Protein — Let’s stop with the obsession.
Protein – the buzz word that’s been around since forever in the health and fitness industry. Especially among those who are looking to lose weight, and build muscle.
Early in my fitness journey, I was obsessed with eating protein, not really understanding how it worked. I knew it was important for muscle growth, and drinking a protein shake is what you’re supposed to do after a workout. I also heard that protein uses more calories to break down, therefore, you’re actively burning calories by eating.
I was all about the calories, then macros, and then high protein diets to help me to achieve whatever physique I was chasing. I was completely body image and eating disordered – thankfully not to the point where it hindered my social engagements, or landed me in hospital. But it did consume me, just secretly.
I flew under the radar because I was always a physically active child, teen, and adult. So people viewed and mislabelled my orthorexic eating patterns and preoccupations as “health”. I also didn’t realise that my obsession with calories was from childhood wounding, and role-modelled behaviour from both of my parents. My instagram algorithm was full of fitness women sculpting their bodies, and also reflecting back their unhealthy eating patterns that were in the name of aesthetics, and not so much health.
This is where my love affair with If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM) fell into place. I felt like I had found the remedy to my diet of chicken, rice and broccoli, and beef with sweet potato. IIFYM meant that I could figure out my calories, protein, fats and carbs, and just make sure that whatever I ate didn’t blow over those numbers, or at least, not my overall calorie needs for the day. The issue with this approach, was that it did not teach or encourage me to eat foods that would sustain my energy levels for the day, and I was just giving into my cravings – choosing the snickers bars over rice with dinner. And yes, I was still under the illusion that carbohydrates make you fat. For anyone who still believes that, I’m so sorry that you’ve also been ensnared in the nets of fad diets. Keto is terrible for you on so many levels, and it does not actually help anyone with diabetes. I suggest visiting this website for more helpful information https://www.masteringdiabetes.org/scientific-evidence/, and getting yourself an HMI Wellness Health Coach.
Circling back to the misunderstanding that carbohydrates make you fat – they don’t. Carbohydrates are the fuel that is most quickly used by your body, and is required for proper brain functioning, and functioning of all your cellular processes (in the form of glucose). Carbohydrates are also vital in the utilisation of any protein you do eat, so if you aren’t pairing carbohydrates with your protein, you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage in terms of muscle repair, and overall recovery.
Upon reading this article, I hope you walk away feeling like you can breathe – you don’t need to be shovelling gobs of protein down your throat. You also can achieve effortless fat loss, and maintain and build muscle without doing that, either. Your kidneys and liver will thank you, and you will defy the commonly accepted symptoms of ageing and associated illnesses.
So, what do we need protein for?
I’ll keep it short and to the point.
When we say that we need protein, we actually need the amino acids, which are building the blocks. There are more than 20 different types of amino acids. Once they are ordered into a protein, and this protein has formed a shape, it can bind to other selected molecules in order to carry out its function. This could vary from signalling, storing, transporting, providing structure, fighting foreign invaders, acting as a catalyst, or another function.
Long gone are the days where the argument that to be healthy and to get enough protein, you need to eat meat. There are athletes who have become vegan in order to maximise their performance and recovery, primary to ethical reasons. I wish I knew about this back when I was obsessed with protein and my aesthetic goals. I’ve never loved eating meat, even as a little girl. I would gag and cry while being made to eat the meat on my plate. I couldn’t help but think of the dead animal’s dismembered body part that I was eating. This is why I went to meat cuts that didn’t resemble the body parts, it helped me stay in my ignorant bliss. If you have watched the documentary The Dominion on Youtube, I highly recommend it.
Serena Williams. Original image source.
Anyway… vegan diets! Even for athletes, vegan diets are associated with a number of health benefits: lower risk of death from heart disease, lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, lower rates of type 2 diabetes, lower body mass index, less depression and low mood, and lower rates of cancers.
Eating a vegan diet increases the consumption of whole plant foods (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seeds, nuts, beans) and associated beneficial nutrients: fibre, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and phyto-chemicals. Vitamins and minerals are necessary in even utilising your proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Without them, your body can’t transport, break down, or build what it needs to out of what you’ve just eaten.
