Change Your Plate… Dodge Your Fate!

Protein Power to the rescue. Outsmart the stalker that's out to make you older, NOW.

Women over 50, this public service announcement is for you 📣

PART ONE OF A 2-PART SERIES

Here's the thing. There's a stalker on the loose and, sorry to say, they've got your number. In fact, they’ve got you like a puppet on a string, and it’s time to cut them off.

Going by the name ‘sarcopenia’, this isn't just some minor nuisance. It's a certified public enemy, recognised as a muscle disease by the World Health Organisation since 2016. If there's one word to describe it, it's stealthy.

This guide is designed to make YOU even stealthier. It’s all about stopping this culprit in its tracks. And as luck would have it, there’s an internationally renowned superhero waiting in the wings. Protein!

Right here, we’re going to build the arsenal you need to keep this sinister culprit at bay.

But first, we need to get their measure, so let's build a profile of our target, CSI-style.

Who and What is Sarcopenia?

It may sound like a death metal band, but sarcopenia is far from noisy. It’s not even Simon and Garfunkel, except perhaps the line “hello darkness, my old friend”.

It’s likely been on your tail for years. Since you turned 30, and across your 30s and 40s, it’s silently robbed you of 3-8% of your muscle mass.

That’s its modus operandi.

After we turn 50, sarcopenia accelerates, egged on by the hormonal shift of menopause. Through our 50s and beyond, it potentially takes another 1-2% of muscle mass yearly—that's 10-15%, or more, per decade. Twice as much as our male peers.

The Ultimate Evil Networker

As if that's not enough, sarcopenia has accomplices. As muscle mass drops, metabolism slows, making it easier to gain fat. Less muscle means weaker bones, because those muscles aren't pulling on your skeleton to keep it strong. It's a perfect storm.

Left unchecked and unopposed, sarcopenia and its mates can gradually turn everyday activities into challenges—one muscle fibre at a time. Yes, its end game is to make you frail and fragile.

The biggest fingerprints it leaves are on your capability and mobility, and all those little things, like carrying your own groceries, picking up your grandchild, even getting off the toilet seat. This is what we don’t want to see: our independence eroded.

Your Secret Weapon: The Power of Protein

But, hey, there is some good news. On the surface at least, the solution appears surprisingly simple. A lot of it comes down to protein intake. Along with strength training, protein is seen as the great protector against sarcopenia, and the evidence is mounting.

More and more, studies show women over 50 who maintain adequate protein intake (combined with resistance training) can not only stop sarcopenia but actually reverse many of its effects.

Yes, the key words here are ‘adequate protein intake’.

But what is ‘Adequate Protein Intake’? Good question!
Something that’s not helped our cause in fighting sarcopenia is that global dietary recommendations for protein are in transition.

Over the last decade, as research into sarcopenia has grown, many leading global experts and organisations have been pushing for an increase in recommended dietary intake of protein, particularly for older adults, and especially for women 50+.

Experts at the coal face tell us that while our younger selves got by on 0.8g of protein per kilogram of body weight, our 50-plus self needs 1.2 to 1.6g. That's 25-50% more.

Yet changes to protein guidelines are slow. A tip of the hat here to the British Nutrition Foundation’s newly revised guidelines which reflect the best advice. (Nudge, nudge, US and Australia!)

It’s Time to Rise Up

Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you’re not consistently hitting the optimal daily protein target, your door’s unlocked for sarcopenia to sneak right in, putting all our road tripping dreams of a long and happy ‘joyspan’ on the line.

Don’t even get me started on a system that expects a normal person to unscramble what “1.2 to 1.6g protein per kilogram of body weight” actually means. I literally had to give up my day job to work it out. True story. ;-)

But, suffice to say, I’ve unlocked it in an easy at-a-glance protein guide.

It’s the equivalent of hitting sarcopenia over the head with your handbag, little-old-lady style.

Your Protein Cheat Sheet

Creating the Protein Cheat Sheet was one of my biggest priorities when I left traditional media and immediately started planning this magazine six months ago. As much as anything, knowing how important protein is to healthy longevity, I needed the clarity for myself.

Finally no more complicated maths, no weighing portions, and no confusion! Joy, right there!

UPDATE TO READERS:
Please note that since this article was published, the Protein Spread Sheet has been updated in line with two additional meal planning tools in Part 2 of this two-part series.

