65: Why You Need More Protein
I feel like when we see Jesus in a food scene in the Bible it’s often with fish and bread. And maybe some wine. LOL And when the Isrealites were wandering the wilderness all those years, God provided them meat (quail) and bread. I think it’s important in this plant-centric dietary space we’re in to remember that Biblical people were not exclusively vegetarians. Now, listen, I love veggies and want you to eat a bunch of them. Eat fruit, too. Grains? If you can handle them. Many people can’t due to compromised guts - a problem our Biblical ancestors didn’t have like we do today. (They didn’t have glyphosate and antibiotics and drive-thrus).
God provided us food from both the plant and animal kingdoms (Gen 1:29 & Gen 9:3). The balance is what leads to our optimal health!
In this week’s podcast we’re talking protein: why you need it, how much you need and why animal sources provide superior amino acid utilization.
It’s the macronutrient of satiety, body composition and the skeletal muscle that leads to longevity.
EPISODE 65: Why You Need More Protein
SHOW NOTES
(0:00) Intro
(0:44) Welcome back to the club!
Introducing today’s topic: Why You Need More Protein
I plan my meals around is protein.
Carbohydrates and fats are the ones we’re going to manipulate more based on your weight, your energy, and even the time of year.
Right now in The Christian Health Club which is my online membership group we are spending the month of June really dialing in our macronutrients.
I’m helping everybody reset their ratios for the summer and we’re going to do a Track Your Macs challenge.
My Fitness Pal or Carb Manager or something like that to keep track of their food, calories and macronutrient ratios. I encourage people to do that if you find it useful, I also don’t think it’s a bad idea for those of us who don’t like to do it, to do it every once in a while, just as a check-in measure.
It’s beneficial for about 25% - 30% of your diet to come from protein - and I’m talking about animal proteins. Plant proteins are actually carbohydrates that have some protein in them. But they are not nearly as efficiently utilized in the body as animal proteins and we’re going to talk about that today.
Benefits of Protein!
Protein is what builds your body, it’s the macronutrient of muscle, it’s the one that’s going be the biggest game changer when it comes to your body composition - when you combine targeted protein with resistance training.
Protein is the macronutrient of satiety, meaning it’s the one that’s going to make you feel most full and satisfied and help keep you from overeating.
Many people think fat is the most satiating macronutrient and while it is filling, it’s also easy to overdo. Fats are delicious. Whereas protein is the least likely macronutrient to overdo, you can only eat so much fish or steak or chicken. When there is plenty of well-utilized protein in the diet, it’s going to help prevent you from overeating.
(5:30) Diving into protein and macronutrient celebrities:
I think protein is about to have a moment, a comeback on the dietary scene. It’s been brewing for a couple years
I remember telling some friends at least four years ago - that Keto was going to be the next “big thing” where fat was going to be all the rage.
And now I foresee protein becoming the new darling macronutrient because there always has to be a macronutrient celebrity- something we can hype and create products around. a common sense and balanced approach isn’t sexy, there’s nothing to sell.
The dietary world kind of circles through and hyper-focuses on each macronutrient and as Keto dies down a little, protein is going to pick up.
Another reason I wanted to do this podcast now is that I also think we’re in a hyper-focused plant-based mania - not that I’m against plants - I love plant foods and I want you to get down on your veggies, fruits and other healthy plant-based foods if they work for you - but not exclusively.
I’m very much in favor of getting a nice balance of foods from both the plant and animal kingdoms as God so generously provided and laid out for us in Genesis 1:29 and Genesis 9:3.
I feel like every time we see Jesus in a food scene in the Bible it’s with fish and bread. And maybe some wine. Have you noticed that?
And when the Isrealites were wandering the wilderness all those years - what food did God provide - meat and bread - quail to be specific. It wasn’t even meat and brussels sprouts, it was meat and bread.
We’ll tackle bread another day - but let’s take notice of this balance - it’s not like Biblical people were vegetarians.
Exodus 16:3
3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”
11 The Lord said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”
(10:35)
I will always include the caveat when I’m talking about this kind of thing that there are valid therapeutic reasons for eliminating food groups or going vegetarian or Keto or even carnivore.
The bottom line is we are designed to utilize both plant and animal foods. Each has their strengths in what they offer the body.
One of the things animal foods are superior to providing are amino acids. Amino acids are what make up proteins.
There are 22 amino acids that the body uses to make proteins, but of those 22, only eight are classified as essential - we must have those eight essential acids and from those the body can make the remaining 14.
