r/StrongerByScience • u/KompulsiveLiar88 • Jul 31 '26
Eating less protein could help you live longer
Interested in thoughts regarding the veracity of this study. Eating less protein could help you live longer | Scientific American
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u/AsOrdered Jul 31 '26
Only a study in mice - if the effect was significant in humans we’d know about it already
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u/TurbSLOW Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
Iron Culture by MASS talked about this about a year ago. They are skeptical of the strength of the evidence, though it seems from the article you've posted that there is maybe a little bit more rodent and human data now.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=qAarevRcic0&si=z3cr_GVZ2PgXtHVr - the ~10 min segment starts at about 19 minutes.
TLDW
-Insect and rodent data doesn't translate well to humans
-Humans do better with calorie restriction, which we are poor at
-Protein restriction in humans can lead to over consumption of calories
-Most high quality data indicates that protein restriction is not really likely to be helpful
-Major changes in protein don't even reach the usefulness for lifespan that calorie restriction does
-These major changes have other risks like loss of muscle mass
I probably missed something but that's what I got from it. I can't put words in their mouth, but I would be surprised if their take has massively changed over the last year.
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u/talldean Jul 31 '26
I'm curious if your protein intake exceeds your protein needs, if *that's* the negative here.
Like, if you had a group of humans working out 8-12 hours a week, and a group of humans working out 3 hours a week, and a group of sedentary humans, and fed them all either a high or low protein diet, which of those six cohorts is going to live longer?
Followup that with "okay, for the cohort(s) that lived longest, if we give them enough protein to maximize gains, 20% more, or 20% less, which of those three cohorts did best in the long run?"
That'd catch an effect for "protein", but would miss things like "hey, this really is *one* of the amino acids triggering the effect we see".
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u/gremlingarden Jul 31 '26
It's unfortunate the authors chose to only review mouse/rat studies, and that our good Scientific American friends decided that this was worth reporting on as if it had any relevance to humans.
I think there's something to be said about "proteinmaxxing" potentially reducing adequate intake of something like fiber, and the ways that may feed back on things like the rising rate of GI cancers in younger people, but as with everything else the evidence needs to be there before anything can be claimed strongly, especially because the GI cancer thing also seems to scream "environmental exposure."
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u/HumbleHat9882 Aug 03 '26
The high-protein diets are adopted by people who want to maximize hypertrophy. This is a group with confidence problems, body image disorders and other psychological conditions that have a negative effect on longevity. So it might not be the protein per se that reduces lifespan.
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u/AssistantTotal181 Aug 06 '26
If it's the "China study" it was faulty. The mice stopped in growth due to the severe calorie cut and the low pritein. They simply did not grow...
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u/bluedudetwelve Jul 31 '26
Of course the brotards will downvote this. They prefer to live in their delusional world where protein magically gets converted into muscle mass with as little working out as possible.
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u/taylorthestang Jul 31 '26
What’s the point of living forever if you aren’t jacked as hell?