I have never tried this (and I don’t think I could, to be honest), but I’m curious to know what you guys think about low-protein diets. I’ve been searching and even came across how a low-protein diet can prolong someone’s lifespan. To be honest, I’m a little skeptical of this because, for me, a well-balanced diet will surely help you stay healthy and live longer.
But I know a lot of people who do low-protein diets to improve their health or lose weight, and I just want to know your thoughts about it. Are there adverse effects on the body if this is done for a long time?
hmmm… honestly, I’m not really into it. First, because I love my proteins a lot, and second because your body needs protein to produce cells. Also, from what I remember, low protein intake is associated with cancer and overall mortality.
Prob not the best idea to do a diet that was only studied on mice. We don’t know the effect on people. We also don’t know how much protein would be beneficial for this process. Low protein diets can lead to muscle loss at a certain protein in level.
Aside from everything else, what is your body made out of, as your body is constantly turning over cells and tissues, repairing damage, building, etc? Proteins and fats. Period.
You body is not made of carbohydrates, though some do (as glucose and such) float around in your bloodstream from your food. So, denying/restricting your body’s critical building blocks is a recipe for disaster.
I think the studies you are thinking about were mostly restricted calorie diets, in rats or mice, where they extended their lifespans by a bit restricting calories. But you can still die many different ways in life, and why live your life like some kind of sad monk-like life for the off-chance that it might give you a few years.
As a general rule of thumb, any diet that encourages you to cut out or severely reduce a certain macro cannot be healthy long term. Even carbs have usefulness to the body. You need a really good balance of all the macros to stay healthy. A lot of protein and fats. A little carbs.
Protein is especially important. Most of your body is made of protein so for your body to properly engage in its cycle of regeneration it needs adequate protein. Protein is proper healing and a strong foundation.
One possible reason that cutting down on protein in diet might have been shown to help with weight loss and increase lifespan is that most people’s go to protein staple is red meat. So by reducing protein intake the participants in the diet might have been coincidentally lowering overall calories, cholesterol, nitrate consumption, sodium intake (from processed meat and seasonings), and saturated fat intake.
You can reduce your risks with all of these things by simply cutting back on red meat and getting your protein elsewhere as well as willfully reducing sodium intake in general.
Relatively low-protein diets may be warranted for certain disease states but this is done under the guidance of physicians and registered dietitians. The risks for a healthy individual would be not consuming enough of the essential amino acids that are required for a plethora of physiological functions. You can see the effects of chronically low protein intake in the context of sufficient kcal intake if you research kwashiorkor.
While the study you linked is an interesting read, you shouldn’t modulate your own diet based on just animal studies.
Most individuals are concerned about not getting enough protein but rarely consider the hazards of consuming too much. Humans have relatively low protein requirements compared to other mammals because, among other reasons, humans do not produce as much hair as other mammals.
Your body needs protein to build new tissue. You may lose a lot of your lean mass on a low protein diet. Higher amounts of lean body mass is positively related to longer/healthier lifespan. I would say compared to low fat or low carb, low protein is probably the worst thing you can do for your health. Unless you have a very specific condition that requires it, I would not recommend it.
I’m a nutritionist. Consuming a diet low in protein won’t have any ill effects right away. But in the long run, it could affect the health of your muscles, skin, hair etc. Also , unless you do not suffers from any conditions which require you to consume low protein diets, there’s no need to follow one.
If you’re looking to prolong your lifespan, the biggest impact, bar none, is cardio. Getting a stronger cardiovascular system by walking/biking/running/swimming/whatever is multiple times more important than any specific diet
Define low protein. Because nowadays < 2 g is low in the FITNESS realm.
Have 0.83 g protein per kg bodyweight. That’s what many subjectively consider to be “low”. But that’s the scientific consensus, so who cares about opinions. Humans thrive on 0.83. Anything up to double of that is unnecessary and over that can cause health problems per se, and even more when considering the dietary choices being made to obtain THE protein.
You won’t get stronger or change your body composition by having more protein, excess protein (over 0.83) is burned or stored as fat and that’s it. You get stronger by doing exercise, only.
Make people obsess over protein and you’ll have them eating crap because it has protein.
In this recent paper well-known longevity researcher Valter Longo and his colleague Rozalyn Anderson review the scientific literature concerning the effects of different diets on longevity and then design the ideal diet for achieving a long and healthy lifespan. From their summary:
>These pillars indicate that the everyday normocaloric longevity diet associated with low or very low side effects and extended lifespan and healthspan is characterized by a mid to high carbohydrate and low but sufficient protein intake that is mostly plant based but includes regular consumption of pesco-vegetarian-derived proteins…
I feel like most people in the US would consider my diet very low protein, about 35-40g per day, but for my weight its adequate. I’m honestly not sure what I could cut out to go LO… legumes? vegetables? Getting your protein into the LP range of less than .6g/kg would be pretty tough.
Plus, the study you linked is concerning, a low protein diet actually reduced the lifespan of mice that didn’t produce the necessary hormone in the liver. So, in humans with damaged livers or endocrine dysfunction, would a LP diet work? Theres some evidence that getting low but adequate protein, combined with IF, can extend lifespan through other mechanisms like suppressing MTOR so idk about this LP stuff.
“Mice and humans with Growth Hormone Receptor/IGF-1 deficiencies display major reductions in age-related diseases. Because protein restriction reduces GHR-IGF-1 activity, we examined links between protein intake and mortality. Respondents (n=6,381) aged 50–65 reporting high protein intake had a 75% increase in overall mortality and a 4-fold increase in cancer and diabetes mortality during an 18 year follow up period. These associations were either abolished or attenuated if the source of proteins was plant-based. Conversely, in respondents over age 65, high protein intake was associated with reduced cancer and overall mortality. Mouse studies confirmed the effect of high protein intake and the GHR-IGF-1 axis on the incidence and progression of breast and melanoma tumors, and also the detrimental effects of a low protein diet in the very old. These results suggest that low protein intake during middle age followed by moderate protein consumption in old subjects may optimize healthspan and longevity.” (1)
Low protein diet in that study was <10% calories from protein. High protein diet was >20%. Infants consuming human milk get 6% protein by calories.
These are primarily “fad” diets with questionable research foundation and seldom attain promised results. I would like to suggest you take a look at a personal nutrition assessment tool, EatSHARP, which we have developed under the guidance of two physicians. In less than three minutes you will get a good picture of your nutrition profile. When doing the nutrition assessment you can stay anonymous. Reach the assessment at www.eatsharp.org.
Methionine may be one amino acid relevant to life extension/health. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26663138/
Choosing protein sources low in methionine, like gelatin, could then potentially increase lifespan.
Low-protein sounds like a bad way to lose weight, *unless* you were eating so much it was unhealthy for you. If you were doing this for a specific medical reason, game on, but otherwise, it’s a rough plan.
Muscle mass correlates with longevity for older folks. If you have more muscle, the odds are you’re going to live longer. Muscle is made of protein. With too little protein, you get no gains from workouts. With less protein than that, you can’t recover from workouts. With less protein than that, you can’t recover from every-day normal things.
If you’re losing weight on a low protein diet, you’re likely losing muscle, and that feels a problem.
Looked at separately, there’s no longevity difference between vegetarians and omnivores in humans, which would make me think the mouse-related research may not carry over in a generalizable way. (It’d also argue that there’s a wide range of acceptable protein intake for longevity.)