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Eating extra protein may protect older adults from disability and help them maintain independent lives, based on a study published online Nov. 1, 2018. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. In the study, scientists recruited 722 people over the age of 85 and examined their medical data, including information equivalent to physical activity, what they ate every day, their body weight, and overall health status. took Disability was measured with self-reported questionnaires wherein people reported how much difficulty they’d performing 17 activities of day by day living, equivalent to getting off the bed, dressing, bathing, doing housekeeping, and Climb the steps.
Group data were collected again after 18 months, 36 months, and 60 months. The researchers found that consuming lower than the RDA for day by day protein was related to a greater likelihood of disability. In comparison, eating 25% to 50% greater than the advisable RDA—a median of 1 to 1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight—was related to greater self-esteem.
The researchers theorized that the additional protein helped delay the lack of muscle mass and strength commonly seen in older adults. They also noted that those that consumed additional protein did so for longer periods of time, suggesting that a sudden increase in protein intake may not provide immediate results.
