Is it true that eating less or more protein can lead to longevity of life? There have been a lot of interviews on protein spanning around low protein, high protein, grams per protein, and so on with links to longevity, reverse aging, and even those saying it isn't good at all.
To get a better view of the protein and longevity talk, we can start with an article that talked about the Okinawa people. In 1945, there was the Cold War which claimed the lives of one-third of the population and the destruction of their food supplies which leading to starvation among a large portion of the population and they did not get enough calories after the war. They had to rely on sweet potatoes for calories and over 60 years have passed and people have started to link the long average lifespan of Okinawans to their potato-eating lifestyle around the time of war.
This belief that Okinawans' long life is associated with high carb was backed by a BBC article in 2019 but the data used in the article was obtained from 1949 just after the war. So researchers found that less activation of mTOR in a particular type of worm made it live longer and over time, scientists said that less activation of mTOR made animals live longer and they concluded that eating less protein activates mTOR less since protein activates mTOR.
The study shouldn't have been based on the short time after the war, rather they should have looked at years after because Okinawans began to eat more pork meat, In fact, their diet starts and ends with pork meat.
But if we mention mTOR to longevity and we look at increasing carbohydrates, then we are disturbing ourselves because insulin as well as Leucine activate mTOR. This said, Sarcopenia or muscle loss is one of the leading issues in the elderly that can lead to death and it is caused by the muscles degrading but this can be restored by watching a protein diet and exercising.
Scientists have also come to say that a low-protein diet is a recipe for early death so which of these are we going to believe or come in agreement with? If we are saying activating mTOR is good enough reason for longevity, then we cannot say eating one type of diet should be preferred because a whole host of things can trigger mTOR.
Read More
- https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190116-a-high-carb-diet-may-explain-why-okinawans-live-so-long
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3141572/
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9589488
- [https://jps.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1007/s12576-010-0130](https://jps.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1007/s12576-010-0130-y#:~:text=Skeletal%20muscle%20hypertrophy%20is%20characterized%20by%20an%20increase%20in%20muscle%20protein%20mass.&text=Additional%20stimuli%20(e.g.%2C%20exercise%20volume%2C%20blood%20flow,protein%20synthesis%20%5B24%E2%80%9327%5D%2C%20leading%20to%20muscle%20hypertrophy.)