Research

Macro partitioning

Older adults disproportionately consume lower-quality plant-based proteins at lunch compared to younger and middle-aged adults, who primarily consume animal-based proteins at the same meal.

At lunch, older adults tend to eat lower-quality plant proteins (like bread) compared to younger people who eat meat or fish. Since animal proteins are more effective at building muscle, try to swap some of your lunch carbohydrates for a high-quality protein source like eggs, yogurt, or lean meat to better support your muscles.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Sources of protein consumption were similar between groups except at lunch where old individuals ingested lower quality proteins compared with middle aged and young individuals... at T2... plant-based proteins (bread) were the main source of protein in old individuals.
Benoit Smeuninx et al. · Frontiers in Nutrition · 2020

Why this rating

Observational data on food sources; does not measure MPS response to these specific sources directly in this cohort.

Source

Amount, Source and Pattern of Dietary Protein Intake Across the Adult Lifespan: A Cross-Sectional Study

Benoit Smeuninx et al. · Frontiers in Nutrition · 2020

DOI 10.3389/fnut.2020.00025

cross_sectional · n=120Cited 69×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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