Daily Protein and Energy Intake Are Not Associated with Muscle Mass and Physical Function in Healthy Older Individuals—A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Dietary protein has a pivotal role in muscle mass maintenance with advancing age. However, an optimal dose and distribution of protein intake across the day as well as the interaction with energy intake for the maintenance of muscle mass and physical function in healthy older adults remain to be fully elucidated. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between muscle mass, strength, and physical function, and the total amount and distribution of protein and energy intake across the day in healthy older individuals. The research question was addressed in a cross-sectional study including 184 Danish men and woman (age: 70.2 ± 3.9 years, body mass: 74.9 ± 12.1 kg, Body Mass Index (BMI): 25.4 ± 3.7 kg/m2) where a 3-day dietary registration, muscle mass, strength, and functional measurements were collected. We found that neither daily total protein intake nor distribution throughout the day were associated with muscle mass, strength, or physical function. Consequently, we do not provide an incentive for healthy older Danish individuals who already adhere to the current internationally accepted recommended dietary protein intake (0.83 g/kg/day) to change dietary protein intake or its distribution pattern throughout the day.

Measures Derived from Panoramic Ultrasonography and Animal-Based Protein Intake Are Related to Muscular Performance in Middle-Aged Adults

“…More specifically, those above the median of ABPI as percentage of energy intake showed greater lower-body strength and endurance and greater handgrip strength than those below. Although greater protein intake is thought to be protective from developing sarcopenia [ 34 , 35 , 36 ], a recent cross-sectional study of older Danish adults utilizing methods similar to ours (e.g., three-day food diary and physical activity assessment) reported that protein intake was not related to knee extensor strength, handgrip strength, and 30-s chair stand test performance [ 16 ]. In contrast to their methodology where participants were divided into groups based on relative protein intake, we split ours according to ABPI as a percentage of energy intake.…”

“…There is a high degree of collinearity between relative intakes of macronutrients and relative energy intake. In fact, one of the main findings from Højfeldt and colleagues’ study of older Danish adults was that relative protein intakes and relative energy intakes are related [ 16 ]. Collinearity can bias estimates of betas in multivariate analyses [ 37 ].…”

“…Although there are many nutritional factors that can impact sarcopenia [ 14 ], dietary protein is perhaps of greatest interest because of its ability to stimulate muscle protein synthesis [ 15 ]. Recently though, the role of protein intake in performance has come into question, with one group finding no relationship between protein intake and measures of muscular performance, such as handgrip strength, knee extensor strength, and 30-s chair stand test performance [ 16 ]. Foods from animal and plant sources, of course, differ in their digestibility and amino acid content [ 17 ], and therefore in their ability to stimulate muscle protein synthesis [ 18 ].…”

Nutrition and Muscle Health

“…Accordingly, Coelho-Junior et al [6] indicated that adequate protein consumption is an important intervention to manage frailty, emphasizing the importance of setting the optimal distribution of protein across meals and assessing several protein-related parameters (instead of the only amount of protein intake). In fact, neither the total protein intake nor meal distribution appeared to be associated with muscle mass, strength or physical function in a cohort of Danish older adults [7].…”

Dietary habits and per-meal protein intake among older adults: Associations with visceral proteins

“…Other studies have shown no associations between protein distribution and physical function or strength [9,10]. However, meal-speci c protein dose may have biased ndings in studies assessing protein distribution.…”