High-protein snacks and shakes are all over supermarket shelves. But does the average Australian really need protein supplements in their daily diet?
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00:00What protein does for us is keeps us alive.
00:05I mean, effectively, everything in our body that has a function is largely,
00:10well, most of it is built of protein.
00:13Our hormones, our bones are held together by protein,
00:17our brains, our heart, how the immune system works,
00:21all that relies on proteins and the integrity of our cells.
00:27Proteins are part of our way of being in the world,
00:31so they're incredibly important.
00:33And when you say how much protein do you need,
00:36the answer is, of course, it depends.
00:39And so the biggest public health problem we have in Australia
00:42is older people not having enough protein.
00:46It's likely that the protein requirements go up as you get older
00:50for various reasons that are not well understood,
00:53and people are not having enough protein.
00:55So their appetite goes down, they're living by themselves,
00:57they can't be bothered cooking, and so on.
01:00And also there's a belief around that too much protein is harmful for you.
01:06So let's deal with that one to start with.
01:08There is no evidence that protein is harmful for you,
01:13even if it looks as though you're taking it in excessive amounts,
01:16as long as your kidneys are not damaged.
01:21Kidney damage, particularly serious kidney damage,
01:23can be made worse by more protein.
01:25But most of us have normal, healthy, functioning kidneys,
01:28and therefore it's very hard.
01:31In fact, there is no evidence that with a normal functioning kidney,
01:34your protein intake will damage them.
01:38And, in fact, this fear of protein is probably keeping people
01:42from having enough protein in their diet.
01:44Some research in Western Australia suggested that if you have
01:47a lot of protein in your diet,
01:49your blood pressure might actually come down a bit,
01:51and it really is quite good for you.
01:53You don't want to go completely nuts here,
01:55but the fear about too much protein is actually not well based.
02:01So then the question is, what are you trying to do?
02:04When you're getting older, you're trying to prevent frailty,
02:07you're trying to prevent your muscles disappearing,
02:09which means that you want your lean mass weight to maintain itself,
02:13in other words, your muscle mass to be maintained.
02:16In order for your muscle mass to be maintained,
02:18you've got to eat adequate protein,
02:20otherwise your physiology will become weaker.
02:22But most of us should be doing, no matter what your age,
02:25muscle strengthening exercises to build muscle,
02:27or at least maintain it.
02:29In that case, you do want to make sure that you're having enough protein,
02:32probably maybe 50% more than what looks like
02:36the recommended daily requirements.
02:38Then this is where you get into the real mythology with protein,
02:42because if you look at young people in the gym,
02:45they're swallowing protein shakes, and they've been told,
02:48well, you've got to have protein before,
02:50and you've got to have rapidly digesting protein
02:52so that your muscles can take advantage of it.
02:54Then you've got to take protein maybe two hours later,
02:56and you've got to spread your protein throughout the day.
02:59Well, if you're wanting to become a bodybuilding champion,
03:04then it's probably hard to take in enough protein
03:08to build your muscles from regular food,
03:10then you are going to have supplementation.
03:12If you're elderly and frail and your appetite's down,
03:15then you probably do need some protein supplementation
03:18in order to get enough protein in.
03:20But for most of us, there's actually not that much evidence
03:23that timing your protein makes a difference to muscle bulk.
03:27In other words, if you're training, you're going to the gym,
03:29you're doing some walking with some strengthening exercises,
03:33then just making sure that your protein is reasonably evenly spread.
03:37But even a single meal where you're eating most of your protein
03:40looks as if it's okay.
03:41A lot of people are on intermittent fasting,
03:43and they're wondering,
03:44well, what's that going to do to my protein intake?
03:46As long as your meal of the day has a lot of protein in it,
03:50you're going to be okay.
03:52How much of an impact does the source of protein have?
03:55You're talking there about people drinking protein shakes
03:58or eating a steak, eating lentils and beans.
04:02How much of an impact does what it is that you're consuming
04:05have on the way that that protein impacts your body?
04:11The building blocks of proteins are called amino acids,
04:14and there are some amino acids called essential amino acids
04:17which your body doesn't make,
04:19and therefore you need to get them from food.
04:22If you're a vegan, it's sometimes hard to get enough essential amino acids
04:27from the food that you're taking.
04:28It's much easier than it used to be, but nonetheless it's harder.
04:32Vegetarian, people who are taking eggs and milk and so on,
04:35it's much easier for them to have an adequate intake
04:38of essential amino acids.
04:39That's the main issue around the different types of,
04:43whether you're a pescatarian, what sort of food that you eat.
04:46Vegans have the most trouble,
04:49but there are so many products on the market now for vegans
04:51it's much easier for them to do that.
04:53There was a theory at one point that if you actually took
04:56too much protein in your meal, the body would just get rid of it
04:59and not use it, and that's now thought to be less true.
05:02There's a little bit of that where the body burns up some of these
05:05amino acids instead of using them as building blocks,
05:08but it's thought to be less of an issue than it was,
05:11which comes back to this issue is if you have to load up your protein
05:15in one meal of the day, do it rather than going without.