Tag Archives: protein

Comparing Different Proteins

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Protein is of primary importance.  While no one who eats regularly is really deficient in protein, the more you eat protein, the stronger and more energetic you feel.  In this essay, I will try to give my view on the best protein.

Beans, peas, and lentils, and other legumes like peanut, are actually really good.  They’re vegan, so no one was injured in their production, they’re cheap, and they’re easy to store.  The downsides are the gasiness one might get from eating too much of them, and the general boredom from getting all your protein from them.

Seeds are a good source of vegetarian protein, but it’s not wise to eat more than a small amount per day, since they’re loaded with fat and calories too.

Quinoa is a pseudo-grain that is actually a flower seed but cooked and eaten like rice.  Quinoa is the best plant protein, containing an optimal balance of all 8 essential amino acids.  The problem is it doesn’t taste like anything.

Then you have the mighty chicken egg.  This is the optimal protein, the best one for human nutrition.  Even vegans sometimes don’t mind compromising their standards and eating an egg or two.  They’re that good.

Then you have dairy, like milk, cheese, and yogurt.  I find that these aren’t the best proteins in the world for a slew of reasons.  For starters, cheese is loaded with salt and fat.  Milk has lactose in it, a sugar that causes digestive discomfort and diarrhea.  Yogurt is good protein, can be found in low fat versions, and has less sugar in it because the fermenting bacteria have eaten away most of the lactose.  But i’ve come to the conclusion that the egg is superior to the dairy product in most respects.  There’s no downside to eating eggs, besides animal rights you might say, but there are tremendous downsides to eating milk/cheese/yogurt.  Some science indicates cheese has opiate effects and is therefore addictive.  Other scientists say that the protein in milk is inflammatory and can lead to autoimmune disease.

The fish is the best animal to eat.  I’ve never seen an old fish.  The reason why fish never get fat, old, and wrinkly, is because they are constantly swimming, eat a sea vegetable and smaller fish diet, and the fat underneath their skin is fluid, not solid like lard.  That makes for a healthy animal and a healthy dinner.

Then you have meat, and it doesn’t matter if it’s chicken, duck, cow, pig, sheep, or goat, or anything else.  Meat can be really good or really bad depending on how the animal lived and how strong and healthy it was.

So really, there’s no point in writing this essay, it’s all common information.  My suggestion is to always go lower down on the food chain rather than higher up.  This is better for everyone, you included.  Animals are above birds, birds are above fish, fish are above unfertilized eggs, eggs are above beans and seeds and quinoa and so on.  The lower down it is, the less toxic it is.  The most toxic animal is the human being, because we are the apex predator.

Human beings in the western world often have a choice about what they’re eating.  With a proper education, one can live quite well.

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Progress Update

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I have made significant changes recently in my own health journey.  I’ve decided the ketogenic diet is not for me.  While low carb, high fat does give you short term results, one invariably adds sugar and starch back to the diet and weight fluctuates.

I’ve become pretty much vegan, and I find this diet helps keep the blood sugar low and the weight in check.  I’ve come to the conclusion that starchy foods are the BEST foods not the WORST foods.  Things like beans, sweet potato, corn, carrot, pea, lentil, quinoa are actually the best foods because they contain fiber as well as starch and vitamins and minerals.

Beans are the humblest food, and yet, still the best.  They combine vegetarian protein, fiber, and complex carbohydrates in the same food, and there is an endless variety of them.  Beans are a way cleaner fuel source than meat.

I still eat some rice, but I’ve learned that both brown and white rice are high glycemic foods (compared to the above foods).  The glycemic impact of the rice is mitigated by eating other things with the rice.

I am not completely vegan, I still love dairy products like ghee and yogurt, and I’m not against the concept of fish or egg every now and then.  I’m opportunistic and realistic and pragmatic.