Another benefit? A 2009 study by Bergen and Wu found that vegans and vegetarians consume more prebiotics and probiotics due to their diet, which plays a massive role in the gut biome of these individuals in being able to effectively recycle urea and nitrogen into absorbable amino acids. What does this mean? Minimal waste! Even when the body is breaking down protein into nitrogen and urea. But you need to have a thriving gut biome, which can only be achieved with plentiful fruit and vegetable intake, not dead animal flesh that putrefies in your digestive tract as it makes its way down for expulsion.
I will go into that later on. But if you’re confused about what a wholefood, plant-based diet looks like, and one that can support your muscle gains, fat loss, energy, and/or athletic performance and recovery, do a quick google search and you’ll find that there’s no shortage of such plans out there. I, myself, create custom and premade programs for my clients, as do many others. A lack of knowing “how” is no longer an excuse.
How Much Protein Do We Actually Need?
Well, it depends on your stage of development – are you a developing child, or a full grown adult? How physically active are you?
Athletes – people whose 9-5 job is to train, eat, sleep, repeat, are going to have higher protein needs than everyday people, and even people who workout 3-5x per week after work. If you aren’t putting in multiple sessions of workouts into the gym on a single day, or are not working in an extremely physically laborious job, you do NOT need to be fuelling like an athlete.
If you are an everyday person with a regular job who goes to the gym and is looking to build lean muscle mass and lose fat, did you know that overall caloric intake is more important than throwing back gobs of protein?
Yep. Studies have shown that preventing muscle wastage and supporting muscle recovery is reliant more on sufficient caloric intake than protein intake. Oh, and if you’re throwing back protein on its own, without a carbohydrate in sight… you’re reducing the amount of absorption and utilisation of that protein. So quit being shy about carbs, or thinking they’re making you fat. They’re not. Excessive fat is what makes you fat, and in general, eating more than what your body needs.
Oh, and guess what? The catalyst to building muscle is actually the act of strength training. NOT the consumption of protein. If you’re not strength training, taking protein supplements isn’t going to magically help you put on lean muscle mass and lose weight. Your muscles need to go through micro-tears that occur during strength training/physically laborious work. Then, with some nutritional support in the form of adequate amino acids and sufficient caloric intake, your muscles will grow. It’s also important to note that your body can only absorb about 20g of protein per meal. A 2013 study found that postexercise protein consumption in excess of 20g leads to oxidation and ureagenesis – excess ammonia in the body. This indicates that the body is struggling to get rid of the excess protein, and that it’s going to waste, and is causing harm.
So how much protein do you actually need?
You do not need to eat super high doses of protein. Up to 1.6gm/kg you may see slight improvements but really the difference in hypertrophy between 1.2gm/kg and 1.6 is so small and this is in trained athletes. For the average person you will get nothing from the extra protein except extra calories, and a burdened liver and kidneys.
So really, what this means for a non-athlete, but someone who is an exercise enthusiast – make your protein intake around 15% of your daily caloric intake. If that is 2000 calories, then that would be approximately 75g of protein. If you are an athlete, you could potentially go up to 20%.
And just FYI, the most ideal macronutrient split for health, longevity AND even athletic performance is: 10-15% fat, 65-70% carbohydrates, 15-20% protein.
Don’t forget to consume all protein with carbohydrates present for maximum absorption and utilisation. Speaking of carbs…
Why Cutting Carbs Is a Bad Idea.
To begin with, the body breaks down and utilises carbohydrates more effectively than fats and proteins. It is best equipped to deal with the vast majority of calories coming from carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are needed for many important functions of the body, including: energy (as glucose) for all the tissues and cells in the body, central nervous system functioning, kidney function, brain function, muscle function (including the heart), and intestinal health and elimination (as fibre). Not to mention that carbs are muscle sparing, and ignite metabolism, keeping hormones in check. Whilst carbohydrates can be stored in the liver and muscles for use later on, it’s storage abilities are not endless, which is why “top-ups” of carbohydrates are needed throughout the day.
