A new review has found that eating less protein, or less of certain amino acids that make up protein, may turn on body processes linked to healthier aging and metabolism.

A major scientific review is challenging the idea that more protein is always better.

The review, led by pathologist and biomedical researcher Dudley Lamming and published in the journal Cell Press Blue, examined more than 350 studies involving humans, mice, insects, yeast, and other organisms.

The review found that eating less protein, or less of certain amino acids that make up protein, may turn on body processes linked to healthier aging, as well as metabolism, the process by which the body turns food and drinks into energy.

    • bluGill@fedia.io
      2·
      10 days ago

      First of all because they are cheap and easy. Mice can live in a small cage, don’t eat much, and don’t live long. Mice also can be forced to eat whatever diet you want, (unlike humans - nearly all diet studied in humans should result in “in conclusion we were unable to get the subjects to eat their assigned diet”) That means you can do a study in a lab quick and cheap.

      While mice don’t generalize, there is a lot we can learn from them. We just need to remember the limits of mice studies and not generalize to anything other than mice (and even mice is questionable since lab mice are often genetically different from wild mice, sometimes intentionally). So long as you remember the limits mice are valuable.