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Frontiers in Nutrition

Plant protein linked to lower risk of muscle weakness with obesity

Across three cohorts, the relative rate of developing the condition was 0.86 per standard-deviation increase in plant protein, where 1 indicates no association.

Paper by Haixia Zhu, Zhenzhu Yao, Qifa Hu

Thigh muscles show dense fibers beside lentils and peas, contrasted with a smaller muscle with sparse fibers, surrounded by people with rounded abdomens.
Accepted, not yet published: cohort study of middle-aged and older adultsPopulations

6,395 participants

Limit: Existing sarcopenic obesity predicted declining protein intake, so the association could run backward

Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper
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An observational study analyzed three national cohorts of 6,395, 4,880 and 3,900 middle-aged and older adults. They covered 2011–2015, 2012–2018 and 2010–2018, respectively. Researchers examined sarcopenic obesity: low handgrip strength and low muscle mass in the limbs, together with abdominal obesity.

Plant protein showed the most consistent association with lower risk of developing this condition. A standard deviation measures how much participants’ intakes varied. The plant-protein association was confined to people with abdominal obesity. Total protein was linked to lower risk in two cohorts, but not the third; animal protein showed no independent association. Slower biological aging may have accounted for a modest share of the plant-protein link. Having sarcopenic obesity initially also predicted declining protein intake.

Why it matters

Protein is recommended to help prevent age-related muscle loss. This study raises the question of whether protein source, rather than quantity alone, matters for muscle health alongside abdominal obesity.

Caveats

Observational data cannot establish cause and effect; other differences between participants and reverse causation may partly account for the links. The estimated contribution of biological aging was imprecise.

Where the evidence stands

Plant protein

C, W, M, H: cells, worms or flies, mice, humans. Dark: independent labs found the same change there. Light: one lab or one study. Outline: nothing yet.

Labs are independent when their papers share no last author and no institution.

Against: findings that point the other way from most findings on the same outcome.

Company ties: findings with an author at a company, or from a paper whose competing-interests statement declares ties to one.

  • 38 independent labs in 17 countries
  • 5 findings against
  • Funders: National Institutes of Health and others
  • 3 of 58 findings with company ties

Total protein

C, W, M, H: cells, worms or flies, mice, humans. Dark: independent labs found the same change there. Light: one lab or one study. Outline: nothing yet.

Labs are independent when their papers share no last author and no institution.

  • 3 independent labs in 2 countries
  • Funders: Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro and 1 more

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