Not getting enough carbohydrates forces your body to dip into your liver glycogen stores, to be broken down into glucose and released into the bloodstream. Next from the liver stores, the body goes for the muscle glycogen stores. When tapping into the muscle stores, the body is doing so at the expense of the muscle itself, leading to muscle wasting. This leads to ageing, weakening muscle tone, and creating sagging skin. Not eating enough carbohydrates also contributes to brain fog, moodiness and fatigue. At this point, the body goes into ketosis, in which it uses fats as its primary source of energy. However, this is not a natural state for the body to be in, and any weight loss is primarily coming from water and lean tissues. Additionally, being in a state of ketosis makes the blood abnormally acidic, setting the stage for diseases to form such as cancer. It is also very damaging to the heart, leads to depletion of potassium, can lead to heart attack, and even death. So keeping this in mind, one can already start to see why it is not wise to skimp on carbohydrates in favour of proteins and fats.
Stop With The Whole Keto Thing.
Whilst fats/lipids are essential for normal growth, having a diet high in fat puts a lot of stress on the body. The four different types of fats (saturated, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, trans-fats) can negatively impact the body in various ways, including: preventing cell membranes from working properly which leads to clogged arteries, can create abnormal cell membrane structure which leads to impaired insulin response, decreased fluidity in the cell membrane which leads to loss of water, nutrients and electrolytes, and communication with other cells, can be chemically unstable and prone to oxidation, can promote platelet aggregation and inflammation, and create imbalances between HDL and LDL triglycerides, increasing risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer and arthritis.
In addition to the above, fat takes a long time to digest and it remains in the bloodstream for a significant amount of time. Excess fat floating in the bloodstream leads to impaired insulin function. The reason being; the fat acting as a gum-like substance on the insulin, blocking the insulin’s ability to connect to and transport glucose to cells for energy. As a result, the pancreas produces more insulin, creating an imbalance. This issue is also linked to other ailments such as cancer, heart disease, candida, hypo/hyperglycemia, arthritis, and depression to name a few. Too much fat in one’s diet, in general, is contributing to many of the population’s preventable diseases.
The Dangers of Excess Protein.
High protein diets are raved about, but mislead the general public, over-inflating their importance and failing to mention the repercussions on one’s health long term, as a result of excessive protein consumption. Whilst proteins play an important role in providing building blocks for the body’s tissues (among other roles), the body has to work hard to digest protein to extract these building blocks (amino acids). Not to mention that excess protein is eventually stored as fat anyway - a fact that not many protein-obsessed people are aware of.
Excessive protein consumption compromises kidney and liver health. After the proteins are broken down into amino acids in the stomach, they enter the bloodstream and are converted into functional molecules via the liver. The liver converts the nitrogen into ammonia and then to urea for excretion via the kidneys. This in itself, is an extra step that the body takes to process protein, compared to fats and carbohydrates. Unlike fats, protein cannot be stored immediately, and must be broken down by the liver and kidneys - more work for them to do.
If knowing that there is an added load onto our liver and kidneys in the processing of excess protein wasn’t enough, it is worth mentioning that the excess protein will be converted into glycogen or fat cells, or worse, combined with calcium, increasing the risk of painful kidney stones.
Furthermore, proteins create an acidic environment in the body overall, especially animal proteins which have sulphur-containing amino acids. This activates osteoclasts, which leads to bone loss, as the calcium is depleted out of the bones to act as buffers in response to the acidity. This shifts in the acid-base equilibrium in the body towards an acidic state, which as mentioned previously, sets the stage for disease and cancer. The released calcium can settle in your kidneys, developing kidney stones, and also in arteries, contributing to heart disease.
Now, moving on to why eating meat is detrimental to your health and longevity, despite the harmful and deeply ingrained programming that you need it to survive.
Eating Meat Is Still Sh*t For Your Health – Even If It’s Organic.
This is going to trigger many of you, and I really get it. I only became plant-based in 2021 when I decided to heal my gut biome, my out of whack hormones, shot adrenals, and low mood. I never envisioned myself becoming plant-based, but now, 4 years later (at the time of writing), I have never looked back.