It is much cheaper and more convenient to live this way.  Beans are much cheaper protein than any type of meat, and it’s easier to clean up after yourself as vegan.  When you buy meat or fish at a supermarket, you have to cook it before it goes bad.  This is constant stress and labor.  And eating meat in a restaurant, one never knows what quality of meat they use or how it was handled in kitchen.

Ultimately, any food is good food.  That’s what Jesus said, and it’s pretty logical too.  If it’s organic material, it’s food for another species.  Eating living tissue is called vivisection.  All food, whether it be plant or animal in origin, is dead.  The more plant food you eat and the less animal food you eat, the better your health will be.

The Easy Way to Be Fit

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Better than weight training and a low carb diet, which just inflates your muscles and doesn’t build functional strength and doesn’t last as soon as you go off this regimen, is something much better.

And that would be intermittent fasting.  In the end, it’s not so much about what you eat or whether it is organic, free range, or all that nonsense.  It’s about how much you eat and how often.

Most people in America don’t go more than 4 hours without eating, and some ‘graze’ all day or eat a meal every two hours.  This is not good for your digestive organs, hormonal balance, insulin levels, teeth, and a whole slew of other things.

There are many ways to break up the day into periods of eating and not eating.  But the theory is, when the body has a chance to rest from food, insulin levels drop and the organs of digestion get to rest.  The best is to skip breakfast, eat your first meal at 10am, then wait four hours, eat again, wait another four hours, and eat your last meal of the day.  You can snack a little before 8pm, and that’s it.  Nothing fancy.

Fasting before and after sleep is a powerful tonic.  The body gets to rest from digesting food all the time and nourish the brain and organs instead.  It might be necessary to drink black coffee when you wake up to help you get going, but I suggest skipping breakfast and not snacking after dinner.  In addition, don’t graze or snack in between meals.  This is the easiest way to stay fit.

If you do intermittent fasting, the quality of the food you eat is less important.  You can eat meat, sugar, bread, milk, anything in moderation as long as you are not eating too much or too often.  That’s why I call it the easy way to get fit, it’s a no brainer.

Of course, it takes discipline and restraint from snacking all day.  I suggest eating protein with every meal and replacing some of the carbs with fat.  Good fats are good foods.

In general, one should eat to live not live to eat.  Don’t see food as a reward for good behavior.  You’re not a kid anymore.  See food as fuel for your body and lifestyle.  Eat what you need to eat, not what is most tasty and exciting.

Intermittent fasting plus ketogenic diet is the real caveman diet.  Cavemen didn’t graze on sugar and starch all day because they couldn’t afford to.  They went through periods of feast and famine, and were lucky to eat one piece of fruit per summer.  Wheat and all starchy grains were an invention of the agriculturist later on in human development, which doesn’t make them inherently bad, just unnatural.  Brown rice is the most harmless and energetic grain, the starchy fruit of a grass species.

The less often you eat, the more hunger you have for the food and the better it tastes.  This is the original way to live, enjoying the bare minimum with zeal, not sitting around the TV munching on cheetos and soda.

The Real Culprit

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The worst food for human health is not meat, eggs, or fish.  It’s not even dairy, because there are dairy products that aren’t bad.  It’s starchy junk.  Starchy foods like beans and grains actually feed disease in the body, and shorten lifespan.  You may ask, why did people start hybridizing and cultivating starch in the past?  And the answer would be economics.

Beans and grains are cheap filler and are useful for feeding a growing population.  It’s not poison, it’s just fodder, and if you know what’s best for you, you’ll eat high quality food not fodder.

The best food for human consumption is vegetables of all kinds.  The best are the low-starch green vegetables, like broccoli, spinach, green bean, and kale.  Animal protein does not cause obesity or disease, at least not in moderate amounts, and there are both native american tribes who ate a lot of animals and lived in perfect health, and some who were vegetarian.

The low carb, high fat diet is by far the best for human health.  Atkins didn’t invent it, he just took credit for it in the modern era.  In the absence of carbohydrate, the body burns both dietary fat and adipose tissue for fuel rather than sugar.  If one does go on a low carb, high fat diet, one should do carb cycling too.  Carb cycling is like a cheat day when you add a lot of sugar back to your diet temporarily.

