Hello everyone. I'm Monica Reinagle. Welcome to the Nutrition Diva

podcast. Buckle your seatbelts and pull out those pocket protectors because we are going full nutrition

nerd this week talking about the role of dietary protein in maximizing muscle

protein synthesis but wait don't assume that this is only of interest

to bodybuilders.

Applying the insights I'm going to share with you today

to your daily meals can have a monumental impact on your ability to maintain a healthy body weight,

age successfully, and to bounce back from illness and injury.

You may recall that in a previous episode on preventing age-related muscle loss, I explained

that you can get more protein benefit without necessarily eating more protein simply by distributing your protein more evenly over the course of the day.

And since then, I've heard from many of you asking how to adapt this advice to various situations and dietary patterns such as those that are somewhat lower in

protein.

Well I recently attended a meeting with some of the world's top protein researchers and in between

sessions I hit them up for their insights on the

questions that you've raised and I've got some great new information to share with you.

But first let's just back up for one minute and talk about muscle protein synthesis and just what that is.

Building and repairing muscle tissue requires protein and that's a nutrient that our bodies kind of have to use as it comes in.

We can't store it up for future use.

So whenever we eat any foods containing protein,

we get a little burst of muscle building activity.

And the amount of muscle that you can build is dependent on the amount of protein that you've taken in at that meal.

Eat a little bit of protein, build a little bit of muscle. Take in more protein, build more muscle, but only up to a certain point. Research done by Douglas Padden Jones of the University of Texas has shown that muscle protein

...