A large and growing body of research suggests that the United States government’s proposed levels of protein intake are far below what is optimal for Super Health, for weight optimization, not to mention athletic performance. 

Dear Living Fuel Family,   Thank you for the great response to our LivingFuelTV series on protein, adapted from my new book The Super Health Diet: The Last Diet You Will Ever Need!  In previous episodes, you’ve learned what protein is, why protein is so important and which protein sources are best.  Today we address the natural next question:   What is the daily amount of protein we need for optimal health and optimal weight?   Ask this question to ten doctors, personal trainers or nutritionists and you’ll most likely receive at least ten different answers!   Today on LivingFuelTV, join us as we clarify and simplify the answer to this important question.  Click on the graphic below to watch.

 

Audio Transcript

KC: Welcome to Living Fuel TV. I’m KC Craichy with my wife, Monica. Protein. So we’ve talked about if you ask a hundred sports athletes what the most important nutrient for performance is, their answer is protein. If you ask a hundred doctors, their answer is all over the place, and when you talk about protein, you might hear from them, oh, too much protein is dangerous, it can cause kidney problems, and so on. We have addressed these in various detail, but by now you’ve probably realized you need more protein.

Monica: As a matter of fact, in your book, on page 297, it says “Therefore, the Super Health Diet recommendation for daily high quality protein intake for most people is .5 to .9 grams per pound of body weight per day, with a strong preference toward the high end of that range” The more active you are, the higher side of the range.” That means that if somebody weighs 100 pounds, they’re going to eat how much protein?

KC: Between half their weight, 50 pounds, or 50 grams to 100 grams of protein in a day, depending on activity level. People say, “Well, this is really high, isn’t it? Isn’t it already 8.8 per kilo per day?” Well, if you look at it in detail, the RDA and USDA flow together and if you work out the ranges, it really is between 1.4 and 2.0 grams per kilo. The numbers we talk about are not outside of the professionally, governmental recommended ranges. What we’re saying is the research says that too much protein, a lot of protein is not harmful to most people.

Monica: But we know that too little protein can actually lead to death.

KC: At the end of the day, you have to have protein. What we’ve talked about in the past is you need the amino acids, particularly the essential amino acids in protein which is why the types of protein and all of this matters. By now you realize, let’s say you’re 150 pounds. If you’re an active 150 pound person, you might need 150 grams of protein in a day. What is your breakfast? If you think about your breakfast as a bowl of oatmeal, two eggs, and glass of orange juice, you’ve really now have only gotten 15 grams of protein in a breakfast.

Monica: That’s not enough. Right. Let me ask you a question. Knowing that we have to have more protein than I usually thought, it wasn’t until I read your book that I realized, wow, I’m not getting enough protein. Can we really get enough protein just by eating our regular food diet?

KC: It is possible.

Monica: It seems really difficult.

KC: We talk about it in the book about how back-to-back-to-back meat meals is not healthy for anyone, because of the digestive congestion and so many other issues. You having absorbable protein is very important. Really, I say it in the book and I’ll say it now, I do not believe that one can really be healthy without the use of powdered proteins, protein drinks, and so on. We talked about superfood smoothies being the basis of good health. High protein, superfood smoothies, not the typical smoothie you find at a smoothie shop…

Monica: Which is mainly sugar.

KC: … which has relatively no protein in it, unless you ask for extra protein, as you know. High protein super smoothies is a basis, but if you think about 150 grams of protein, that seems like, “Oh my gosh, I have to have 50 at breakfast, 50 at lunch, and 50 at dinner, or some variation to equal the 150.” You’re really not going to get there without high quality protein powders.

Monica: Let’s talk about protein powders. I think there’s a lot of junk on the market, unfortunately. Let’s talk about some of the things that maybe, people need to look for as they’re choosing a high quality protein powder.

KC: There are protein powders of all kinds. There’s isolates, hydrosolates, concentrates, and so on.

Monica: OK. What does that mean?

KC: That means there’s different ways. They’re cheaper.

Monica: What’s an isolate?

KC: Isolates are typically better, particularly if you’re talking about whey protein. A lot of times you’ll find a whey protein and it will say “whey protein isolate” on the label, but then it’ll say “whey protein concentrate, whey protein hydrosolate,” and so on. Hydrosolates are usually more expensive. That just means it’s hydrolyzed. Essentially, that pre- digests the protein for you.

Monica: Is that good?

KC: It can be good, except for some of the processes use chemicals which break down the structure of the proteins. Done properly, protein hydrosolates, basically will deliver essential amino acids quicker than another type of protein.

Monica: So if you have a choice between an isolate or a hydrosolate, you pick the hydrosolate?

KC: Most of the time, you’d pick the isolates, because the micro-filtration isolates. It’s really getting more complex than you really want to get. Let’s say that in milk, probably isolates, because it really has less of the milk allergies, although people still have milk allergies when they have isolates. We don’t really recommend whey protein as your best source or soy. Soy is very controversial. If you read anything that we’ve written or done on the subject, you’ll know.

Monica: Well, that just messes with, especially women’s hormones.

KC: Men’s too. It’s an estrogenic effect. The main issue with soy right now, at a minimum, is most of it is genetically modified. If soy is bad by itself, genetically modified soy has got to be a problem. We know that tempeh, miso, and the ones that are fermented are actually healthy for you so it actually breaks it down in a positive way so you can use it. The point is we believe that optimized vegetable proteins are best. The things that we talk about so much, living protein, living fuel, those sort of things have what I would call optimized. You mix rice and yellow pea protein together with various amino acids, and you get a protein profile. We talked abut how valuable the protein value of an egg is. The protein profile looks like egg, but it’s all from plant sources. It really is the best way to go.

Monica: Now, why is plant source the best way to go, as opposed to meat source?

KC: Well, animal-source protein causes reactions to some people.

Monica: Like inflammation?

KC: Yes, inflammation, snoring, symptoms that you don’t even realize could be coming from dairy products. It also is more acidic, so vegetable is easier on the body. We just prefer vegetable if it is optimized, because the benefit of animal protein is a very solid essential amino acid profile. If you can get the same profile from a clean vegetable source, like we’re talking about, it is definitely the best way to go. Incorporate protein powders into your life.

Monica: I think we need to talk more about that in the next session.

KC: We’ll talk more about it. God bless you and have a great day.