Some say that there are 9 or 10 essential amino acids but it’s been shown that when the eight are in the right balance and quantity, those two in question - histidine and arginine - can be made from the essentials.
We only get essential amino acids from what we put in our mouths - from food or supplements. It’s critical that we get those 8 essential acids in the right quantity and proportion, not only to help make the rest of the amino acids but also to set our bodies up to be able to utilize those amino acids to become the protein that builds our bodies.
We need sufficient protein for pretty much every part of our bodies - the brain and nervous system, detoxification and healing, digestion and immunity, hormones and cell function and bone health.
(13:35) The Search for the Perfect Protein by Dr. Minkoff
He makes some pretty bold claims:
All people with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome are protein malnourished.
All depressed people and people with anxiety are protein malnourished.
All osteoporotic patients are protein malnourished.
All patients with cancer are malnourished.
All patients with autoimmune diseases Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis are protein malnourished.
All patients with sleep disorders are protein malnourished.
All Parkinson’s patients are protein malnourished.
And all Alzheimer’s dementia patients are protein malnourished.
Now what’s interesting about this doctor is that he used to be a vegetarian. He’s also a 42-time IronMan finisher and found that his health and performance proved to be so much more robust when he not only added back in animal foods, but got really focused on amino acid utilization.
He’s helped thousands of his patients overcome serious health problems by helping them optimize this as well. His book, The Search For The Perfect Protein, dives into this concept of how our bodies utilize - or don’t utilize - amino acids to make the proteins we need in our bodies.
According to Dr. Minkoff - we’re not getting near the protein that we think we are. We can look at the back of a yogurt carton and think we’re getting 14 grams of protein when we’re only utilizing about 16% of that. A can of tuna may say it has 16 grams of protein but only about 33% of that is usable. And those are from animal sources! The amino acid utilization from plant foods is even less!
Spirulina, a green plant protein only gets about 6% utilization.
Whole eggs are at the top of the list as far as amino acid utilization goes - they are utilized at 48% percent BUT egg whites only get about 17%. All you people throwing the yolks away are not only missing out on the most nutritious part of the egg, you’re also not utilizing the protein as efficiently.
So what happens to the other percentage of the protein that we’re not utilizing? Well, Dr. Minkoff explains that there are two pathways for amino acids to be processed - the anabolic pathway and the catabolic pathway.
Anabolic means to build up and catabolic means to break down. When the amino acids are absorbed and utilized down the anabolic pathway they are well assimilated and used to make whatever kind of protein your body needs at that time (a protein for a hormone, an enzyme, a piece of hair or a neurotransmitter).
What can’t be utilized goes down the catabolic pathway and is broken down into carbohydrates to be used as fuel or into nitrogen which is mostly a waste product excreted by the urine. So a lot of what you think you are eating as a protein will often be processed like a carbohydrate. The body does have that ability to make carbs from proteins. It’s why you may have heard that there are essential amino acids, essential fatty acids but there are no essential carbohydrates because the body can make carbs from other compounds in the body - like amino acids.
All whey protein shake drinkers may find this interesting: Dr Minkoff says that only 16% of the amino acids in whey are used for protein synthesis and that 84% is more utilized as a carb.
(22:06) More information about calories per gram:
Now here’s something else that’s super interesting - we understand proteins to be four calories per gram. Carbohydrates are also four calories per gram and fats are nine calories per gram. It’s why a lot of people were scared into avoiding fats for so many years, but we know, and I hope that you’ve learned here by now, that a calorie is not a calorie, there is a world of difference in the way 200 calories worth of pasta and 200 calories worth of avocado behave in the body.
They trigger different hormones. And here’s another example of how a calorie is not a calorie because Dr Minkoff says is that proteins are only four calories per gram when the amino acids go down that catabolic pathway and result in being used as a carbohydrate; but if they go down the anabolic pathway and are utilized as a protein to build something in the body - it’s not worth any calories.
Utilization of amino acids
What plays a huge role in how amino acids are utilized, down which pathway they travel, has so much to do with whether or not the 8 essential amino acids are present and present in the right quantity and proportion to each other. Again, that is going to come most efficiently from animal sources of food.
Now, I’m going to tell you, because a lot of you nutrition nerdies like me will run out and get Dr. Minkoff’s book - which is fine and which I encourage because it’s got a lot of great info, but he is a huge proponent of taking supplementary essential amino acids and he’s got a product he’s trying to sell.
