Recommended Daily Protein Intake for Elderly

The amount of “complete” protein a person requires per day is about 0.015 ounces per pound of body weight. This comes to around 2 ounces per day, depending on the size of the person. This amount is required to replace the protein the body loses daily in the form of discarded cells, and proteins broken down or “turned over” through metabolism. Such replacement protein is not used for energy but goes back into the structure of the body.

However, at low calorie levels, the body may divert some of this replacement protein into energy use, and leave you relatively deficient in protein for structural use. Thus, on a calorie-limited diet say below 2,000 calories per day, it is advisable to increase recommended daily protein intake by 10 to 20 percent.

You should in fact feel hyper energized and vital on a calorie-limited, nutrient-rich diet. If, after some months, this feeling of hyper energy should wane, look first to whether your daily protein intake is adequate. If not, increase it. Nonfat milk or buttermilk would be a good source for this, since both provide “complete” proteins. If this does not revitalize you, then you are simply at too low a calorie level.

Proteins are made of amino acids. Many of these amino acids can be manufactured by the body itself, but eight can not and must be obtained from food. These eight are referred to as the “essential” amino acids. When these are present in the daily food intake in the ratios represented by the Recommended Daily protein amount, all of the ingested protein, i.e., both the essential and the nonessential amino acids, can be used in making the building blocks of the body. If the supply of one essential amino acid is deficient, a portion of the others is merely converted into energy, and burned off.

While achieving exact or close to Recommended Daily Allowance ratios is no longer regarded as highly important, it remains of some importance in staying fit as you are aging, as you don’t want to be burning off extra calories to no benefit. Your caloric needs are best met by complex carbohydrates, not proteins or fats.

Daily protein intake of the average American has remained fairly constant during the twentieth century, at about 3.7 ounces per day. This is excessive, whatever the calorie level. The concomitant shift in emphasis from vegetable to animal proteins has had additional detrimental effects. Remember clearly that vegetable proteins are superior to animal proteins in health promotion. Let’s consider protein from standpoints both of quantity and quality.

Excess protein intake the steak and eggs diet, as exemplified, for example, in Dr. Atkin’s “Diet Revolution” (a diet that was first published in 1972 and was widely practiced), is unhealthy on a long-term-basis. Experimental studies have shown that such a diet leads to kidney disease and a shortened life span. Furthermore, an increased daily protein intake, particularly animal protein, speeds excretion of calcium, which may contribute to the development of osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis is one of the major problems of old age. It afflicts 20 million Americans, leads to 190,000 hip fractures per year, and 180,000 “crush fractures” of the spinal column, and it costs $5.3 billion yearly in medical bills alone. Calcium in the diet is thought to help prevent osteoporosis. However, note that osteoporosis is much less common among the Chinese, even though their calcium intake is about half of ours. This may well be because their protein is largely of vegetable origin.

Many athletes, especially body builders, have a mania about proteins. They believe that a very high protein intake will increase muscle mass and stamina. That’s just not true! There is no direct link between big muscles and big amounts of protein in the diet. Excess proteins are simply metabolized, largely to carbohydrates, or converted into fat and deposited in the abdomen, hips, or elsewhere, and extra energy must to be expended by the body to fuel this metabolism.