High protein diets are associated with survivability and longevity, Dr Gaby Lyon

Asking the questions

As a health advocate I know that what a person eats has a direct correlation to how the body functions, how quickly injury will repair and how the person will feel down the track.

What a person eats is so important no matter who they are or how old they are but I definitely see that diet plays a significantly larger role in women from around 40 years of age.

If women can understand the role of specific foods, specific nutrients and their own body’s responses to what goes into the body, I am hoping that more women can take more control over their own journey.

As a movement person, exercise is absolutely key. In particular, learning good joint movement plays a role in easing pain, improving posture and moving better. As I teach good joint movement, I also want to make sure that the body I am working with is getting stronger from the exercises that are being performed.

Muscle builds muscle so the more muscle mass you have, the healthier you will be. The process of muscle building is complex and it changes with age which is why women over 40 start to feel their body fail, aches and pains set in and the tuck shop arms appear out of nowhere.

How do you increase muscle mass and what factors work against you as you age?

Stimulating mTOR

mTOR is the signalling pathway that increases cellular proliferation associated with all cellular function. mTOR is activated by amino acids, growth hormone and insulin and is impaired by nutrient or energy deficiency. It is the pathway in the control of protein synthesis. In order to stimulate mTOR you must consume 30 grams of protein in one sitting. mTOR also takes 4 – 5 hours to reset so the minimum amount of time between meals should be 4 hours and in fact the body will perform better if you stack your main meals (optimally 2 meals in a day) with a 4 hour break and then give your body at least a 14 hour window of fasting between meals. I will write another article about the fasting window but for now let’s focus on the building blocks of muscle.

Amino acids are the building blocks of our structure that combine to form proteins. Protein is pretty much every structure in the body, every cell and every function relies on protein. In particular bones, muscles, joints and ligaments require certain proteins to lay down. Of the 20 amino acids in the body, 9 of them are considered essential and must be consumed in the diet.

Foods that contain all of the 9 essential amino acids are considered complete proteins and consuming them contributes to your body building muscle.

These foods include

• grass fed meat
• free range chicken
• wild caught fish
• shellfish
• legumes
• quinoa
• eggs
• soy
• buckwheat

Over the years I have definitely noticed a move towards plant based diet. People choose to eat plants over meat for varying reasons and the marketing campaigns have been pushing society towards a meat free existence for a long long time. The effects on our health has been deleterious and the data we are seeing is alarming in the rates of obesity, chronic pain, lifestyle disease and structural malaise in the population.

Stacking up the benefits of eating meat products over plant products when it comes to protein synthesis, it can be a difficult task to be able to get enough plant protein in the diet to rebuild muscle let alone sustain muscle strength as you age.

The facts of protein demands in women

To calculate the amount of protein you need per day the general rule is 1 gram of protein to 1 pound (or 0.5kg) of ideal body weight so if your ideal body weight is 60kg then you need up to 130 grams of protein every single day. Some days you may not be able to consume that much but building muscle will prevent the lifestyle diseases we see today, particularly obesity, cardiovascular and structural so you want to work on consuming the protein required for muscle and bone growth using the best source of protein available that is easiest for your body to utilise.

Your first meal of the day should have between 40 and 50 grams of high quality protein. High quality protein is based on data, not emotions. Quality of protein is really based on the amino acid composition. What proteins have the ratio and amount of protein that matches the human body, essentially. That means that they have the correct ratio to sustain the human body. And that would be animal-based proteins, whether it’s whey protein, eggs, beef, chicken, fish, even dairy these proteins have an amino acid profile similar to humans.

Is that to say that protein found in plant products are not beneficial? NO! But we have to look it like this

Like feeds like

The joint in bone broth feeds the joints in your body

The skeletal muscle of an animal feeds the skeletal muscle in your body

Because the amino acid profile is the same.

With that in mind lets look at the following table:

As you can see in the table above, a 60kg woman would need to eat 6 cups of lentils or 4 lamb chops to consume her daily quota of protein. A study was done in India on teenage boys to see how many lentils they needed to eat to get their daily dose of protein to allow for puberty and muscle growth and it came to 750 grams… per day! Now I don’t know about you but I just don’t see how this is attainable, let alone sustainable for most people?

