really not seeing any detrimental effect

on health I think there is good evidence

to suggest that you don't need to really

worry about protein too much uh if

you're eating a higher protein diet now

again they didn't examine intakes of you

know 150 200 grams a day or some of

these high intakes that people like me

have but again I just look at the

randomized control trials which have

showed even up to like two grams per

pound of body weight for a year really

didn't show any delerious effects on any

measurable Health markers in human

randomized control trials all right guys

if you like the video like the video

subscribe to the channel and I will

catch you guys next week