Archive for Protein
Weight loss diets and macronutrient composition
Posted by: | CommentsFrom Medscape:
The quick summary: “Dieters ate different amounts of protein, fat, and carbohydrate — but, after 2 years, most were still obese.”
Here’s some more detail: “While weight-loss diets claim unique nutrient compositions that guarantee unusually rapid and effortless success, comparative studies — usually with small populations and short follow-ups — have yielded widely disparate results. Now, a large long-term multisite study suggests that all these diets result in similar outcomes.
Researchers randomized 811 overweight adults (81% white; 62% female; 69% college graduates; mean body-mass index, 33 kg/m2) to four restricted-calorie eating plans:
* High fat, high protein
* High fat, average protein
* Low fat, high protein
* Low fat, average protein
Carbohydrate intake ranged from 35% (in the first plan) to 65% (in the fourth) of total calories. All meals were prepared at home, and participants ate from a single menu with each dish’s components adjusted to reflect each diet’s emphasis; all participants were offered weight-loss counseling.
Changes in weight and waist circumference at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months were indistinguishable among groups: At 2 years, only about 15% of each group had lost at least 10% of body weight. Attendance at group counseling sessions strongly predicted successful weight loss. At 2 years, hunger and diet-satisfaction scores were all similar. Food diaries and urinary nitrogen analyses indicated that the actual nutrients consumed might have been more similar among groups than had been planned.”
I think that this situation is to be expected. Deprivation, as a general rule, is extremely hard to maintain over the long haul. It’s better to gradually change by learning how to eat plant-based, whole foods. Bottom line: its not the macro-nutrient balance that counts. It’s the micro-nutrients (and of course physical activity) that ultimately determine health and fitness.
Low glycemic high-protein pancakes
Posted by: | CommentsI’m exploring chickpea-flour (chana dal) pancake recipes. Chana dal is a legume that is one of the lowest glycemic index foods, and an excellent source of low fat, high quality protein. People with gluten sensitivity and/or blood sugar issues can safely eat chana dal pancakes instead of wheat flour recipes.
Here’s one recipe, from Madhur Jaffrey’s World of the East Vegetarian Cooking:
1 cup chickpea flour, firmly packed (available from Indian groceries as “Chana Flour”)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 ground turmeric
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 cup vegetable oil (or pam spray) to coat the skillet.
Sift flour into a bowl. Slowly add 1 cup water, 2 tablespoons at a time. Stir well with a wooden spoon, breaking the lumps. Add another 1/2 cup water, salt, turmeric, and cayenne. Stir to mix.
Pour and spread the batter thinly on a hot skillet. Cover hot skillet and let pancake cook for 7-8 minutes.
Serve with chutney or dipping sauce of your choice.
Protein bread recipe
Posted by: | CommentsI actually tried a simplified chana dal recipe tonight, using my wife’s “GT Xpress Meal, Snack and Desert Maker”gizmo. This kitchen appliance works like a waffle iron (having heating elements on the top and the bottom, except that the shape of the container is two smooth half circles, instead of a waffle pattern).
I used a cup of chana flour (120 grams), and gradually added about 3/4 cup water, slowly stirring with a wisk. I added two teaspoons of baking powder to the mix, and a teaspoon of Madras curry powder I bought from the Indian grocery.
This took a few minutes to prepare. I then poured it into the GT Xpress 101, and 8 minutes later, voila! The results: a perfect half circle bread that was just a little bit damp in the middle. I split the loaf (making two half-inch slices), and spread a little bit of ”Patak’s Original Brinjal Eggplant Relish (Medium spicy)” onto it. A delicious gluten-free high protein legume loaf (456 calories, one serving).
Next time I do this, I’ll double the recipe so I make two pieces of bread, using both sides of the GT Xpress.
Protein per 100 calories of selected foods
Posted by: | Commentsbroccoli: protein 8.3 g; carb 19.5 g; fat 1.1 g; fiber 7.6 g
mustard greens: protein 10.4 g; carb 18.9 g; fat 0.8 g; fiber 12.7 g
tenderloin steak: protein 6.6 g; carb 0 g; fat: 8.0 g; fiber 0 g
chicken (white meat): protein 20.4 g; carb 0 g; fat 1.4g; fiber 0 g
salmon (sockeye): protein 12.7 g; carb 0 g; fat 5.1 g; fiber 0 g
If you play with the math, these are the amounts of food you need to eat of each food to get 10 grams of protein: kale 303 g, broccoli 357 g, steak 55 g, chicken 43 g.
You can get adequate protein with green vegetables alone, except that you need to eat a lot of it. There are a lot more micronutrients per calorie (i.e., vitamins, minerals, antioxidants) in vegetable than in animal sources.
Perhaps the often-heard need for more animal protein as one ages (from a protein/bioavailability standpoint) is really a function of how much volume (of greens) our digestive system can take as we age. There is no doubt one can take in the necessary amount of protein via vegetables, although some may personally argue that they can’t just handle that amount of food volume. (However, if you add nuts and seeds to the equation, then you solve the “volume” problem, since these are compact sources of high quality proteins and fat.)
