Longevity Experts Say This Seemingly "Healthy" Habit Can Actually Take Years Off Your Life

Question

While the original claim comes across as very strong and sounds like click-bate, the author was able to state clear information that was backed up by multiple reliable resources such as The National Library of Medicine and Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The author stays very mutual and not biased when stating her claim. She specifically states that protein is important for a healthy diet, but where it can be unhealthy is the excessive amount of protein that American's specifically are receiving from land animals instead of plants or fish. It's stated that plant-based proteins are filled with fiber and antioxidants that are known to keep our hearts healthy as well as preventing chronic diseases. Furthermore, it's cited that the best diet for longevity is by having an equally balanced diet of protein provided from land animals, seafood, and plants rather than the majority of protein coming from land animals. Overall, I found this article very resourceful that provided many sources to where the authors information came from. Not biased, informative, and well thought out.

Comments

I agree that the author remains fairly unbiased and uses reputable sources. I think the issue is the tittle has a click-bait nature, but as you read it, it becomes more level. We can see from other research the concern about this comes mainly from animal-based proteins and their unhealthy overconsumption by the older population. This NIH article, (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22139566/) discusses the correlation between animal protein and saturated fatty acid and cholesterol intake. At the end of the day, both sources say to ingest a diet with less animal-based proteins and to have a healthy balance of plant and animal protein for longevity.

Answer 1

The main claim that is being made within this article is that overeating animal-based protein can take years off your life instead of adding to it.  Typically, I would not consider BuzzFeed to be the most credible source. I believe that this clickbait esk title is exactly the kind of thing I would expect from a source like BuzzFeed. That being said, the author is not a bot. She (Emily Laurence) is noted as a Journalist and has written many articles for BuzzFeed, Parade Magazine, AOL.com, and more. This article is brand new. Posted within the day. As of writing this, the article is said to have been published 15hrs ago. However, it seems to be the only noteworthy article to talk about this in more recent history. If you look for other articles on "protein diets," you will mostly find articles that are encouraging protein diets.

I do find the quotes to all be very trustworthy. Every time there is a quote or a claim that is made, there is either a link to the person who said the quote or an article that made the claim. The majority of quotes and claims are also linked to people and articles with some kind of medical background. I also think the writing is fairly balanced. There isn't any reason for BuzzFeed to be biased toward whether you eat protein or not.

My biggest problem with this article is simply that it is on food health. Food health is a topic that is constantly evolving and also often doesn't have one right or wrong answer to anything. Health is such a fad-based system that even if part of this is true, it doesn't take away from the fact that protein still has benefits. There is so much unknown in the field that you can never go on one article alone, even if the information is backed up by extremely credible sources. So, overall, I do think the headline (As clickbaity as it may be) is supported by the content within the article. There isn't anything in this article that raises my eyebrow outside of the fact that health has always been a weird subject online.

Comments

This is a great factcheck! Your analysis on this protein diet is very interesting and insightful.  I like your point on health being a "fad based system" and ever-changing, I have also noticed the trendiness of certain eating patterns online and agree with your points.