Majority of people know that organic food is best. As a plant-based coach, I made the decision to step away from eating meat for ethical reasons AND health reasons.
The simple fact is that the body does not care if the meat or animal products you eat are organic, grass-fed, hormone-free, etc. Flesh is flesh. Here is a kick-ass response from nutritionist and creator HMI Nutrition School, Liana Shanti, educating us all on what is happening in our bodies when we eat meat:
“Before we get to the #actualscience of the digestion of flesh, including the 3 stages of digestion: Oral; Gastric; Intestinal, the first step in understanding the science of digestion, is a scientific understanding of what you are consuming.
In the case of rotting flesh digestion, it’s critical to understand that this flesh is already putrefying. Putrefying flesh is decomposing animal tissue, and the rotting/putrefying flesh begins decomposing the minute the animal is dead.
When an animal dies in the slaughterhouse, their nervous system fails to deliver stimuli for muscle contraction, blood flow, and oxygen delivery, and pathways for nutritious substances to tissues and organs are interrupted.
After a period of time, (6 and 12 hours for cows, 1-6 hours for pigs) muscle flaccidity is gradually replaced by a progressive contraction of all muscles, that, when it reaches its maximum expression, is known as rigor mortis. At this moment, the toughness of the meat is high because the fibers of the muscle are fully contracted.
When pH values inside the muscle fibers of a dead animal drop below 5.8, a steady increase of protein degradation begins. This is when the softening of muscles takes place and transforms the carcass into the meat you consume. This softening accelerates when the animal is hung upside down.
During the progressive process of flesh softening, the growth of fungi in the meat surface, mostly of the genus Thamnidium, secrete enzymes and substances that increase the softening. This mold has to be removed before the flesh is presented to customers for sale.
Dismembered animals remain in cold storage for ten to thirty days. The fibers of dead flesh are one of the strongest materials in nature and can only be denatured by heat or bacterial putrefaction.
So, when you put a piece of this bacterially decayed flesh in your mouth, there is already putrefaction.
In the mouth, the salivary glands provide some saliva to aid swallowing and the passage of flesh. The flesh pieces then enter the stomach through the esophageal sphincter. The stomach then releases gastric juices containing hydrochloric acid and pepsin, which both initiate the breakdown of the flesh.
The acidity of the stomach helps “unfold” the rotting proteins that still retain part of their 3D structure after cooking, and helps break down the toxic protein aggregates that form during cooking.
Pepsin, which is secreted by the cells that line the stomach, dismantles the protein chains into smaller and smaller fragments.
Flesh proteins are large globular molecules and their chemical breakdown requires time and mixing. Powerful mechanical stomach contractions churn the partially digested flesh into a mixture called chyme. Protein digestion in the stomach takes a lot longer time than carbohydrate digestion. Flesh remains in the stomach much longer (one primary reason why cured meats are a known high risk factor for stomach cancer).
The stomach empties the chyme containing the broken down flesh pieces into the small intestine, where the majority of protein digestion occurs. The pancreas secretes digestive juice that contains chymotrypsin and trypsin, which further break down the flesh fragments. The cells that line the small intestine release additional enzymes that finally break apart the smaller flesh fragments into the individual amino acids.
The muscle contractions of the small intestine push the digested flesh to the absorption sites. The primary goal of course being to break the flesh down into dipeptides and amino acids for absorption.
In the lower parts of the small intestine, the amino acids are transported from the intestinal lumen through the intestinal cells to the blood. This movement of individual amino acids requires transport proteins and adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
Once the amino acids are in the blood, they are transported to the liver. As with other macronutrients, the liver is the checkpoint for amino acid distribution and any further breakdown of amino acids.
Amino acids contain nitrogen, so further catabolism of amino acids releases nitrogen-containing ammonia. Because ammonia is toxic, the liver transforms it into urea, which is then transported to the kidney and excreted in the urine, for the purpose of transporting excess nitrogen out of the body, because it’s toxic.