To see the full updated approach to protein meal planning with all tools and a download of the updated Protein Cheat Sheet, please click here.

How to Use the Protein Cheat Sheet

What a wonder to find our body comes with the perfect protein-measuring tools - our palm and thumb! Perfectly proportioned to our individual size. As well as a measuring guide, they’re also a visual reference that's always with us.

The general guideline the experts most agree on for general health, and guarding against sarcopenia, for women 50+ is 80-100g of daily protein.

The Protein Cheat Sheet guides you to your prescription using the following easy building blocks:

• 25-30g = a palm-sized portion of things like chicken, salmon, lean beef, tofu or tuna steak. A small 95g can of tinned fish or a cup of yoghurt also hits the mark.

• 5g = a thumb-sized portion of any one of these: walnuts, almonds, peanut butter and cheese. An egg, cup of milk or ½ cup of edamame also gives you 5g of protein

• 15g = a 400g / 15oz tin of legumes, or 2 cups of quinoa, or 1 scoop of whey protein powder.

UPDATED INFORMATION:

To see the full updated approach to protein meal planning with all tools and a download of the latest version of the Protein Cheat Sheet, please click here.

Creating Your Daily Protein Roadmap

Remember that old 1960s mantra of ‘meat and three veg’? Here we are again, planning our meals around protein! As we get used to what a true protein-powered day looks like, try these simple roadmaps to get started.

1. The Simple Road (85-100g daily protein)

• 3 palm-sized servings—one at each main meal (75-90g protein)

• 2 thumb-sized protein snacks (10g protein)

2. Mix It Up (75-80g daily protein)

• Breakfast: 1 palm-sized portion (25-30g protein)

• Mid-morning: 1 thumb-sized snack (5g protein)

• Lunch: 1 can of legumes or 2 cups quinoa portion (15g protein)

• Mid-afternoon: 1 thumb-sized snack (5g protein)

• Dinner: 1 palm-sized portion (25-30g protein)

3. Let’s Get Specific (95g of daily protein)

• Breakfast: 1 egg and 1 cup Greek yoghurt (30g protein)

• Mid-morning: 1 thumb-sized portion of both nuts and cheese (10g protein)

• Lunch: 1 tin of legumes (15g protein)

• Afternoon: 1 thumb-sized portion peanut butter (5g protein)

• Dinner: 1 palm-sized portion of lean meat and 1 cup of quinoa (35g protein)

UPDATE:
For detailed protein meal plans and tools, please see the follow up to this article. PART 2 is here.

PRO TIPS
How to Customise Your Protein Cheat Sheet

For a more personalised approach, try these adjustments

• Bigger body frame? Make it a generous palm

• Smaller body frame? A slightly smaller palm works fine

• Always seem hungry? Combine protein portions with fibre-rich vegetables

• Very active? Add at least one extra thumb-sized portion if you typically exercise 3+ times per week, do strength training, regularly walk over 7,000 steps daily, or have active hobbies like gardening, dancing or golf

Important tips

• Increase protein gradually to avoid stomach upset while your gut adjusts.

• If you’re increasing protein intake, also increase your intake of water to 8-10 cups a day—an increase of 750ml (1½ pints), or 2-3 extra cups a day of additional water. This supports better protein absorption and digestion, and also reduces stress as your kidneys process protein’s waste products.

• If a protein-rich food is not on the Cheat Sheet, use your palm as a guide and count it as 25-30g.

  Remember: No need for perfect precision - it's about consistent, adequate protein intake that fits into your real life.

The Age-Well Compass:
Protein: A 5-Star Destination

It’s not a Joy Ride without a spin around the Age-Well Compass and, as if we’re not already motivated, the compass bearings for protein are impressive! Even beyond the benefits of combating sarcopenia, protein is a 5-star destination. .

And that’s just a taste of the many additional benefits protein brings, all on top of leaping buildings in a single bound and giving stalkers and bad-doers the old kapow-bam-boom treatment!

THIS POST IS PART ONE OF A 2-PART SERIES

See Part 2: Protein to the Rescue, here.
It includes an update on the Protein Cheat Sheet and two additional handy meal planning tools.

I hope you enjoyed this post. If so, I would be enormously appreciative if you would kindly share it, whether with one person, or far and wide as you feel appropriate.

And of course, if you have any questions, or for that matter any feedback including on any factual errors or glitches, I am ever-open to your comments and suggestions!