2008 April « Mark Spilmon’s Weblog

What is the big deal with being high on protien?

Unlike with fats and carbs, there’s no such food as an unhealthy protein. Tissues undergoing repair and those that are growing need a steady supply of protein to build and rebuild organs, muscles, antibodies, hormones, and enzymes. Dietary protien is vital to every kind of cell in the body, and without it we become de-energized.

Unlike fat or sugar, it’s nearly impossible to overdose on proteins, especially in children’s diets. If you’re truly conserned about your health, there is really no need to ever worry about any troubling effects of eating pure protein. For the majority of Americans, getting enough protein should not be a problem. You should truly think of protein at the true constuction material of your cells.

The ancient Greeks were so impressed with the the dietary properties that the word protien is derive form their word “protos”, which means “first.” Proteins are simular to carbohydrates and fats, in that they contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, but they also contain one more vital element, nitrogen. Clearly nitrogen, a key compoent of the exposive, nitroglycerin, and fertilizers, such as amonium nitrate, sets protiens a long way apart from the other two vital nutrients.

Now, perhaps there are a few of you out there thinking to yourselves, as I am, that when your cells need energy and you feed them protien, it’s like they are saying, “Yah baby, it’s KaBoom time!!!” Then they start singing that song that goes, “I’ve got the power. I’ve got the power.”

Protiens are made up of long strands of molecules called amino acids. You can think of these Amino acids as being like letters, and proteins as being like words. There are 20 different amino acids in the human body, but there are many possible combinations of these amino acids. There are about two quadrillion different proteins that can exist if each of the 20 amino acids present in humans is used only once. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), a molecule in all cells that contains genetic codes for inheritance, creates encoded instructions for the synthesis of amino acids.

Amino acids are also present in hormones, chemicals that are essential to life. Among these hormones is insulin, which regulates sugar levels in the blood and without which a person would die. Another is adrenaline, which controls blood pressure and gives animals a sudden jolt of energy needed in a high-stress situationÂrunning from a predator in the grasslands or (to a use a human example) facing a mugger in an alley or a bully on a playground. Biochemical studies of amino-acid sequences in hormones have made it possible for scientists to isolate and produce artificially these and other hormones, including the human growth hormone.

Just as proteins form when amino acids bond together in long chains, they can be broken down by a reaction called hydrolysis, the reverse of the formation of the peptide bond. That is exactly what happens in the process of digestion, when special digestive enzymes in the stomach enable the breaking down of the peptide linkage. (Enzymes are a type of proteinÂsee my blog on Enzymes.) The amino acids, separated once again, are released into the small intestine, from whence they pass into the bloodstream and are carried throughout the organism. Each individual cell of the organism then can use these amino acids to assemble the new and different proteins required for its specific functions. Life thus is an ongoing cycle in which proteins are broken into individual amino-acid units, and new proteins are built up from these amino acids.

As I’ve already blogged on, my body just loves those vitamin waters. As hydrolysis only works if there is inbibing of pure water, keeping hydrated essential for a body’s energy. And as you can see here again, those Enzymes really do give you energy, through their catalytic actions.

Out of the many thousands of possible amino acids, humans require only 20 different kinds. Two others appear in the bodies of some animal species, and approximately 100 others can be found in plants. Considering the vast numbers of amino acids and possible combinations that exist in nature, the number of amino acids essential to life is extremely small. Yet of the 20 amino acids required by humans for making protein, only 12 can be produced within the body, whereas the other eightÂisoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valineÂmust be obtained from the diet. (In addition, adults are capable of synthesizing arginine and histidine, but these amino acids are believed to be essential to growing children, meaning that children cannot produce them on their own.)

A complete protein is one that contains all of the essential amino acids in quantities sufficient for growth and repair of body tissue. Most proteins from animal sources, gelatin being the only exception, contain all the essential amino acids and are therefore considered complete proteins. On the other hand, many plant proteins do not contain all of the essential amino acids. For example, lysine is absent from corn, rice, and wheat, whereas corn also lacks tryptophan and rice lacks threonine. Soybeans are lacking in methionine. Vegans, or vegetarians who consume no animal proteins in their diets (i.e., no eggs, dairy products, or the like) are at risk of malnutrition, because they may fail to assimilate one or more essential amino acid.

Another way to evaluate proteins is to consider the biological value (BV) of a protein, meaning not only how rich it is in essential amino acids, but also how well it can be digested by the intestines. Animal proteins are around 95 percent digestible and plant proteins range between 80 and 90 percent digestible.