(Side note… or you could just eat plants)
Basically, all flesh is absorbed as tripeptides, dipeptides or amino acids and this process occurs in the duodenum or proximal jejunum of the small intestine. The peptides and/or amino acids pass through the interstitial brush border by facilitative diffusion or active transport. Once passed through the membrane, the amino acids or peptides are released into the intestinal blood stream and are transported to the liver by the hepatic (liver) portal vein. This is known as the enterohepatic circulation.
IMPORTANT: Here’s what you may not know. It is a known fact that certain amounts of protein escape digestion entirely - up to 12 grams per meal - which may not seem like a lot, but is a huge amount of undigested flesh to reach the colon, where it turned into toxic substances like ammonia, leading to increasingly high rates of colon cancer.
This degradation of undigested flesh in the colon is called putrefaction; so scientifically speaking, actual flesh does actually end up putrefying in your colon, in addition to the fact that the flesh was ALREADY putrefying.
In general, flesh fermentation mainly occurs in the lower end of colon and results in the production of potentially toxic metabolites, which is why colorectal cancer and ulcerative colitis tend to happen lower down—because that’s where the flesh foods are putrefying.
MOST IMPORTANT to this whole discussion however, is not to allow diversion by way of a red herring argument. In being of service in this world, and speaking to those who truly want to take charge of their health, it’s pointless to do anything other than teach the facts: no one, a total of zero people, are dying in hospitals from heart attacks, (the number one killer) lifestyle induced cancers, or diabetes because they ate an exclusively WHOLE FOODS PLANT BASED DIET CONSISTING OF FRUITS, VEGGIES, NUTS, SEEDS, LEGUMES AND GRAINS.
Period.
As an educator to people who wish to avoid the diseases that will kill most everyone you know: heart disease, cancer and diabetes, the focus must remain on the science that had proven in extensive research/peer reviewed studies that people who regularly consume animal flesh, are at much higher risk of these deadly diseases. It is a known scientific fact that rotting putrefying flesh from animals raises levels of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO). TMAO is a byproduct of gut bacteria. Research has shown high TMAO levels to a SIGNIFICANTLY higher risk of heart attack and stroke, and have higher risks of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).”
—Liana Shanti
HMI Founder, Juris Doctor, Certified Clinical Nutritionist, Natural Healing Institute of Naturopathy; Member American Association of Nutritional Consultants, Additional Certifications: Harvard Medical School Cholesterol Management Certification; Harvard Medical School Type 2 Diabetes Management Certification; Harvard Medical School Management of High Blood Pressure Certification.
So, What Now?
Well, that’s up to you. If you’ve made it this far – congratulations! Even if you decide to continue on as you are, thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope it’s planted seeds for thought.
If you’ve read this and you’re ready to change – this is AMAZING news for you. Because I promise you, you will never look back. When done correctly (as in, not just eating any old junk food that is labelled as vegan), you will effortless lose and maintain your ideal weight, you’ll feel lighter, have effortless periods, clearer skin, mental clarity and sharper thinking, you’ll recover faster from workouts, you’ll rarely get sick, and you’ll turn back the clock in terms of ageing.
As I mentioned earlier, I suggest working with someone who can show you how and what to eat. From a supplementation perspective, B12 (methylcobalamin) would be one of the only supplements that are truly essential, and potentially zinc. But in truth, even meat eaters can be deficient in these nutrients, and actually, a whole lot more, because meat takes up a lot of room in their diet, often at the expense of fruit, vegetables, legumes and grains. Iron deficiencies occur in meat-eaters and non-meat eaters alike – I was one of them when I was eating meat. You can get plenty of iron from plant-based sources. Regular blood tests will help you to decide if any additional supplementation is needed, plant-based or not.
Making the switch to plant-based eating can be easy if you let it be. If you need assistance, I’m only a free call away. Don’t forget to check out the plans and programs I have, ready to go.
Love,
Amya
The information in this post is an amalgamation of my studies with HMI Wellness, and:
Fueling the Vegetarian (Vegan) Athlete – Dr Joel Fuhrman and Deana M. Ferreri
Proteinaholic – Garth Davis, M.D.