The Diet Swap That Can Ward Off Some Harmful Effects of Aging
The risk of chronic inflammation rises as you get older, which can up your odds of conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and some kinds of cancer.
Now, a new study published in Current Developments in Nutrition found that people who eat higher levels of protein-especially from plant-based sources-are more likely to have favorable markers of inflammation than those who eat less.
Plant-based protein sources contain other nutrients besides protein, like fiber and antioxidants, which can help your health.
As we age, the risk of chronic, low-grade inflammation creeps higher-a situation so pervasive it’s seen as more of a feature of aging than an aberration. It even has a catchy name: Inflammaging.
This inflammation is associated with higher risk of heart disease, some cancers, diabetes, and high blood pressure. But researchers at Tufts University suggest that inflammaging can be controlled or even prevented to some degree with adequate protein-and in particular, protein from plants.
In the study, which was published in Current Developments in Nutrition, researchers looked at over 2,000 participants in the Framingham Heart Study-a long-term study focusing on cardiovascular disease-and compared their inflammation scores and protein consumption, including types of protein and amounts. The average age at the study start was 60, with data collected over seven years.
When looking at higher protein intake in general, they discovered that those who took in the most-an average of 95 grams per day-tended to have more favorable markers of inflammation than those who took in lower amounts, or roughly 67 grams per day. Higher protein seemed to be beneficial whether it was replacing carbs or fat.
But when teasing out the data a little more, they discovered where the protein was coming from mattered, too-and protein from plant sources seemed to be the kind that was most helpful.
The researchers found that a difference of about 10 grams per day in plant protein intake between the high and low groups was enough to show a beneficial association with inflammation, including when the people replaced their animal protein with plant protein. But there was no link between inflammation and protein from animal sources.
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Why might that be? It may come down to some of the other components in plant products besides protein.
In addition to protein found in sources like beans, nuts, and quinoa, plants have many other potentially anti-inflammatory components, notably antioxidants and fiber, said co-author Adela Hruby, Ph.D., scientist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts.
“Our research suggests that including enough protein in the diets of older adults, especially from plant sources, may help reduce the burden of frailty, sickness, and disease that is associated with the chronic inflammation of aging,” she said.
One important note is that participants tended to eat both animal and plant protein, and since the study was kicked off in 1998, that was a time when not a lot of older people were on the plant-based bandwagon, according to Hruby.
“The American food landscape and patterns of protein supplement use have changed pretty substantially since the time of data collection for this study,” she said. “In addition, our study is just one contribution to a large body of research that hasn’t yet reached definitive conclusions about the role of protein in age-related inflammation.”
That means more work needs to be done to investigate what would happen to inflammation levels with a plant-protein-only diet. But in the meantime, it certainly couldn’t hurt to load up your plate with more inflammation-fighting plants, Hruby noted.
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