Hypercurious 2
Nutrition Basics – Protein
Protein is the building block of your entire body and without it you die. We’ll talk about carbs and fats later, they’re a bigger variable. But you need protein because without it your cells cant repair themselves, you get all kinds of malfunctions, and you’re not gonna have a good time in the short while before you die.
Essential and Non-Essential Amino Acids
Ok first you want to know what an amino acid is. It’s the type of proteins that are in a food. So macronutrient is a category that contains protein, protein is a category that contains amino acids, individual little packets of specific proteins that do different things in the body. An amino acid is a basic organic compound that contains a carboxyl group and an amino group. And in this case, organic means that it contains carbon, not that it was grown without pesticides.
Essential amino acids are ones that the body can’t make from the parts of other proteins. You can’t make them so you have to get them from the foods you eat. There are 9 of these:
Histidine, Isoleucine, Leucine, Lysine, Methionine, Phenylalanine, Threonine, Tryptophan, and Valine.
Non-essential amino acids can be manufactured inside the body from the breakdown of other proteins. You can use the ones you eat, but if you don’t get enough of these specific ones, you can make them yourself and be fine. There are 11 of these:
Alanine, Arginine, Aspargine, Aspartic Acid, Cysteine, Glutamic Acid, Glutamine, Glycine, Proline, Serine, and Tyrosine.
Where, oh where, can you find these tasty amino acids? The best sources are called complete proteins because they contain all nine of the essential amino acids. Eggs are a great complete protein, as is meat, poultry, and fish. Dairy like cheese, yogurt, and milk are complete proteins, as are vegetarian sources like quinoa, soybeans, buckwheat, hemp seeds, and seitan. Some vegetarian combinations like rice and beans, hummus and pita, or peanut butter on Ezekiel break will give you what you need.
I’ve linked a food guide from CANADA from the SEVENTH page of search results on a list of all protein foods because everything else was absolute gimmicky crap trying to sell you something.
https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/healthy-eating-recommendations/make-it-a-habit-to-eat-vegetables-fruit-whole-grains-and-protein-foods/eat-protein-foods/
What about protein powder?
I love me some protein powder. My personal preference is whey isolate, unflavored. It has exactly one ingredient and it’s about 95% absorbable protein. Casein is also very good, and digests more slowly. Whey concentrate is ok. Read your labels for how many grams of protein are in a serving.
Pea, hemp, rice, soy, and quinoa protein powder are good ways to increase your protein on a plant based diet. There are many blends on the market now that give a good flavor and texture.
There are a ton of ways to use protein powder that aren’t shakes. Try adding it to yogurt or making ice cream with it. There are a few decent cake and bread substitutes that use protein powder as a base.
What does protein do?
You’re made of proteins. Carbs and fats and all the micronutrients are accents to a body that’s made by proteins, and I mean that right down to the cellular level. Proteins are building blocks for literally every tissue in your body. Hair, bones, muscles, and blood. You need it for normal growth and maintenance, muscle strength, immune function, hormone balance, and a whole lot of other stuff. If there’s one macronutrient you absolutely should not go too on, it’s protein. We can argue about the other two forever, as long as you keep eating protein.
I was trying to find you a journal article showing decreased protein intake was associated with greater all cause mortality but I’m drunk and lost patience. I’ll add it later.
So how much protein do you need? The standard recommendation is .8g to 1.2g per pound of lean body mass. Saying that assumes that you know your lean body mass and that you’re willing to do math. I assume no such thing on either point so I’ll give you some good estimates.
If you’re male, around 30, 5’10” tall and only a little active, aim for 75-130g of protein a day.
If you’re female, around 30, 5’6” tall and only a little active, aim for 60-100g of protein a day.
If you are in transition, have transitioned, or have an altered hormone balance, aim for at least 75g a day to make sure you get what you need, and adjust if you are a smaller or larger person.
If you are active in any way, which includes having a physical job, running, doing yoga, lifting weights, doing crossfit, swordfighting, or chasing chickens and goats and children, you need more protein. I do crossfit, am a 165lb female, and can occasionally spend entire days moving and lifting, the rest of the time falling into the “very active” category. My absolute bare minimum goal is 100g a day, and I sometimes will hit 150g If I manage to get closer to 200 on those super active days I’m not mad about it. These tasty drinks contain no protein, by the way.
100g a day is a good baseline for everyone if you aim for no other protein goal and you don’t want to calculate, and 30g-40g per meal is totally appropriate. Eating a little more than you need isn’t going to cause harm, but falling short can hurt you.
There is such a thing as too much protein though. There is a limit to how much you can digest and assimilate. It’s hard (not impossible) for your body to turn protein into fat. Even if it doesn’t turn into fat, you’ll just wind up with expensive poop. Because that’s where the extra goes.
If you know me in real life this is one of the things I belligerently talk about when someone tells me about what they’re eating. “How much protein was in that?”
For those of you on keto, let me end a debate for you. If you eat too much protein, that protein does NOT get automatically turned into glucose via gluconeogenesis. This is a demand driven process not a supply driven process, so your body will make what it needs regardless of how much you eat. (And if you eat too little it’ll rip it from your own muscle tissue so hey don’t do that.) Are you in ketosis and noticed your ketones dropped after a big protein meal? I’ve got an answer for you too! The protein doesn’t turn to glucose, but there is an interplay of hormones, namely glucagon and insulin, that are involved with digestion that can cause a drop in ketones.
That temporary rise in insulin is a good thing too. Insulin isn’t bad, it’s just been demonized. It’s the key to get all kinds of stuff into cells, not just sugar or fat. It lets in the amino acids that are absolutely necessary for cellular health and function.
For the last point in “How much protein should I eat, Heather?”, it’s really hard, nearly impossible, to overeat protein from whole foods. It’s just not that concentrated, and protein is satiating as fuck. Like, you’ll naturally stop eating before you get to that too much point. If you do a lot of protein bars or powders or shakes or whatever, keep an eye on it because they might not make you feel full, but if you’re reasonable with your use it’s still hard to go over.
Figure out what you need, aim for that, and be OK with overshooting a little (A LITTLE) sometimes.
If you want a more specific goal, go here:
https://www.calculator.net/protein-calculator.html
If you want a more specific goal and follow a ketogenic way of eating, go here:
https://www.ketogains.com/calculator/
Do you think you have trouble digesting protein? It’s really possible. For most people stomach acid and enzyme production slowly declines with age, and lots of other factors can inhibit protein breakdown and assimilation. You are not what you eat. You are what you ABSORB.
Short term digestive help can be found from things like lemon juice or a drink with raw apple cider vinegar. You can also take digestive enzymes like protease. You can try adding supplemental stomach acid, but be careful with this. Start small. Like…1 tablet. If you don’t get heartburn, try 2. For better overall digestion, try adding fermented foods like sauerkraut and pickles, things with ginger, black pepper, or cinnamon. We’ll talk more about digestion later, since we’re just focusing on protein here.
And that’s tonight’s show! Hit me up with comments and questions, and I’ll talk to you again soon!
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thephoenixlab
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/phoenixlabresearch/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_phoenix_lab/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/realphoenixlab