Complimenting and combining proteins. While it may seem that animal proteins are better nutritionally, the differences in quality between animal and plant proteins are more theoretical interest than practical significance. People can grow just as well on plant proteins. (Plant-protein eaters may even be healthier, since they avoid the fat that comes with animal protein.) One plant food can supply the amino acids missing in another. Proteins from different kinds of plants complement each other and, in fact, many common and traditional foods are based on complementary proteins.

Don’t be misled into thinking that you must eat meat twice a day or even once a day to get the protein you need. Even though plant proteins are not complete proteins, you can make up for what any one food lacks by eating a wide variety of plant and dairy foods. A hefty salad with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese and a topping of sunflower seeds is a healthy protein lunch.

The amount of protein you need depends primarily on the size of your body and how fast it is growing, and to a lesser extent on your gender and how much you exercise. Babies need more protein per pound than moms, moms more than grandmothers, and dads more than moms. As a general guide, this is the amount of protein that the average person needs at various ages:

AGE PROTEIN PER POUND DAILY PROTEIN NEEDS Birth – 6 months 1 gm. 13 gms. 6 months – 1 year .75 gm. 14 gms. 1 – 6 years .6 gms. 16-24 gms. 7 – 15 years .5 gms. 28-50 gms. Adults .36 gms. 50-60 gms.

GROWTH SPURTS

Growing children need more “grow” foods (i.e., proteins). During the first two months of life, fifty percent of the protein in a baby’s diet is used for growth and the other fifty percent is used for continued maintenance of the tissues. By three years of age, only eleven percent of dietary protein is used for growth. During the periodic growth spurts of infancy, childhood, and adolescence, you may need to perk up the proteins in your child’s diet anywhere from five to fifteen grams more a day.

Animal proteins are better tailored to meet the needs of infants and growing children than are plant proteins, which is why nature provides human milk for babies. The complete proteins in breastmilk are more suited to a growing infant’s needs than plant protein, which is found in some formulas. Even babies in vegan families get an animal-based food if they are breastfed.

Notes:

These amounts are average recommended dietary allowances (RDA’s). Practically speaking, most people eat different amounts of protein each day.

Vegans (eating plant proteins only) should add 25 percent to these values. Because the body metabolizes animal protein easier than plant protein, eating more plant protein makes up for this difference.
Pregnant and lactating women add 15-25 grams a day.
During growth spurts in infancy, childhood, and adolescents, add 5 to 15 grams.
During periods of increased tissue repair (illness, injury, or strenuous athletic training), add 10 to 20 grams.
Male adolescents and adults usually need 10 to 20 grams more protein daily than females.

As a rough and very general guide, if you shoot for a gram of protein per pound per day for infants and children, 3/4 of a gram for adolescents, and 1/2 gram per pound per day for adults, you’re in the right nutritional ballpark, and getting even more than the RDA for protein.

JUST HOW MUCH PROTEIN DO YOU REALLY NEED?

The usual figures that are thrown around concerning protein needs are “15 to 20 percent of total daily calories.” For most individuals this is much too high. The average infant, child, and adult can get all the protein they need without having daily calories from protein exceed 10 percent of their total calories. For example, if you eat an average of 2,000 calories a day, about 200 calories of this should be protein. Protein contains four calories per gram, so this would be about 50 grams of protein (200 divided by four calories/gram equals 50 grams). Most children and adults get at least ten percent of their total daily calories as protein without even trying. In times of increased protein needs (such as pregnancy, lactation, adolescent growth spurts, or high endurance exercise), this figure may increase to 15 percent.

Perhaps the fairest and most practical way of rating protein foods is to look at the amount of protein in relation to the total calories in a food. The following chart will show you how to get enough protein without overdosing on fat.

Protein Food Grams of Protein per serving Percentage of calories as protein Fish, tuna (4 oz) 25-30 83% Egg white (1) 3.5 82% Cottage cheese, nonfat (1/2 c.) 15 75% Poultry, breast, no skin (4 oz) 25 75% Kidney beans (1/2 cup) 7 60% Tofu, firm (3 oz) 13 45% Yogurt, plain nonfat (1 cup) 12 40% Beef, lean (4 oz) 30 40% Egg, whole (1) 6 33% Milk, 1% (8 ounces) 8 32% Peanut butter (2 tbsp.) 8 17% Cereal (1 cup) with 1/2 c. milk 6-8 17% Nuts or sunflower seeds (oz.) 7 16% Pasta (1 cup) 7 15% Whole wheat bread (1 slice) 3 15%

THE MOST POWERFUL PROTEINS

Some proteins are more powerful than others. What makes one protein more powerful than another is not only whether it contains all the essential amino acids, but how many different amino acids it contains. That’s why nutritional scientists use the Protein-Energy Ratio (PER) and Biological Value (BV) ratings of proteins, which measure how well the body utilizes amino acids in a protein. Here’s how the main proteins rate (from highest to lowest) by how well they are utilized in the body.

