To increase muscle strength try including protein in every meal, rather than just dinner, researchers say.
Most Americans begin their day with carbohydrate-rich breakfast like cereals or bread, then eat a light lunch of a sandwich and then eat a heavy dinner with protein-rich food. This kind of diet might satisfy the daily requirement of protein. However, a new study has shown that people need protein throughout the day to keep muscles healthy.
Good sources of protein include meat, poultry and beans. Research has shown that lack of protein makes people overeat.
The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and is published in the Journal of Nutrition.
The research shows that muscle strength is affected when a person eats protein-rich meal at the end of the day.
"Usually, we eat very little protein at breakfast, a bit more at lunch and then consume a large amount at night. When was the last time you had just 4 ounces of anything during dinner at a restaurant?" Paddon-Jones said. "So we're not taking enough protein on board for efficient muscle building and repair during the day, and at night we're often taking in more than we can use. We run the risk of having this excess oxidized and ending up as glucose or fat," said Paddon-Jones in a news release.
For the study, researchers divided participants into two groups. Both were kept on diets that had 90 grams of protein serving, but had different distribution; with one getting all the protein at dinner and the other taking it equally during brakfast, lunch and dinner. The team then measured muscle protein synthesis in all the participants.
Study results showed that people with evenly distributed protein intake had a 25 percent greater muscle protein synthesis than participants who got maximum part of the day's protein at night.
According to researchers, people can maximize muscle synthesis by simply shifting extra protein from dinner to breakfast.
"You don't have to eat massive amounts of protein to maximize muscle synthesis, you just have to be a little more thoughtful with how you apportion it," Paddon-Jones explained. "For breakfast consider replacing some carbohydrate, particularly the simple sugars, with high-quality protein. Throw in an egg, a glass of milk, yogurt or add a handful of nuts to get closer to 30 grams of protein, do something similar to get to 30 for lunch, and then moderate the amount of protein for dinner. Do this, and over the course of the day you will likely spend much more time synthesizing muscle protein."
The study was funded by the Beef Checkoff, the UTMB Institute for Translational Sciences, the National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources and the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center NIH/National Institute on Aging.