Meat or Plant for Muscle?
Animal versus plant protein, open-skill movement and your monthly recommendations.
The Rundown
Meat or Plant for Muscle? In a recent study, researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign challenged the belief that animal protein is superior to plant protein for building muscle. Their surprising results showed that there is no difference in eating meat and dairy versus plant sources of protein after a workout.
The team recruited 40 physically active participants, 28 males and 12 females, aged between 20 and 40 years. They did a seven-day “habituation diet” to reset their bodies ahead of the protein trial and then were randomly assigned either a nine-day vegan eating plan or an omnivorous plan designed by scientists.
The omnivore diet had at least 70% animal protein (including beef, chicken, pork, dairy and eggs). The vegan plan focused on the amino acid content of the plant proteins to make sure that they were complete and comparable to the animal sources of protein. The participants ate around 1.1-1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight each day.
Some of the group ate about the same amount of protein across three meals every day while the others had different percentages of protein in five meals for the same time period, with the largest amount late in the day.
Everyone did weight-based strength workouts every three days in the lab. Accelerometers monitored their physical activity outside of the lab. To gauge how their bodies were using the protein they were eating, the participants drank deuterated (D20) water each day, which is a common way to trace the metabolic synthesis of protein and amino acids. Leg muscle biopsies were taken before and after the experiment.
Lead researcher Nicholas Burd said the team was surprised by the results because their general hypothesis (based on previous studies) was that an animal-based eating pattern would be more effective at supporting a muscle-building response. But the study found that there were no differences in how the muscle had synthesized the two protein sources in the diets and there was no impact of incorporating protein evenly in meals throughout the day.
The takeaway is that it doesn’t matter what the source of protein is or whether the amount you are eating is once a day or split across meals throughout the day. “As long as you’re getting sufficient high-quality protein from your food, then it doesn’t make a difference,” said Burd.
Think/Move. If your go-to form of physical activity is more about repetitive and predictable challenges (think golf and running) as opposed to movement that requires quick decisions in fast-moving and constantly changing environments (think hockey and soccer), you might want to consider switching it up.
New research on the brain benefits of “open-skill,” versus “closed-skill” sports found that kids who play open-skill sports score better than those who play closed-skill sports or no sports at all on cognitive tests, specifically in executive function (attentional control, working memory, resistance to distractions).
The researchers analyzed baseline data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, which had over 11,000 children, aged 9-10 years old. Cognitive performance was assessed using seven tasks that covered executive function, processing speed and language. The scientists controlled for sex, race, parental education, income, body mass index and total time spent in activities. The definition of “sport” was broad and included activities that may not have involved competition as a central component.
From the final analytical sample of 9,898 ABCD participants, the open-skill sports group outperformed the closed-skill and non-sport group on executive function tasks. No significant group differences were found on tasks assessing processing speed or language domains.
A few things to note: The line between open-skill and closed-skill activities can be blurry. Trail-running is more cognitively engaging than treadmill running; mountain biking more than cycling, for example. And of course, there is a lot of research that shows aerobic activity has other positive outcomes on brain health.
But the paper’s main conclusions suggest that it’s worth thinking about the benefits (and fun!) of trying activities that engage your brain and your body at the same time.
Extra Point
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Meditative Story. This podcast series combines stories with meditation prompts and cinematic music. Recent episodes focus on finding steadiness and stability for distracted minds and staying insightful, playful and alert.
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The Way You Build Muscle is the Way You Build a Life. In this New York Times essay by Bonnie Tsui, which is adapted from her book, On Muscle, The Stuff that Moves Us and Why it Matters, she writes about how our brain and muscles are in constant conversation with each other. And while our long-term brain health depends on moving them, “the closeness of muscle and mind is not just biological.” (Gift link).