I personally think the mix (vegetable vs animal source of protein) has to be determined on an individual basis. Some experts have advocated that the percent of calories contributed by animal sources should be in the ten percent range, as a maximum.
In real time, optimal nutrition becomes very difficult not because we don’t know what to eat, but rather because we have the social, emotional, and behavioral ball of wax that prevent us from sticking to an ideal diet.
The China Study, cliffnotes version
Posted by: | CommentsHere are the key points of Dr. C. Campbell’s The China-Oxford-Cornell Diet and Health Project aka The China Study. This is the most comprehensive study ever done on the relationship between diet and disease.
1. Do not obsess about single nutrients, food, or supplements. By eating from the proper food groups (i.e., whole foods like vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts and seeds) you will have a nutritionally excellent diet.
2. What you eat is as important as how much you eat. The least active people in rural China consumed 30% more calories per pound of body weight. Yet had a 20% lower body mass index than average Americans.
3. What you eat plays a vital role in your overall health. This even extends to specific immunity to viral infections.
4. A nutrient rich diet and physically active lifestyle reduces the risks for several diseases at the same time. One observation was that diseases cluster together in the same geographic regions and for the same populations, which suggests that they may have a common cause.
5. Cholesterol is a strong predictor not only of heart disease risk, but also of cancer. Furthermore, diet is strongly linked to cholesterol levels. The best foods for disease prevention: unrefined, plant-based foods.
6. Breast cancer is not just a function of fat intake. There is a complex biochemical network that determines risk of breast cancer and other cancers. Focusing on one nutrient at a time is unlikely to result in any special benefit. It is much more advantageous to simply eat the right types of whole, unrefined foods and let your body take care of the rest.
7. You can virtually eliminate the risk of heart disease, by combining a nutritionally excellent diet with an active lifestyle. In some populations in China, heart disease is almost nonexistent.
8. Type I diabetes, (which strikes young children) is strongly linked to cow’s milk consumption and premature weaning. For infants, the best food is human breast milk.
9. Eye diseases commonly associated with old age, including cataracts and macular degeneration, are linked to diet. Antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables protect against these diseases. The best foods for your eyes are dark, green, leafy vegetables like spinach.
10. Bone health is strongly related with the ratio of vegetable to animal protein intake. Eating more nutrient rich plant foods and less animal foods result in better bone health. Populations that consume mostly plant foods and lead more physically active lifestyles have much lower rates of hip fracture than we do in America, even if they don’t consume dairy foods or calcium supplements.
11. Type 2 diabetes can be reversed in patients simply by changing to a nutrient-dense, mainly plant-based diet.
12. Many studies have consistently shown that dairy intake is linked to prostate cancer . A high dairy intake is one of the “most consistent dietary predictors for prostate cancer in the published literature.”
13. People always worry about getting enough protein. The real danger really lies in overconsumption of protein, especially an over reliance on animal protein.
Side effects of changing to a healthy weight loss diet
Posted by: | CommentsAn old friend from back home called me a few days ago with this question:
Q: “When I shifted to eating healthier, i.e., eating vegetables, fruits, legumes, and nuts & seeds, eliminating sugar and fast foods altogether, I started feeling weak and nauseous. My uncle (who’s a third-generation butcher and a serious afficionado of high-fat variants of Philippine cooking and chicharon-bulaklak connoisseur), told me that’s what I get from not eating meat. He suggested I eat meat immediately to get stronger. I used to eat a minimum of 16 ounces of red meat and/or chicken a day, mostly from fast food restaurants and steak houses. This is excluding my three times a week habit of eating pork chops (or sausages) and five eggs twice a week for breakfast. I love meat (and Meat Lover’s Pizza), but I want to give a healthy diet a chance since my total cholesterol is at 387 and my pressure is 170 over 125.”
A: Your body has been used to processing a very high amount of protein and salt, so the shift to better food needs time to re-adjust. You have been subjecting yourself to a high level of metabolic stress because of the excess protein your have been consuming and fat. The readjustment to lower protein and sodium levels will take some time, so in the beginning you’ll actually feel worse when you shift to a high-level, nutrient dense, lower calorie healthy diet. This detox process is no different from the withdrawal symptoms one gets when quitting addictive substances.
Some authorities would argue for a phased-in change, tapering off your high meat consumption as you increase your greens and healthy whole food intake. Supposedly this minimizes the toxic dumping that accompanies a shift to a lower caloric (and conceivably, healthier) diet. Losing weight fast can potentially have harmful effects.
Other sources, e.g., Dr. Joel Fuhrman, argues that shifting immediately to a nutritionally excellent diet would be a more strategically sound approach, given your alarming profile.
My feeling is that it really depends on how sound the new diet can be, and how informed, disciplined and motivated you will be with your new regimen. Nausea is usually not a good motivator, so it will depend on how well you’re going to weather the detox storms coming your way…
