Why Protein Matters More As You Age: Essential Guidelines

The Science Behind Muscle Loss and Ageing

As a Functional medical doctor, I place a great deal of importance on diet. With every patient I enquire about diet in detail. It is rare to see a new patient on a good diet. People have varying notions of what a good diet is. When enquiring about their vegetable intake, most say, “I eat plenty of vegetables,” only to find on deeper inquiry that they have 1-2 servings per day and that often includes potatoes.

Vegans are another area of worry for me. I personally think a vegan diet is an excellent diet for some people if properly balanced for protein, carbohydrates and fats. Unfortunately, some think that just avoiding animal products is all they have to do. The newly converted are often the worst. They had been meat eaters, and when they become vegans, they just drop the animal protein and increase the portion size of the vegetables with some soy protein thrown in to replace meat.

In this newsletter, I am not talking about vegan diets but protein requirements. Are you having too much or too little

The role of protein in ageing is commonly misunderstood.

Most people think we need less protein as we age. In this newsletter, I am going to discuss that we actually need more protein as we age, and I will tell you why. I will also tell you how much protein you need to consume and what else you need to do when you increase protein intake.