Protein for Fitness: Age Demands Greater Protein Needs

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Protein for Fitness: Age Demands Greater Protein Needs
As the aging population continues to grow, making up a substantial part of our population focus is geared towards meeting the needs of these individuals in order to keep them healthy and optimize their overall quality of life. Increased protein demands, once a controversial topic, has been recognized to be imperative as an individual ages in order to combat sarcopenia, progressive muscle loss coupled with resistance to synthesize new muscle, which increases after the age of 50 resulting in 0.5-2% annual total muscle loss. Currently, the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) do not reflect increased protein needs for older adults, recommending only 0.8 gram of protein/kg of body weight per a day for the adult population, whereas current research suggests older adults over the age of 65 should be consuming approximately 1-1.2 grams of protein/kg of body weight per a day to maintain and continue to gain muscle mass and function in combination with resistance exercises such as lifting weights. In addition, currently no research has set forth a protein recommendation for older adults ages 50-65, which is a cause of concern as the body starts to loss its ability to maintain and build muscle mass.
            Although meeting protein requirements is typically not a concern in the clinical setting for most adults it has been found that older adults only consume 16% of their caloric intake from protein, leaving substantial room for improvement as the recommended range suggests 10-35% of caloric intake be from protein to optimize health status of an individual. High quality proteins from animal sources and whey protein have been suggested for older adults due to their leucine composition which has been found to play a role as a trigger for muscle synthesis. Soy products such as tofu, soymilk, beans, nuts, lentils and others have been suggested for older adults who are vegetarian. In addition, some experts have suggested equally distributing protein at every meal (30g of protein across three meals) can allow for maximizing amino acid utilization for muscle synthesis.  

References
Webb, D. (2015). Protein for fitness: Age demands greater protein needs. Today’s Dietitian, 17(4), 16. Retrieved from http://www.todaysdietitian.com/

-KP

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