Older people require a higher protein intake, which is not always met, which can lead to increased risk of disease and death. A study led by the Biomarkers and Nutritional and Food Metabolomics group of the University of Barcelona and the CIBER area of Fragility and Healthy Aging (CIBERFES) has discovered that taking animal protein from the age of 65 is related to lower cardiovascular mortality and for all causes.
The research has been carried out in the Italian Tuscany thanks to 1,139 participants aged 65 or over who indicated their food intake for no less than 20 years that the study lasted. With this work, the authors sought to find out the long-term associations of the intake of animal and vegetable proteins with the mortality rate of older adults in the Mediterranean area.
After that time, a total of 811 deaths were reported, 292 of them due to cardiovascular diseases and 151 due to some type of cancer. Taking into account the origin of the participants’ protein intake, an inverse association was found with all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality.
Animal protein against loss of muscle strength
Regarding the possible beneficial effects of vegetable protein intake, the study, which has been published in The Journals of Gerontology, has observed that there was no association with mortality, although a moderate protective impact was found in patients with arterial hypertension.
Taking more animal protein may be inversely related to mortality due to its protective effect on muscle strength, frailty, sarcopenia, or immune responses
“This study is the first to show an inverse association between animal protein and mortality in older women and men in a Mediterranean country. The increase in this protein intake may be inversely related to mortality due to its protective effect on muscle strength, frailty, sarcopenia or immune responses, so we must investigate further in this line”, explains Tomás Meroño, first author of the research. .
On some occasions it is advisable to increase protein intake, for example in the case of chronic or acute inflammatory conditions that can impair muscle strength among this elderly group. The findings could not determine whether the protective effect of animal protein was due to protein quality or the higher protein content of foods of animal origin.
However, the study has certain limitations that its authors have disclosed, and that is that the main source of vegetable protein was cereals, such as bread or pasta, which could have prevented a possible protective effect from being observed. vegetable protein. In addition, as Cristina Andrés-Lacueva, another of the researchers, explains, more studies are needed to be able to offer recommendations on protein intake in the diet of the elderly, with nutrient-dense foods, such as milk, eggs and fish.
.
