Dr. Rhonda Patrick - Eat THIS Much Protein Daily to Live Longer

Summary

The video discusses updated research on protein intake recommendations, indicating needs are higher than current RDAs. It notes the importance of building muscle mass earlier in life to have reserves to draw from later and prevent disability. The host shares context from studies on protein restriction in rodents, highlighting flaws like lack of disease exposure and exercise. Ultimately more protein is likely beneficial for active humans, but sedentary people may not need as much. The key is incorporating amino acids into muscle through stimulus.

Takeaways

• 😊 The RDA for protein intake is 0.8g per kg body weight, but new research indicates it should be higher - around 1.6g per kg for muscle retention.
• 🥩 Higher protein intake is important as we age to prevent frailty and disability by preserving muscle and bone mass.
• 🏋️‍♀️ The stimulus of physical activity is key - without it, higher protein intake could activate damaging growth pathways.
• 💪 Building muscle and bone mass earlier in life creates reserves to draw from later.
• 🚑 Losing muscle mass due to illness or hospitalization is very hard to regain in old age.
• 🐁 Animal studies on protein restriction have limitations when applying findings to humans.
• 🧪 Context about physical activity level and disease exposure is needed when interpreting rodent studies.
• 🏃 Most lab mice are sedentary unlike active humans, confounding study comparisons.
• 😕 For active people, protein restriction may be counterproductive.
• 🤔 More nuance is needed when examining longevity research on protein intake.

Q & A

What is the current RDA for protein intake?

The current RDA for protein intake is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight.

Why does the speaker believe the RDA for protein is outdated?

The speaker believes the RDA for protein is outdated because new research shows protein losses were underestimated when setting the RDA. People actually need more protein to replenish losses from normal living.

What does recent research recommend for protein intake?

Recent research recommends 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight to prevent muscle loss. Intakes up to 2 grams may provide added benefits for elite athletes.

Why is muscle mass important as we age?

Muscle mass is important as we age because loss of muscle mass contributes to frailty and risk of falls/fractures. Maintaining muscle mass helps preserve strength, mobility, and independence in older age.

How can animal studies on protein and longevity be misleading?

Animal studies showing protein restriction improves longevity are done in sterile environments. Mice don't experience diseases and hospitalizations that cause rapid muscle wasting in older humans.

What is the "disability threshold" concept?

The "disability threshold" refers to loss of enough muscle that impairs mobility and function. Having more muscle earlier gives a reserve to draw from if hospitalized.

Why doesn't protein need to be restricted in active people?

Protein doesn't need restriction in active people because activity provides the stimulus to incorporate amino acids into muscle rather than growth pathways.

What percent of benefits come from physical activity versus protein intake?

Expert Dr. Don Layman estimates 70-75% of benefits come from physical activity, with the remaining from sufficient protein intake.

What are the speaker's signature truffles?

The speaker launched signature low-sugar, keto-friendly hazelnut truffles with Thrive Market available in two flavors.

What discount is offered on the truffles?

The speaker's link offers 30% off the $10.99 truffles from Thrive Market.

Outlines

00:00

🍖 Protein intake recommendations and importance of muscle mass

The paragraph discusses recommended protein intake based on research from Stu Phillips indicating the RDA of 0.8g per kg body weight underestimates needs. It recommends 1.6g to maintain muscle and up to 2g for training. It emphasizes importance of building muscle when young to have reserves as we age to prevent frailty and disability.

05:00

🍫 Launch of low sugar hazelnut chocolate truffles

The paragraph announces the launch of signature low sugar, ketofriendly hazelnut chocolate truffles in two flavors in partnership with Thrive Market. It provides details on ingredients, pricing, discounts, and free gift available.

Keywords

💡protein intake

Protein intake refers to how much protein someone consumes through their diet on a daily basis. The video discusses recommended protein intake levels, noting that the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) of 0.8 grams per kilogram body weight is likely an underestimate. Consuming adequate protein is important for preserving muscle mass, strength, and function, especially as we age.

💡muscle mass

Muscle mass refers to the amount of muscle tissue in the body. The video emphasizes building muscle mass at a younger age as a crucial "retirement fund" to prevent frailty and disability later in life. Loss of muscle mass can occur with aging, illness, or hospitalization, so having adequate reserves is protective.

💡physically active

Being physically active means engaging in regular exercise or physical activity. The video notes that protein recommendations differ based on activity levels, with more active individuals needing a higher protein intake to replace losses from tissue breakdown.

💡animal studies

Animal studies refer to scientific research conducted on model organisms like mice or rats. The video critiques reliance on some rodent studies showing benefits of low protein for longevity, noting that differences from humans in disease exposure and activity levels limit relevance.

