• Rosario Ortolá, Ellen A Struijk, Esther García-Esquinas, Fernando Rodríguez-Artalejo, and Esther Lopez-Garcia.
• Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Idipaz. Madrid, Spain; CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: ortolarosario@gmail.com.
• Am. J. Med. 2020 Feb 1; 133 (2): 231-239.e7.

BackgroundAnimal and vegetable-based proteins differ on their effect on many health outcomes, but their relationship with unhealthy aging is uncertain. Thus, we examined the association between changes in animal and vegetable protein intake and unhealthy aging in older adults.MethodsData came from 1951 individuals aged ≥60 years recruited in the Seniors-ENRICA cohort in 2008-2010 (wave 0) and followed-up in 2012 (wave 1), 2015 (wave 2), and 2017 (wave 3). Dietary protein intake was measured with a validated diet history at waves 0 and 1, and unhealthy aging was measured with a 52-item health deficit accumulation index at each wave.ResultsCompared with participants with a >2% decrease in energy intake from vegetable protein from wave 0 to wave 1, those with a >2% increase showed less deficit accumulation over 3.2 years (multivariable β [95% confidence interval (CI)]: -1.05 [-2.03, -0.06]), 6 years (-1.28 [-2.51, -0.03]), and 8.2 years of follow-up (-1.68 [-3.27, -0.09]). No associations were found for animal protein. Less deficit accumulation over 8.2 years was observed when substituting 1% of energy from vegetable protein for an equal amount of carbohydrate or fat (-0.50 [-0.93, -0.07]), animal protein (-0.44 [-0.81, -0.07]), dairy protein (-0.51 [-0.91, -0.12]), or meat protein (-0.44 [-0.84, -0.04]).ConclusionsIncreasing dietary intake of vegetable protein may delay unhealthy aging when replacing carbohydrates, fats, or animal protein, especially from meat and dairy.Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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