# @mackinprof on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DNF8X5wuWNC
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/59739351-mackinprof-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/d8604afdf6.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-08-08T11:46:35.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Stuart Phillips (@mackinprof) — https://gondola.cc/mackinprof

## Caption

Sometimes even the bigs get it wrong: new analysis reveals no association between protein and mortality

I won't fault the molecular-level data in the paper, but the analysis of the NHANES data - which garnered headlines "Protein as bad for you as Smoking," trumpeted by the US and UK tabloids - was really poorly done. In fact, the narrative that protein kills you up to age 65 and then protects you from death is still a popular podcast tagline! People measure their IGF-1 levels with the notion that it's predictive of cancer risk. The human data from that paper is still discussed in reverent tones as 'fact.' It's wrong!d.in/gzxgWDig (Thanks to Dr. Layne Norton biolayne for preserving that letter). I hasten to add that there are a few good people in the field who added their names to that letter! Including Donald Layman, Arne Astrup, Heather Leidy, Peter Clifton, and the late Doug Paddon-Jones.

I won't fault the molecular-level data in the paper, but the analysis of the NHANES data - which garnered headlines "Protein as bad for you as Smoking," trumpeted the US and UK tabloids - was really poorly done. In fact, the narrative that protein kills you up to age 65 and then protects you from death is still a popular podcast tagline! People measure their IGF-1 levels with the notion that it's predictive of cancer risk. The human data from that paper is still discussed in reverent tones as 'fact.' It's wrong!

A huge thank you to Yanni Papanikolaou and Victor Fulgoni for their leadership and perseverance in the face of some 'vicious' peer review of our paper. Well, now it's out there! r in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism shows no association between total, animal, or plant protein intake and all-cause, cardiovascular, or cancer mortality. In fact, higher animal protein intake was modestly protective for cancer mortality https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/epdf/10.1139/apnm-2023-0594

Science self-corrects—sometimes it just takes a decade (or more).

#Protein #Mortality #Epidemiology #NutritionScience #ScienceCorrection #Cancer #CVD #IGF1 #Aging

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## Tags

cancer, aging, nutritionscience, igf1, cvd, protein, sciencecorrection, mortality, epidemiology

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