Biotic's Gain

Most people eat a little less as the years pass, and it is rarely one single cause. The stomach empties more slowly, so fullness arrives sooner in a meal and outstays its welcome. Smell fades gradually and takes some of the interest in food with it. Quieter, less active days produce weaker hunger signals. And cooking for one or two rarely feels worth the effort that feeding a household did. None of that is a problem in itself, and eating somewhat less is often perfectly appropriate. What it does do is squeeze protein off the plate first, because protein foods are the ones that need shopping for, cooking and chewing — so the total falls a little and the protein falls a lot.

Earlier in this series we looked at how much protein to aim for after 40 and at why protein needs a reason to be used. Both assume you are eating roughly what you intend to. This one is about the part nobody plans for: the appetite quietly shrinking underneath the plan.

What actually changes

The physiology is unremarkable and mostly gradual. The stomach empties more slowly with age, so fullness arrives earlier in a meal and hangs around longer. A portion that once felt about right now feels like rather a lot, and half of it gets left.

Smell matters more than most people realise. Much of what we call taste is aroma reaching the nose from the back of the mouth, and smell declines steadily from middle age onwards. Savoury foods lose out first, which is why a roast can start tasting of very little while a pudding still tastes of something. Food has not got worse; it has got quieter.

Energy needs genuinely fall too, so a smaller appetite is partly the body doing sensible arithmetic. The catch is that the need for protein does not shrink in proportion, and plates rarely shrink evenly.

The reasons that have nothing to do with biology

In practice the household reasons often outweigh the physiological ones.

• Cooking for one or two. A recipe makes four portions and a chicken feeds a family. Cooking properly for one is harder work per meal than cooking for four.
• Shopping and carrying. Fresh protein is the heavy, perishable, awkward part of a shop, so it is first off the list.
• Eating alone. People reliably eat less on their own than in company — the largest effect here and the least discussed.
• Mouth comfort. A cracked tooth or a denture that has shifted makes real chewing unappealing, and meat is the first casualty. A dentist is often the quickest fix on this page.
• Medicines. Some change how food tastes or how hungry you feel; a pharmacist can say whether that is expected with yours.

Why protein slips before anything else

Sort an average kitchen by effort and a pattern appears. Toast, cereal, biscuits and a scone with tea require nothing — no planning, no cooking, no chewing worth the name. Meat, fish, eggs, pulses and dairy require buying, keeping cold, cooking and chewing. When effort is the limiting factor, the easy end of the kitchen wins by default.

A day built that way looks reasonable and still falls short. Toast and jam, a sandwich at lunch, something small in the evening and two biscuits reaches a decent number of calories while supplying perhaps half the protein of a day with an egg, a tin of fish and a proper evening meal in it. The calories disguise the gap. How Much Protein Do You Actually Need in a Day? has the reference figures — worth measuring one ordinary day against, honestly, before deciding nothing needs changing.

The wording we are allowed to use

In Great Britain only claims on the NHC register may be used. For protein there are four, and this is their exact wording:

• Protein contributes to a growth in muscle mass
• Protein contributes to the maintenance of muscle mass
• Protein contributes to the maintenance of normal bones
• Protein is needed for normal growth and development of bone in children

Each belongs to the nutrient rather than to any brand or format, and applies to a chicken breast, a tin of lentils and a tub of powder alike, where the food qualifies as a source of protein — at least 12% of its energy from protein. The word “normal” is load-bearing and cannot be dropped or traded up: “maintenance of normal bones” is authorised, “stronger bones” is not.

Two things are not on the register at all, and that is worth saying plainly on a page about ageing. There is no authorised claim about ageing, about age-related muscle loss, or about appetite, so nobody may make one, including us. And there is no authorised claim specific to whey; a long list of proposed whey claims was rejected, so whey products ride on the general wording above or say nothing. Everything practical below is ordinary dietary advice, not a health claim.

Keeping protein in a smaller appetite

The aim is not to eat more, but to put the protein into the meals you are still actually eating.

• Move some of it to breakfast. Appetite is usually best in the morning and worst by evening — the opposite of how most British days are arranged. An egg, a pot of Greek yoghurt or porridge made with milk rather than water shifts a useful amount to the meal you are most likely to finish.
• Keep protein that needs no cooking. Tinned fish, tinned beans and lentils, eggs, cheese, milk and yoghurt all keep, need no preparation and survive a week when the shops have not happened.
• Cook once, eat four times. A batch of chilli portioned into single servings and frozen turns one effortful evening into four easy ones. The barrier to eating well alone is effort per meal, not cost.
• Eat with other people when you can. A shared meal once or twice a week does more than any amount of resolve.
• Drink some of it. If chewing is the sticking point, milk, yoghurt and soups made with milk or pulses do the same job without the work.

A powder belongs on that last line and nowhere higher. Biotic’s Gain Whey Protein Isolate is a 2lb tub supplying 25g of protein and 5.5g of BCAAs per serving, in six flavours, filtered further than a concentrate so it carries less fat and lactose. That is a description of the ingredient, not a promise. It is useful when appetite is small and cooking is hard, because it puts a meaningful amount of protein into something cold and easy to swallow — and of no use on the days when the food was already there and the shake went on top. Can You Get Enough Protein Without a Shake? makes the same case at length: food first, every time.

When appetite is a question for your GP

A slow drift over a decade is ordinary. A change you can put a date to is not, and belongs with a clinician rather than on a shopping list. Make an appointment if:

• you are losing weight without trying, or clothes and rings have become noticeably loose
• appetite has fallen away over weeks or months rather than years
• food sticks, swallowing hurts, or you feel sick much of the time
• eating has become painful — see a dentist too, since mouth problems are a common and very fixable cause
• you have reduced kidney function, in which case take medical advice before raising your protein intake at all

None of that is something a supplement addresses, and no food supplement can treat, prevent or cure any condition. The unglamorous summary: a shrinking appetite with age is ordinary, fewer calories is often fine, and what is worth protecting is the protein rather than the total. Put it where the appetite still is, make it easy enough that it happens, and get an unexplained change looked at rather than worked around.

More on the nutrient and the range on our protein guide.

Biotic’s Gain products are food supplements and are not a substitute for a varied, balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle. They are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, taking medication or under medical supervision, speak to your doctor or pharmacist before use. Keep out of reach of children.