National Nutrition Week: Dr. Eileen Canday, Head of the Department of Nutrition & Dietetics, Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital, elucidates the importance of protein intake for women.
Over the years, protein was considered something that bodybuilders should eat, while women were encouraged to eat “light,” reduce their fats, and watch out for their calories. What we have now, decades later, is a generation of women in their thirties, forties, and fifties who are protein-deficient without even knowing it.
On this National Nutrition Week, Dr. Eileen Canday, Head of the Department of Nutrition & Dietetics, Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital, elucidates the importance of protein intake for women.
Thirty is the turning point
Somewhere around the age of thirty, there is something that quietly changes in a woman’s body. The muscle mass that has been steadily increasing or at least maintaining itself through her twenties now starts decreasing, and this is the phenomenon called sarcopenia. After the age of thirty, women can start losing 3 to 8 percent of their muscle mass each decade and even more post-menopause.
This is exactly why protein requirements do not remain constant throughout a lifetime. For women in their thirties, life is much more hectic than before, as they work, raise kids, and take care of aging parents. Breakfast becomes a cup of tea, lunch is just the chapati and sabzi, and dinner depends upon what is faster.
Why these old recommendations don’t work
The standard RDA of approximately 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight was created to avoid deficiencies. However, most women benefit from a much higher intake of protein at around 1.0 to 1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight each day.
For example, for a woman who weighs 60 kilograms, this would be a move from 48 grams of protein minimum daily intake to 60-72 grams per day. The difference is far from negligible: it might well be the difference between a woman who always feels tired and one who is full of energy even when the afternoon hits.
Symptoms of underconsumption of protein
Lack of protein doesn’t typically show up drastically but as:
1. Tiredness that is not relieved by sleep
2. Dull hair and/or brittle nails
3. Long-lasting illness or exercise fatigue recovery time
4. Creeping up of body fat even though you eat less due to low muscle mass which slows down metabolism
5. Sweet cravings because protein stabilizes your blood sugar and appetite.
Ways to adjust your daily protein intake in practice
Instead of changing all your meals, here are three steps to take:
Anchor the start of the day with protein. Eggs, Greek yoghurt, paneer or a high-protein smoothie in the morning helps to keep hunger in check through the rest of the day better than carbs alone at the start.
Evenly space out protein consumption over the meals. There is only so much protein that the body can utilize for muscle building at any single point of time. The strategy of eating a huge dinner while eating very little during breakfast is much less efficient than having a moderate amount at all the three meals.
Plant Proteins: allies, not rivals
The best part about plant proteins like lentils, chickpeas, tofu and paneer is that they are great but many other sources of protein from plants are also calorie-dense and deficient in some essential amino acids compared to meat products. This can be remedied by combining them with complementary foods like dal with rice and hummus with whole wheat.
Big picture
Protein in your thirties is not a beauty trick; it’s preventative medicine. Each gram of protein you eat is a stake in the muscle and bone mass that you’ll need in your fifties, sixties and beyond.