But if you know what’s good, you’ll eat more greens and less grains, and not be afraid of animal foods.  There are vegetarian sources of protein, like seeds and nuts, but the main factor in the human race being superior to the animal kingdom lie in hunting and cooking food.  Chimps and gorillas, our closest animal species, are vegans who eat fruit and seed.  But what is often not mentioned is that they spend most of their hours every day chewing coarse fruit and bamboo.  It’s not a productive life.

I personally don’t believe in evolution, one species can’t mate with another and produce viable offspring.  Man was created, and some type of adaptive change is recorded in the mythology of the bible.  Man is not another species vying for survival, that is an erroneous belief.  Man is the pinnacle of creation, and every plant and animal is for man’s use.

Adam was created to be a steward of the land, not to manipulate his own descendants with greed and treachery.  All of our problems are rooted in economics, and there seems to be no earthly cure for this mess.  The real solution is for humanity is for sages to attain enlightenment and teach ordinary people the way to live.  The sage leads by example.  Some people are born with more talent than others, and it is the responsibility of the greater man to teach the lesser.

 

Back to Atkins.

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Here is a brief insight into what I am doing in my own health journey.

The ultimate thing in weight loss, health, and longevity is to eat less calories.  To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.  That doesn’t mean starve yourself.  Since carbohydrates are the bulk of any normal diet, the best way to reduce calories is to reduce carbohydrate.  Sugar restriction is the only real way to lose weight.

In previous months, I’ve been eating less in terms of portions, but out of habit and convenience I was eating mostly brown rice and fruit with a bit of protein like chicken and milk.  That is doable, but not ideal.

The best diet is a regimen of protein and vegetables.  Water is important too.  You can’t reinvent the wheel, and people have been using the Atkins diet since the 70’s to get into shape.  Everybody who is lean and looks good does it.

Soup is by far the ideal way to eat.  It is good in so many different ways.  First of all, it contains all the best food-groups to begin with.  Soup is a combination of protein, vegetables, and water.  Secondly it is easy to prepare, even if you are cooking from scratch.  Also, it is slow simmered over low heat, so it’s already partially broken down by the time you eat it, making it easy to digest.  As well, it is cheap and uses cheap cuts of meat and fish, but since the meat is tender, you don’t really notice it.

The point is, I shouldn’t make a big deal about food but also I shouldn’t give in to eating sugar and starch out of convenience.  With a little thought, knowledge, and planning, one can live well on very little money and effort.

A Friendly Reminder

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Protein is the most important nutrient.  Our bodies are made up of different proteins, and the word actually translates from Latin as ‘of primary importance’.  But did you know that animal foods are not the only source of protein?  There are dozens of ways of getting plant protein, and some of these foods are better than beef or milk!

Legumes, such as beans, peas, and lentils, are packed with not just vegetable protein but also fiber and numerous other good things.  I particularly like lentils, since they can be cooked from dry without soaking overnight.  That makes them convenient.

Quinoa is a pseudograin that is often used as a substitute for rice.  The only difference between quinoa and brown rice is that quinoa has twice the protein ounce for ounce and more fiber with less starch.  Quinoa would be great for vegetarians who don’t want to eat animal flesh but still need high protein diets.

And not quite fitting into animal or plant protein, the egg of a chicken boasts of the most perfect protein for human nutrition.  The amino acid profile of the protein found in egg is the best for human health, and the gold standard by which all other proteins are measured.

Of course, there are trace amounts of protein in vegetables, and this source shouldn’t be underestimated.  Even broccoli and leafy greens are a good source of protein!

The point is, you could get protein from meat, eggs, and fish, or even lentils, peas, and quinoa and be doing great.  Protein is the most important nutrient, and should be the focus of the meal.  There are protein sources everywhere, so no one should say they are not eating enough protein.