Whey protein (the lactalbumin extract from dairy proteins found in protein supplements; also the predominant protein in human milk)
Egg white
Fish
Dairy products
Beef
Soy
Legumes (e.g., beans, lentils)

Be sure to be careful, if you go on a high protien diet. It is generally unwise to use a high protein diet to lose weight. The protein overdose sends the kidneys into overtime. As the kidneys work to eliminate the excess protein, they also dump a lot of water out of your system. On the bathroom scale, this looks like a dramatic weight loss, but it is not a real weight loss. (What you really want to lose is fat.) If you lose too much water weight too fast you could harm your health. It is generally wise to consume extra amounts of water if eating extra protein. High protein diets are potentially harmful for people with kidney or liver insufficiency. Before trying this type of diet, be sure to consult your doctor and a registered dietitian.

The other problem with eating an excess of protien is that you could develop kidney stones, or gallstones which are both very painful.

The kidneys remove extra water and wastes from the blood, producing urine. Normally, the kidneys filter uric acid particles out of the blood and excrete it into the urine. If the body produces too much uric acid or the kidneys aren’t able to filter enough of it out, there is a buildup of uric acid in the bloodstream. This condition is known as hyperuricemia. Uric acid is formed in the bloodstream when the body breaks down waste products, mainly those containing purines. Purines can be produced naturally by the body, and they can be ingested from such high-purine foods as meat.

Uric acid does not tend to remain dissolved in the bloodstream. Over the course of years, or even decades, hyperuricemia may cause deposits of crystallized uric acid throughout the body. Joints, tendons, ear tips, and kidneys are favored sites.

Gallstones are small, pebble-like substances that develop in the gallbladder. The gallbladder is a small, pear-shaped sac located below your liver in the right upper abdomen. Gallstones form when liquid stored in the gallbladder hardens into pieces of stone-like material. The liquidcalled bilehelps the body digest fats. Bile is made in the liver, then stored in the gallbladder until the body needs it. The gallbladder contracts and pushes the bile into a tubecalled the common bile ductthat carries it to the small intestine, where it helps with digestion.

Bile contains water, cholesterol, fats, bile salts, proteins, and bilirubina waste product. Bile salts break up fat, and bilirubin gives bile and stool a yellowish-brown color. If the liquid bile contains too much cholesterol, bile salts, or bilirubin, it can harden into gallstones. Gallstones can block the normal flow of bile if they move from the gallbladder and lodge in any of the ducts that carry bile from the liver to the small intestine. Bile trapped in these ducts can cause inflammation in the gallbladder, the ducts, or in rare cases, the liver.

If any of the bile ducts remain blocked for a significant period of time, severe damage or infection can occur in the gallbladder, liver, or pancreas. Left untreated, the condition can be fatal. Warning signs of a serious problem are fever, jaundice, and persistent pain.

The mere presence of gallstones may cause more gallstones to develop. Other factors that contribute to the formation of gallstones, particularly cholesterol stones, include

Sex. Women are twice as likely as men to develop gallstones. Excess estrogen from pregnancy, hormone replacement therapy, and birth control pills appears to increase cholesterol levels in bile and decrease gallbladder movement, which can lead to gallstones.

Family history. Gallstones often run in families, pointing to a possible genetic link.

Weight. A large clinical study showed that being even moderately overweight increases the risk for developing gallstones. The most likely reason is that the amount of bile salts in bile is reduced, resulting in more cholesterol. Increased cholesterol reduces gallbladder emptying. Obesity is a major risk factor for gallstones, especially in women.

Diet. Diets high in fat and cholesterol and low in fiber increase the risk of gallstones due to increased cholesterol in the bile and reduced gallbladder emptying.

Rapid weight loss. As the body metabolizes fat during prolonged fasting and rapid weight losssuch as “crash diets”the liver secretes extra cholesterol into bile, which can cause gallstones. In addition, the gallbladder does not empty properly.

Age. People older than age 60 are more likely to develop gallstones than younger people. As people age, the body tends to secrete more cholesterol into bile.

Ethnicity. American Indians have a genetic predisposition to secrete high levels of cholesterol in bile. In fact, they have the highest rate of gallstones in the United States. The majority of American Indian men have gallstones by age 60. Among the Pima Indians of Arizona, 70 percent of women have gallstones by age 30. Mexican American men and women of all ages also have high rates of gallstones.

Cholesterol-lowering drugs. Drugs that lower cholesterol levels in the blood actually increase the amount of cholesterol secreted into bile. In turn, the risk of gallstones increases.

