Weekly newsletter of Dr Kpakpo - Issue #4

A protein plan for you...

Perhaps you're confused.

You might have heard that you need adequate protein for a long life.

You might also have heard that too much protein will condemn you to:

• Cardiovascular disease

• Cancer

• Supporting the demise of lots of animals

But none of these are necessarily true.

Obviously plant based protein (if you must, real food, NOT factory fake meat) is the solution for the last one, but let's have a look at the first two.

This stems from research by Dr Valter Longo done in 2014 that suggested that high protein diets in mice & from a single 24 hour food diary in humans lead to elevated mTOR which is linked with diabetes and aging.

This didn't take into account:

• Protein quality

• Eating window

• Relative fruit & vegetable consumption

• Medical history

• Calories consumed

Amongst other things.

But it was a well conducted study & he made a very successful diet program and product out of it.

We've since had recommendations from Dr Stuart Phillips & others that current dietary recommendations from protein are actually too low.

Even Dr Longo agrees that older adults actually benefit from at least "adequate" protein.

And we certainly haven't seen any isolated, directly causative evidence of high protein diets for cancer or cardiovascular disease.

What we have seen is these linked to obesity, and the benefits that fasting can have on them.

So where does that leave us?

I'll give you my take.

1) Everybody should try to fit in a fast or two of 24 hours each month. And perhaps 72 hours once per quarter if you can manage it. Just to give your gut a rest, help bring calories down & perhaps increase autophagy.

2) If you're overweight, reducing that body fat is absolutely paramount. Everybody knows this and I won't go into specifics here. But you also probably don't need excess protein at this point either. 1.2g/kg is probably ok, and doing exercise (preferably resistance training) will be enough to reduce fat.

3) If you're a woman over 45, or perimenopausal, that's a little frail, you need to put on muscle. And that means more protein. You're at increased risk of sarcopenia (muscle loss) & the several problems that creates. 1.6g/kg plus some resistance training should help with that.

4) If you're over 45 and normal weight, it's probably sensible not to go overboard with the protein unless you're specifically trying to build muscle. The merits of doing so at this point can be debated, but resistance training (again) is the key determiner here. That's the stimulus that will help you to keep or build muscle.

5) If you're 65+ you need more protein as you're losing more & more. Sarcopenia again. Whether you're male or female. You need at least enough to replace what you're losing & preferably what you've already lost. 1.6g/kg plus resistance training again.

This is where I'm sitting on this at the moment.

Some clinicians are starting to give advice for more protein now. And although protein by itself can give an anabolic signal, the signal from resistance trained muscle as well will make this significantly more effective.

Although I haven't gone into additional specifics like eating windows & methionine/glycine ratios, this should be enough to get started.

Do you have any more questions about this?

Is there anything about this that seems too difficult? Or even too easy?

I'm reading every reply.

To your best health,

Dr Kpakpo