For muscles to be stimulated you need the amino acid Leucine in your diet. You need 30 grams of protein in 1 meal to stimulate protein synthesis and you need to be able to synthesis 2.5 grams of leucine from that one meal. Leucine is one of the 9 essential amino acids provided by the diet and the highest source of leucine is animal products. Grass fed beef, chicken, egg and the lowest source being fish.

As we age this neural sensing response of muscle and bone growth becomes slower. Skeletal muscle is a neural sensing organ and due to anabolic resistance as we age we need protein with high leucine that is easily available to be able to build muscle. To reach 2.5 grams of leucine in quinoa you would need 3 cups. To reach 2.3 grams of leucine you would need to eat 1 lamb chop.

It is important that the body receives a minimum of 30 grams of protein with leucine in it to stimulate muscle growth and to lay down bone in one single meal. Sipping on a protein shake all day long simply is not going to cut it. It’s the amount in one sitting that activates the process to stimulate growth.

Now I understand that people are resistant to eating meat for all different reasons and this article is not to try and convince you otherwise. What is important however is that you understand how much protein your body needs to thrive, what the best sources of those specific proteins are and why they are so so imperative for your muscle and bone health as you age.

When is it safe to be vegetarian?

If you want to enjoy a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle, your 20’s are the most appropriate time. Naturally women have higher testosterone levels at this stage of life (actually testosterone peaks at 26) and since testosterone is the muscle building hormone, this is the best time of your life to enjoy a meat free diet without being detrimental to your health. After 26, testosterone starts to drop and by the time you are 50 you are definitely in need of supplementing the hormonal growth phase since testosterone drops to around 1/4 the amount and is produced in the peripheral tissues (muscles and skin) and adrenal glands once the ovaries give up cycling.

If you are over 30 years old and still living a vegetarian diet you absolutely will need to supplement with B6, B12, iron, branch chain amino acids and possibly other things to avoid doing your body long term damage and to keep up with your body’s needs. It can be done but it needs to be done with great intention and specifically with organic, clean produce that is not manufactured to avoid chemical overload leading to endocrine toxicity.

Living a plant based diet in your 50’s and 60’s is detrimental to your health, there is no if’s or but’s. These women are generally the ones with bone density issues, tooth and gum disease, hair loss, depression and energy depletion.

Do you know a thriving vegetarian in their 50’s?

New studies have shown that up to 20% of the population do in fact have a make up that allows them to produce the 9 essential amino acids that the rest of us get from our diet. The study is very new (2021) and there are still questions around the gut microbiome and blood type of these people and whether or not there is a correlation. The studies are leaning towards microbiome of the gut so stay tuned for more info. And, that still means that at least 80% of the population can not thrive on a meat free diet.

All proteins and carbs should come from clean sources so this means that meat is grass fed, organic and pasture raised and carbohydrates are unrefined with a leaning towards cruciferous vegetables and leafy greens (organic where possible).

Meat, in particular when not sourced well can be the most toxic food you can eat. The meat industry didn’t get its bad name from small, organic, sustanable farms. The bad name (and rightfully so) comes from the mass production, antibiotic laden, chemical soaked meat you find in the big supermarkets, restaurants and fast food outlets who rarely care  for your health or the health of the animals they slaughter and often have no awareness of the damage their industry is doing .

All food grown unsustainably and non organically is sprayed with glyphosate which is a known carcinogen and is banned in many countries. In fact, Australia has one of the worst rates of chemical toxicity levels in our food supply due to our strict bio laws that are trying to prevent pests (at the expense of its own human population) so where possible choose local, certified organic and spray free – or even better, grow your own.

The take aways

• 2.5 grams of leucine stimulates skeletal muscle and leucine is denser in meat than plants
• A single meal should have 30 – 50 grams of protein
• Clean animal protein is the most dense, bioavailable source of high quality protein
• Protein sources must be clean
• Lack of protein contributes to chronic pain, bone and joint issues
• Depression is a sign of protein deficiency in women

Looking for ways to increase your protein intake? We sell a range of high quality protein powders in store or check out my recipe here for bone broth

Need a more strategic plan for your health journey? Book a 60 minute health coaching session with Kate and help move forwards with courage and joy.