#109 Optimal Protein Intake for Longevity with Dr James Dinicolantonio

James DiNicolantonio (0:00)

Yeah, I think it's more quality, where your protein is coming from, more so than quantity, and I think lack of cycling protein. So you want phases of where you're working out and basically breaking down your protein, and intermittent fasting where you're not consuming a lot, and then feasting.

So it's more so people aren't going through the cyclical protein intake that we used to do, that our genes are matched to. Chronically eating a high amount of animal protein, not necessarily a good thing. You need to cycle that. I'm actually doing the research on the substance. I've published several clinical papers, and I've done an entire review, and I've looked at all the studies. And simply from an evolutionary aspect as well, I'm pretty confident that it will contribute to my longevity.

SPEAKER_2 (0:44)

Do you want to know what it is?

Siim Land (0:48)

Body, mind, empowerment.

SPEAKER_2 (0:50)

Get stronger, faster, smarter, quicker, friendlier, more helpful, more driven.

Siim Land (0:56)

Everything the body needs.

SPEAKER_2 (0:57)

Control your mind.

Siim Land (1:01)

Welcome to the Body Mind Empowerment Podcast. I'm a host Siim Land and our guest today is James DiNicolantonio. James is a cardiovascular research scientist and the associate editor of British Medical Journal's Open Heart. He's also the author of The Salt Fix, Superfuel, and The Longevity Solution.

James, welcome to the show.

James DiNicolantonio (1:22)

Thanks for having me on.

Siim Land (1:25)

Yeah, and I've been really fascinated by your recent books and they've been also really good especially like The Salt Fix and Superfuel, but how did you get involved into this research of cardiovascular health and general medicine?

James DiNicolantonio (1:41)

Yeah, so I mean it started when I was a community pharmacist, basically I was having a ton of patients coming up to me, put on blood pressure medications and now they all of a sudden weren't feeling well and they were also told to like cut down on their salt intake, right? Because I mean ever since the 1960s, every single medical doctor has been trained that if someone has high blood pressure in your medical office, you recommend a low salt diet. That's like first line dietary advice, but my patients weren't responding well to that and so when I would kind of push back and say, well maybe get your sodium levels tested, you know, and a lot of times they would come back low.

Patients were feeling dizzy on low salt diets and you know when the doctors would either tell them to increase their salt intake or they would lower their blood pressure dose, they felt amazingly better. So I knew the power of maintaining an adequate salt status not only for my patients but being a wrestler and I ran cross country in high school, I knew the importance of salt in exercise. So if exercise is supposed to be one of the best things for us and salt helps people exercise better longer, then why would there be a blanket recommendation for low salt for everybody? So when I actually looked at the research, there's not a single clinical study that actually is given the same diets to patients with the only difference being the level of salt intake. They always give them like more fruits and vegetables, they cut out processed meat, it just happens to be lower in salt, right?

I honestly have no idea how these meta-analyses, including those type of studies, can actually conclude that low salt is the driver of the benefit, but they do, which makes absolutely no sense because again, they're changing the entire diet. And when you look at these longevity populations like Japan, South Korea, these people are living the longest and living the healthiest lives, they eat a ton of salt. So like they're eating kombu. If you don't know what kombu is, it's basically a salty seaweed. It contains almost a thousand milligrams of sodium per ounce, and the average South Korean and the average person living in Japan is consuming, you know, anywhere from five to six grams of sodium.

So when you even look at it at a population level, there's never been any evidence to stand for. So that's really what got me into writing the book.

Siim Land (3:59)

Yeah, it's quite interesting, yeah, that salt has been villainized, but it's like an essential thing for life. And even animals go out of their own way to seek salt in nature and in the past that we also believe. I think I read it in your book that in medieval times or in Roman times, the people were also paid to buy salt. So it's really like even for people, quite an important thing.