Two weeks ago I answered a reader’s question about whether they needed to get 100g of protein each day. The tl;dr is that it depends on a few different factors, like age, activity level, and body size. There’s no one-size-fits all, which is why blanket recommendations aren’t going to be right for everyone. But, in general, it's a good idea to be mindful of protein to help prevent age related issues like sarcopenia and osteoporosis.
But if you’ve ever had a tricky relationship with food, then weighing yourself and tracking your food could be upsetting, stressful, or trigger disordered behaviour around food or your body. Let's face it, most advice for increasing out protein requirements comes with the expectation that you hate your body and should do everything you can to change it.
So how can we be mindful of higher protein needs as we enter midlife, without triggering disordered eating or body-related distress?
Here’s where the 10th principle of Intuitive Eating – Gentle Nutrition – might come in useful.
Rather than being a prescriptive set of rules about eating Xg of protein or fasting windows, or counting calories, gentle nutrition helps us lightly apply some nutritional concepts, without getting too bogged down in minutiae.
In How To Just Eat It I wrote that gentle nutrition had six guidelines. They don’t fit everyone all of the time, but they can be helpful to orient you without getting caught up in the numbers, rules, and perfectionism that diet culture imposes on us. Let's take a closer look.
Adequacy: I said in my Dear Laura post that more often than not the biggest problem I see with people in midlife/peri menopause is that they aren’t eating enough to support their needs throughout the day. They may fall into a pattern of eating smaller meals/snacks throughout the day and get to 7 or 8pm and realise they’re famished. Not eating enough will have obvious impacts on energy and tiredness levels, but also on hormone and bone health. I don’t care how you go about this, whether you set yourself some supportive scaffolding by setting a timer to remind yourself to eat, or get acquainted with your hunger signals, just make sure you’re eating enough.
Balance: The perisphere will have you believe that you should be eating protein, protein, and nothing but protein. It should be from animal sources and then bulked out with whey powder. The problem is that a myopic focus on protein means that we might not be getting enough of the other things we need: carbs for energy, fibre for pooping, fats to make things taste good and support essential functions, fruits and veg for vitamins and minerals, and dairy or a dairy alternative because cheese. I don’t mean that every meal has to be 'perfectly balanced', just that we generally feel better with a mix of foods over time. Here’s a helpful thought experiment: if you have, say, a chicken salad for lunch, how does that feel compared to if you were to have some bread or pasta (i.e. carbs) with that chicken salad? You’re more likely to have sustained energy, better digestion, and improved mood than without. If you go hard on protein without adding some fibre, you're going to have a hard time pooping. That's why beans, nuts, legumes, and pulses might be a good option for some people; they have both fibre and protein.
Variety: This can be a little tricky, especially if you have a limited number of safe foods, or have a hyperfixation meal. Please reach out to a qualified nutrition professional if you’re worried and would like help figuring out what nutrition support might be best for you. Otherwise, if it’s accessible to you, trying different flavours, textures, cuisines, and types of food can help us meet our nutritional needs, including for protein. If you’re an omnivore, the research indicates that having a mixture of plant and animal proteins is probably best. If you’re vegan though, it’s a good idea to vary your sources of plant protein (tempeh, tofu, fake meats, beans, pulses, nuts, seeds).
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