💡IGF-1

IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1) is a hormone involved in growth and development. The video mentions excess IGF-1 activation in the absence of physical activity as potentially detrimental, allowing damaged cells to proliferate.

💡disability threshold

The disability threshold refers to a point of substantial loss of strength and physical function. The goal articulated in the video is to preserve adequate muscle mass over time to avoid crossing this threshold, which often drastically reduces quality of life.

💡protein restriction

Protein restriction refers to intentionally limiting protein intake. The video questions whether protein restriction strategies from rodent studies apply to active humans, given major differences in lifestyle and environmental exposures.

💡frailty

Frailty is a geriatric syndrome involving multi-system impairment and vulnerability to stressors. The video notes that maintaining muscle mass helps prevent frailty, which increases the risk of falls, fractures, and subsequent disability.

💡convalescing

Convalescing means the process of recovering health and strength after an illness or medical procedure. The video discusses how having adequate muscle reserves aids the ability to convalesce after a health crisis without substantial disability.

💡quality of life

Quality of life is a multidimensional concept encompassing one's physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being. The video argues that preservation of strength and physical function through adequate protein intake is crucial for maintaining quality of life into old age.

Highlights

The RDA for protein intake is 0.8 grams per kilogram body weight, not 1.8 grams as previously stated.

New research indicates the actual protein requirement is around 1.6 grams per kilogram to avoid muscle loss.

Higher protein intake of up to 2 grams per kilogram body weight may benefit elite athletes and bodybuilders.

Muscle mass is important to maintain as we age to prevent frailty and risk of falls/fractures.

Building muscle and bone mass earlier in life creates a 'reserve' to draw from later.

Losing muscle mass from illness or hospitalization accelerates decline in the elderly.

Animal studies on protein restriction use sterile environments unlike complex human exposures.

Mice in labs often have no access to exercise which skews protein results.

Context of physical activity level is key when interpreting optimal protein intake data.

Protein restriction may not benefit active humans the way it does sedentary lab mice.

Exercise is likely more important than protein intake according to some experts.

At least 70-75% of muscle protein response is from strength training stimulus.

Longevity research incorporating exercise shows higher protein intake benefits.

Launched new low-sugar, ketogenic hazelnut truffles with ethical cacao.

Discount code saves 30% off all Thrive Market orders including new truffles.

