Spotlight on: Optimal Protein Intake

Is higher or lower protein the optimal protein intake supportive of health and performance?

Advocacy for a low protein intake is typically based on concern that a higher protein intake will upregulate metabolic processes that accelerate aging and age related disease risk. There is some evidence for this albeit mainly in mice and short-term studies looking at human biomarkers, rather than actual health outcomes.

Set against this, advocacy for a higher protein intake is usually based on the certainty that higher protein intakes support increased muscle, and more muscle has major positive impacts upon present and long term health. Muscle enables functionality (being able to *do* stuff), reduces the risk of injury, reduces the risk of multiple chronic diseases including diabetes and dementias, and acts as an endocrine organ, secreting myokines with multiple health supporting effects.

If for optimal protein you prefer the certain benefits of the higher protein approach, the key principles to apply are:

1. Total Protein Intake

There is a fair consensus that for actively exercise individuals, protein intakes of 1.4 to 2.0 grams per kilo bodyweight (0.63 to 0.9 grams per lb) is safe and supports improved recovery and adaptation to exercise

2. Protein Dosing Per Meal

There is a demonstrated increase in muscle protein synthesis from meals that contain a minimum of 25 grams of protein and 3-4 grams of the leucine amino acid, making this an ideal target to apply per meal.

You may read that there is a "maximum" amount of protein one can benefit form within a single meal, but initial research that led to this understanding was using extremely rapidly digesting whey protein. Slower digesting proteins and mixed meals will change that picture completely.

3. Protein Intake Timing

Since there is no effective longer term 'pool' of amino acids for the body to use, unlike stores of fat and glucose, and since there will be an upper limit to how much protein can be effectively utilised from a single meal, it is ideal to take in protein rich meals 3 or more times daily.

For example, if aiming for 100 total grams of protein daily, 3 meals each containing 30+ grams.

4. Protein Quality

The key quality features are how well the amino acid profile of a protein sources matches what is typically needed, and how much of the protein in a food will be digested and absorbed.

Great wholefood sources include eggs, muscle meat, organ meat, fish, bivalves (such as mussels), cottage cheese and some dairy.

It is possible to obtain sufficient protein for all the above from plant-based sources, with some caveats. One is that the amino acid composition is often less ideal in plant based sources compared to the better animal based sources such as whey, egg, fish and lean meats. One can address this by combining different sources and eating more total protein.

Secondly, wholefood plant based protein is usually bound up in a complex fibrous matrix that may render some of the protein undigested as it passes through the small intestine.

Last, plant based protein sources often contain more carbohydrate than protein. Plant-based protein powders can work around this issue.

Top plant based options include fermented soy products (tempeh, some tofu, natto) and lupin or lupini beans, which have a far higher protein content than all others. Mycoprotein, from fungi, is also a great option, for example, from the Quorn brand (available in the UK)

5. Protein Powders

Protein powders are not essential for most to achieve optimal protein intake, but do provide simple and quickly available protein which can be consumed alone or mixed into a meal, shake or soup.

Protein powders will often not provide the added nutritional qualities - micronutrients and phytonutrients - that wholefood sources do, so they are ideally used as part of, but not the only and not the main protein source.

In addition to the popular whey and vegan blends suitable for shakes and smoothies, one can use savoury proteins such as beef, pea and pumpkin seed for adding to soups and dips and as the "flour" base for high protein bread.

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