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- Protein vs Sarcopenia
Today’s almonds have been activated by:
❝Let go of the thoughts that don’t make you strong❞
⏰ IN A RUSH?
Today’s 30-Second Summary
If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:
Age-related loss of muscle mass (sarcopenia) does far more than just make us frail. It also affects our metabolism, which in turn effects almost everything else.
However, it’s not unavoidable, and today’s featured expert is here with advice.
Not everyone wants to quit alcohol. So, if you're going to drink, you might as well enjoy your drinks mindfully!
Today’s sponsor, Sunnyside, is an app that helps you change your relationship with alcohol, so that your choice is really your choice—not a mindless habit that you don’t even truly take joy in.
Read on to learn about these things and more…
👀 WATCH AND LEARN
What Happens When You Overeat? (4:45)
Mindful menu:
Want to watch it, but not right now? Bookmark it for later 🔖
💪 MAIN FEATURE
Protein vs Sarcopenia
This is Dr. Gabrielle Lyon. A medical doctor, she’s board-certified in family medicine, and has also engaged in research and clinical practice in the fields of geriatrics and nutritional sciences.
A quick note…
We’re going to be talking a bit about protein metabolism today, and it’s worth noting that Dr. Lyon personally is vehemently against vegetarianism/veganism, and considers red meat to be healthy.
Scientific consensus on the other hand, holds that vegetarianism and veganism are fine for most people if pursued in an informed and mindful fashion, that white meat and fish are also fine for most people, and red meat is simply not.
If you’d like a recap on the science of any of that:
Nevertheless, if we look at the science that she provides, the advice is sound when applied to protein in general and without an undue focus on red meat.
How much protein is enough?
In our article linked above, we gave 1–2g/kg/day
Dr. Lyons gives the more specific 1.6g/kg/day for adults older than 40 (this is where sarcopenia often begins!) and laments that many sources offer 0.8g/kg.
To be clear, that “per kilogram” means per kilogram of your bodyweight. For Americans, this means dividing lbs by 2.2 to get the kg figure.
Why so much protein?
Protein is needed to rebuild not just our muscles, but also our bones, joint tissues, and various other parts of us:
Additionally, our muscles themselves are important for far more than just moving us (and other things) around.
As Dr. Lyon explains: sarcopenia, the (usually age-related) loss of muscle mass, does more than just make us frail; it also messes up our metabolism, which in turn messes up… Everything else, really. Because everything depends on that.
This is because our muscles themselves use a lot of our energy, and/but also store energy as glycogen, so having less of them means:
getting a slower metabolism
the energy that can’t be stored in muscle tissue gets stored somewhere else (like the liver, and/or visceral fat)
So, while for example the correlation between maintaining strong muscles and avoiding non-alcoholic fatty liver disease may not be immediately obvious, it is clear when one follows the metabolic trail to its inevitable conclusion.
Same goes for avoiding diabetes, heart disease, and suchlike, though those things are a little more intuitive.
How can we get so much protein?
It can seem daunting at first to get so much protein if you’re not used to it, especially as protein is an appetite suppressant, so you’ll feel full sooner.
It can especially seem daunting to get so much protein if you’re trying to avoid too many carbs, and here’s where Dr. Lyon’s anti-vegetarianism does have a point: it’s harder to get lean protein without meat/fish.
That said, “harder” does not mean “impossible” and even she acknowledges that lentils are great for this.
If you’re not vegetarian or vegan, collagen supplementation is a good way to make up any shortfall, by the way.
And for everyone, there are protein supplements available if we want them (usually based on whey protein or soy protein)
Anything else we need to do?
Yes! Eating protein means nothing if you don’t do any resistance work to build and maintain muscle. This can take various forms, and Dr. Lyon recommends lifting weights and/or doing bodyweight resistance training (calisthenics, Pilates, etc).
Here are some previous articles of ours, consistent with the above:
Take care!
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🌍 AROUND THE WEB
What’s happening in the health world…
New treatment intervention for male urinary problems shown to reduce symptoms
COVID-19 vaccines offer protection against long-term effects, study suggests
New ingestible sensor for non-intrusive sleep disorder monitoring developed by MIT and collaborators
What would a Desantis presidency look like for US healthcare?
Pomegranate's power: studies show promise in cardiovascular and diabetic health
The weird and wonderful things lost and found inside the human body
Parkinson's disease a potential pathogenetic factor for coronary artery disease and stroke, study suggests
More to come tomorrow!
📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW
Spoon-Fed: Why Almost Everything We've Been Told About Food Is Wrong – by Dr. Tim Spector
Dr. Spector looks at widespread beliefs about food, and where those often scientifically disproven beliefs come from. Hint, there's usually some manner of "follow the money".
From calorie-counting to cholesterol content, from fish to bottled water, to why of all the people who self-report having an allergy, only around half turn out to actually have one when tested, Dr. Spector sets the record straight.
The style is as very down-to-earth and not at all self-aggrandizing; the author acknowledges his own mistakes and limitations along the way. In terms of pushing any particular agenda, his only agenda is clear: inform the public about bad science, so that we demand better science going forwards. Along the way, he gives us lots of information that can inform our personal health choices based on better science than indiscriminate headlines wildly (and sometimes intentionally) misinterpreting results.
Read this book, and you may find yourself clicking through to read the studies for yourself, next time you see a bold headline.
Bottom line: this book looks at a lot of what's wrong with what a lot of people believe about healthy eating. Regular 10almonds readers might not find a lot that's new here, but it could be a great gift for a would-be health-conscious friend or relative 😎
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May your health go always from strength to strength,
The 10almonds Team