Transcripts

protein intake so the RDA for protein

intake is about 1.8 grams per kilogram

body weight right and I always thought

that was enough I thought that was

enough because you don't you know like I

think people are meeting that you don't

want too much protein because then you

can start to get into um you know the

the igf-1 arm where if you're not

physically active you're activating

growth Pathways that could allow damaged

cells to become cancerous form tumors

things like that right um but until I

like talked to Stu Phillips had him on

my podcast you know he and others have

have shown that like the tools that were

used to come up with that RDA are like

way out of date like everything you know

it takes so long to get things updated

like you make a rule and then new data

comes in and then that rule just lingers

for 10 years or you're like why have we

why are we still doing this thing that

we know isn't right you know doesn't

make sense anymore um well there's new

tools um where essentially the protein

loss es were they were basically um at

the time I think they were

underestimated if I got that correctly

so in other words they were

underestimated whereas actually they're

you're actually losing more amino acids

and so you actually need to you need

more protein to replenish those just

those losses of just normal steady state

living and then you add on top of that

working out where you're actually

stressing your muscles then you need

even more and so some of their Research

indicates that 1 Point sorry um 0.8 not

1.8 I totally got that wrong 0.8 G per

kilogram body weight is the

RDA not 1.8 please um make sure that's

no so 0.8 grams per kilogram body weight

is the RDA it's it's more like

1.6 grams per kilogram body weight is is

what's just needed to like not lose

muscle mass um which is a lot higher

than the RDA and then when you talk

about training and stuff you can go

maybe even a little bit above that up to

like two gr per kilogram body weight if

you're like some Elite level bodybuilder

I mean maybe more but I don't you know

like then you're just like you're

getting to like little bits right of um

you know getting a little bit of more

benefit out of it so I think that's

another thing I've really changed my

mind I've really been a lot more

cognizant on my protein intake and like

for like you know instead of having a

smoothie for like a midday snack alone

I'll have like you know some salmon or

some sardines or like some source of

protein oftentimes it ends up being fish

but um like leftovers as as like my my

snack so it's like okay cuz you know I

do end up working out a lot even if I'm

only doing like a quick 20 minute hit or

something like I'm doing something each

day and so it's like getting getting

that proteins become a lot more

important and I think it is really

important because muscle mass is it's

hely important as we age for Frailty um

you know becomes a big a big risk for

like falling breaking something and also

just like once you get to that point

it's kind of like I forgot who I think

it was Brad shenfeld who came up with

this analogy and I love it so he gets

credit for it but it's kind of like a

retirement fund right so like you want

to put in what you can earlier in life

to build that muscle mass because once

you reach a certain age like when you

get to 50 it becomes harder to gain

muscle mass and strength you can still

pull that lever a bit um if you work at

it but like it's not as easy to gain

muscle mass and it's you're pulling from

it a lot more and so you want to build

that Reserve up before you get to that

point so that you have more to work with

right just like a retirement fund like

you want to contribute because once you

start to like get to the age where you

can't work anymore you want to retire

like that's your funds like you you you

have what you have and then you're going

to be pulling from it right um you know

as a woman as well it's like bone mask

is also into that whole Factor where you

want to like you want to you want to buy

in earlier you want to build your bone

mass build your muscle mass because once

you start to hit you're 50 and you get

to 60 really then you know it just kind

of gets worse and worse where you're

you're going to be pulling from that so

you want to really focus on muscle mass

um because of this what what um I would

say Stu Phillips has sort of coined as

what's called like it's like the

disability threshold so you know a lot

of animal studies that have been done on

this protein stuff and I I look I bought

into this this as a scientist I was you

know I did research in the Aging field

for a long time very familiar with the

researchers and all the studies out

there doing studies on how low protein

intake can extend lifespan and rodents

um it can extend health span what's

called Health span so they're less

likely to get cardiovascular disease and

you know cancer and things like that but

you have to

realize that animals are in a sterile

environment like these these they're not

being exposed to influenza and you

know and all this all the all the

respiratory diseases and everything out

there right

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underneath this video um they're they're

not it's not like a human who's like 70

or 80 where you go you you got like

something that gets you in the hospital

and you're then you know bedridden for a

couple of weeks you lose enormous

amounts of muscle mess that you'll never

gain back and I've seen it like

personally from my own family member and

I know a lot of people have seen where

it's like a family member's older they

go in for a surgery or they go in for

like again like they're in the hospital

because they're like really sick and

then they lose all this muscle mass and

then they just can't really walk as well

as they used to and it's just it starts

to go down this trajectory of

exponential just down and that's really

where like the more muscle mass you have

to start you have to go and your Co

you're convalescing for a couple of

weeks you're not using your muscles you

have more to pull from and also it's

easier to kind of gain back some of that

strength too then you're in so much

better shape shape and that's kind of

for me where it was like you know some

of these animal studies aren't really

that relevant because of that like

there's that aspect of like you know

just being exposed to to to diseases

that really get us in trouble and or

even just a surgery something that where

you're just you're not going to be

moving around for a month and when

you're like 75 80 years old like that's

really impactful on on on like your

quality of life and also um on on just

your future trajectory of Aging so I

think um the protein intake then has

become a little more important now again

if you're not physically active I don't

know that you need to be like consuming

massive protein bars and whey protein

shakes and all that like you need to

like lose you know lose your we and also

just being Physically Active is

important like you you need to

incorporate those amino acids into

muscle yeah absolutely if you're not

then you are potentially activating

growth Pathways like igf-1 that can

allow damaged cells to not die when they

otherwise would

I think I mean even I think Dr Don

Layman I think had mentioned that I he

estimates that about like 70 to 75% of

it is the stimulus like get the stimulus

first you know that's like first and

more foremost obviously and he's coming

out of a protein lab right so I mean

he's definitely telling us that protein

is important and uh you know these

sentiments are definitely echoing things

that he said but he said you know at the

end of the day like first and foremost

like if you don't have the stimulus and

then same you look at the longevity

research it's like the longevity

research that does incorporate stimulus

shows otherwise that protein is

important whereas if you're not again

looking at a rodent model study and

you're looking at oh you know methionine

is an issue and all this and that you're

like okay yeah when there's no stimulus

and when there's no like additional

taxation on the body so I think there's

context definitely needs to be had right

not to mention these mice are largely

like sedentary like if you if you put an

exercise wheel on them most most um the

only exercise Wheels I've seen in in

little animal cages in a lot of these um

Labs is when they're doing exercise

studies they don't usually have exercise

Wills it's really unfortunate to be

honest because if you do put an exercise

wheel the mice they'll just naturally

want to run and run like like they feel

better yeah um so these mice are

sedentary they're largely sedentary and

you're just like of course if you take

away all that protein it's going to it's

it's just not the same it's just not the

same you know so so you get a a human

who's Physically Active do they need to

be protein restricting I don't think so

I think that's probably

counterproductive so um there's like

mixed signals coming in from you know

cuz you have this science out there

going oh protein restriction improves

longevity you you know least in rodents

and here's all these mechanisms but then

again it's like well these are like

sedentary mice that are you know not

being exposed to influenza yeah I mean

it's like I don't know there's a lot of

different factors here right same yeah