I think essential amino acids can be a useful supplement in the right context and, it’s funny, I just got a question about my thoughts on branched chain amino acids BCAAs which a lot of people in the fitness world take for muscle recovery, but honestly I think if you’re going to supplement, why not go with the essential amino acids which have the optimal proportion of the 8 that you need and you get more bang for your buck.
Branched chain amino acids only have 3 of the essential amino acids - leucine, isoleucine and valine. Again, to be most optimally utilized as protein, all eight essential amino acids must be present at the same time in the right proportions.
Jack is a 62 yo runner and said he needs lots of carbs to fuel the many miles he runs in a week. But Jack, man, for health and longevity you need muscle. Athletic running is hard on a body and your best recovery macronutrient is protein - animal protein. Plus your body can use fat for fuel as well.
(27:06) Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:
So there’s another doctor that I follow - Dr Gabrielle Lyon - watch out for her, she’s going to be a superstar. I really wanted to get her on the podcast but I’m not fancy enough so I’m going to share some nuggets I’ve learned from her.
One thing I like about Dr Lyon’s background is that she completed clinical research and fellowship in Nutritional Sciences and Geriatrics. She says that after being at the bedside of so many elderly patients wasting away from sarcopenia - which is muscle loss - she practically considers it criminal for health professionals to recommend less meat in the diet.
She “comes from a perspective of seeing the END of life - of death - and she has witnessed a common bottom line that people are failing to thrive due to lack of skeletal muscle. This had a huge impact on the direction of her medical practice and shaped her philosophy on what she calls muscle-centric medicine.
She calls muscle the organ of longevity and says having robust skeletal muscle is not only the key to long term health and vitality as we age, but also the key for metabolism, body composition and hormones. Her husband is a navy seal and she works with a lot of elite military people in addition to her regular patient load of sarcopenic and metabolically challenged people.
One thing I’ve heard her say which I think is so fascinating is that muscle is the organ of metabolism and that it’s not really that you get fat first, it’s that you don’t have enough muscle in place. Dr Lyon recommends at least 30g of protein per meal - and y’all, that can be tough unless you're intentional about it. Some pros say to eat 1 gram of protein per pound of your targeted body weight. So for instance if you weigh 200 lbs but your goal weight is 150 lbs - eat 150g of protein. It’s a lot of protein.
Now, I haven’t heard Dr. Lyon talk much about amino acid utilization - in fact she often recommends branched chain amino acids - so i have to wonder if part of the high protein recommendation is because of the fact that not all of we don’t utilize all of it — that the stars have to align more than we realize considering that the 8 essential amino acids need to be present and in the right proportions and that the body is taking what it needs at the time depending on what needs to be built. And so the prudent thing to do is get plenty of protein in the diet so there’s more material to work with.
(33:06) RDA for protein:
Now the RDA for protein - which is the recommended daily allowance - is 0.8g of protein per kg of bodyweight. One kilogram is a little over two lbs so that would mean the RDA for a 150lb woman would be 54 grams a day.
The important thing to know about the RDA is that it’s not to be treated like a target, it’s like the minimum baseline to prevent illness and disease. That’s bare bones of what you should be getting.
As Dr Lyon would point out - if you want good health down the road and a great metabolism right now, you need significantly more than that. And you want to space that out your protein pretty evenly among your daily meals for the best metabolic results.
(35:40) As far as HOW MUCH protein you should eat:
Well, it’s probably more than you are currently getting and if you ARE getting plenty of protein, I would consider the amino acid utilization. According to Dr. Minkoff the highest is whole eggs - well actually the highest is breast milk - but after that it’s your typical animal sourced proteins like meat, fish and poultry.
You also want to take into account the quality of your animal proteins. Buy the best within your budget - ideally that’s pastured eggs, beef and poultry and wild-caught fish.
Try playing with your protein and targeting 90-100 grams. Even if you don’t get that much, the practice of getting there and increasing it is a step in the right direction. For me, getting 25% of protein is about 95 grams and 30% is about 113 grams.
Of course that’s based on my individual caloric needs based on my basal metabolic rate. You know I don’t like calorie counting, but if you’re going to track your food and macronutrients, you need an accurate baseline of where to start. If you don’t know how to calculate that for yourself you can visit my website here: Calculating Calorie Needs.
Also if you’re interested in how to calculate your macronutrient ratios so that you know how many calories and grams of fat, protein and carbs to eat go here: Determining Your Macro Ratios. It’s me doing math- which is always a treat. 😅
(39:25) Outro & Disclaimer
Thanks for listening! Have a healthy and blessed week!