Protein

How much is needed for optimum health?

When I first seriously dived into my education in health, my motivation was fighting cancer (due to my wife’s diagnosis of breast cancer). The common theme in successfully living with cancer is an extremely healthy diet. Many recommendations discouraged protein intake (animal foods).

Weston Price’s research, visiting many cultures around the world in the 1930s, is some of the best research I’ve ever read. The conclusion is that a healthy diet can be of many forms, but what is critical is the quality of the food consumed.

Over the years I’ve been keeping an eye on various opinions on protein intake recommendations. First of course, we have to point out that a 120 lb woman is a fraction of the size and needs of a 160 lb man. Most figures I’ll use generally are based on a 70 kg (154 lb) male. So if you aren’t the average man, adjust accordingly!

In 1991 the average person in the USA consumed an average of 101 grams per day of protein. In 1985 the protein requirement was set at 0.75 grams per kg of body weight. So for a typical male that would be 52.5 grams per day. The RDA was set at 0.8 g/kg or 56 grams per day for a typical male. The RDA has remained the same. A modern textbook states protein requirement at 0.66 g/kg (46 grams a day for our typical male).

My opinion now, is that these requirement figures are the bare minimum for living, they are not adequate for optimal health.

A number of physical fitness courses have suggested numbers like these, with substantial increases for active athletes. So factoring in your activity level is important. Many of these recommendations (for someone trying to stay fit and thus being very physically active) push these numbers up to 1 to 1.2 g/kg (70 to 84 g per day for our typical male). Athletes often consume twice this amount! On the top end of protein consumption are some athletes where 300 grams a day intake is not uncommon.

Of course another factor is the quality of proteins. As you may know, proteins are made up of amino acids so if we were going to be precise we’d be studying the specific amino acid requirements of each individual. Unfortunately that would be an incredible amount of work and thus for simplicity most people simply look at total amount of proteins consumed. Grains lack lysine, so if you eat a lot of cereal and breads you can become vulnerable to viruses. Thus beans (which are a source of lysine) are often recommended to balance this out.

Digestibility is very important too. Animal proteins have been found to be 90% to 99% digestible (meat and cheese being 95%, eggs being 97%). But plant proteins are only 70% to 90% digestible (split peas are about 70% digestible). Stomach acid, zinc and magnesium are all critical to protein digestion. Lack of sufficient sodium reduces protein absorption and leads to protein deficiency.

Two of the best sources of protein are eggs and whey.

A myth, that I’ve also been guilty of perpetuating, is the idea that protein is stored in our muscles so if we don’t consume enough we use the protein in our muscles for other needs. Actually most protein storage is in our digestive tract (and slowly released to provide for the needs of the rest of the body). Of course, if you constantly consume a protein deficient diet you won’t be able to maintain your muscles.

“Leaky gut” is a popular topic, but one aspect of this which is rarely mentioned is that long term low quality protein intake results in impaired GI function and leaky gut.

Because of my focus on cancer, for a long time now I’ve been believing that the low end (50 to 60 grams a day) of protein consumption was good. Recently I’ve been pushing myself to improve my physical fitness (and to lose some weight). As part of this, I’ve increased my protein intake by 40 or more grams per day (now ranging between 100 and 130 grams per day). In any sample of just “one” there is lots of room for confounding factors and coincidence but I’ve been impressed at the improvement of my body (which seems to be including repairing some weak points like tendons / joints).

Thus my current opinion is that for a healthy average male, we should be aiming for at least 100 grams of protein per day (while maintaining only a 2000 to 2200 calorie intake). I would find this nearly impossible to do without my supplemental whey shake.

At least once in your life (preferably several times!), take the time to actually document everything you eat per day for a few days. Yes, it’s a “pain in the ass” to fill out a spreadsheet and measure your food and research the nutrient content of it, but the awareness you will gain of what you eat is extremely valuable. On the days that you do this, you will not eat as much as you usually do (simply because you aren’t willing to do the effort of tracking something versus skipping eating it – humans are lazy! Even me!).

What are the easiest things to consume to increase protein and not consume more carbs? Whey protein! Of everything I’ve been consuming, a shake of whey protein (30 grams of protein) and collagen (10 grams of protein) adds 40 grams of protein per day.

Back to the animal foods vs plant foods to fight cancer. With animal foods the critical aspect is consuming natural animal foods. Grazing animals (beef, pork, bison, etc) must be pasture fed on grasses and not fed supplemental grains and they must be “organic”. Fish should be wild caught and not “farmed”! Dairy products should come from animals that are pasture fed on grasses!