Question: does the protein have an effect on the older people because they dont eat enough or is it a different reason?

Alex Munro answered on 10 Jun 2011:

A lot of older people don’t eat enough protein and there could be many reasons for this; some find it to be too expensive; some have lost a lot of teeth and find meat hard to chew; many have a very small appetite so generally don’t eat at lot… We all need to eat protein as our bodies need amino acids (the building blocks of protein); if we don’t eat enough protein our bodies start to break down their own muscle (as this is a protein) for the amino acids; muscle breakdown makes us much weaker and more at risk of falls and fractures