Diabetes. People with diabetes generally have high levels of fatty acids called triglycerides. These fatty acids may increase the risk of gallstones.

Another problem when high protien is consumed without enough fat in the diet can cause what is called rabit starvation or protien poisoning. Rabbit starvation is the form of acute malnutrition caused by excess consumption of rabbit meat (and possibly other lean meats) coupled with a lack of other sources of nutrients. Symptoms include diarrhea, headache, lassitude, a vague discomfort and hunger that can only be satisfied by consumption of fat or carbohydrates.

Possible mechanisms

Lack of fats in the diet.

Rabbit being comparatively low in some amino acids that human beings cannot synthesize themselves.

Lean meat, being mostly protein, must be broken down into amino acids and then converted into glucose (via gluconeogenesis) in order to be used as an energy source. This process takes time, and can not be done quickly enough to meet the energy requirements of an active person. After the body’s energy reserves (fat) are depleted, the energy requirements to sustain basic life processes are not met.

The ammonia released during the process of converting amino acids into glucose can not be cleared by conversion to urea quickly enough. The buildup of ammonia is poisonous.

The reason that high protein diets “work” is the same reason that other weight loss diets work: they are lower in calories. High protein diets substitute fish and vegetable protein for meat and dairy protein, and this reduces the amount of fat in the diet. Basically, high protein diets are weight loss gimmicks. Promoting proteins and bad-mouthing carbs are just ways to get attention. There is little research to show that this approach works or, more importantly, is safe. Use common sense. Any diet in which you eat fewer calories than you burn will result in loss of body fat, regardless of whether the diet contains primarily fat, carbohydrates, or proteins. Your grandmother could have told you this without even writing a bestseller. Eat a balanced diet and don’t eat more calories than you burn. That’s the secret of weight control.

Ok, once again all that I’m really trying to do here is to pass on a little more of the great amount of research that I’ve done for considering what is best for me. I hope you’ll consider the source and find it useful. Before you start obsess on something that you may learn later, when it’s far too late, was extremely harmful for you, please think as Sir Fansis Bacon, and research everything troughly.

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Why drink Vitamin Water?

Ok to begin with, I like drinking the vitamin water. I don’t do this not just because I need the vitamins, but also because it makes the water a little easier to take and it’s much better for me than one of those toxic caffeinated sodas.

First thing to understand, the body only needs a minute amount of nutrients to function. If there is an excess, it is generally expelled down the never land receptical, I affectionately call the crapper. You may think differently about this, but since may of us feel that vitamins and water are important for us, our need to stay healthy can drive us to a wasteful obsession. Please before you go off the deep end and buy allot of expensive supplements destined for the crapper, do a little research on what you about to take. It’s a fact that your body can also be irreversibility harmed by too much of what we are perceiving to be a good thing. So please, think healthy first and be very cautious about what you ingest.

Vitamin B12, like the other B vitamins, is important for metabolism. It helps in the formation of red blood cells and in the maintenance of the central nervous system.

True, there are some vitiamins that you can take in excess like B12, but you should question whether is it actually being used or just pissed away. The B vitamins are vital to a vigorous and energetic long life. What’s more, you can get serious health problems if you lack them. B vitamins are easily flushed out of the body, and people on weight-loss diets, alcoholics or those who take antibiotics or seizure drugs are even more prone to having vitamin B deficiency.

While it is safe for many people to take three times or more of the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) for B-vitamins, each of us has unique requirements based on our own individual physiology and lifestyle. Hence, it is important to check with your doctor before beginning a vitamin regimen in order to determine your proper dosage. Because deficiencies usually include more than one B-vitamin, and because the B-vitamins work best as a team, you should take a B-complex supplement along with any single B-vitamin in order to achieve their synergistic effects.

Since there are both fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins, you most likely drinking only the water-soluble ones in a vitamin water. A word of caution, through the research which I’ve done thus far, it seem that the vitamins which have the highest potential to do harm if ingested in excess are the fat-soluble ones. In fact from all that I’ve read so far, the best means of obtaining safe levels of the fat-soluble ones are from eating green salads and vegetables.

Here is a listing of the two types:

FAT-SOLUBLE VITAMINS

vitamin A (retinol; carotene is an important precursor of vitamin A)

vitamin D (ergocalciferol and cholecalciferol)

vitamin E (tocopherol)

vitamin K (phylloquinone from plants; menaquinone from gut bacteria)

WATER-SOLUBLE VITAMINS

vitamin B1 (thiamin)

vitamin B2 (riboflavin)

vitamin B6 (pyridoxine)

vitamin B12 (cobalamin)

niacin (nicotinic acid and nicotinamide)

pantothenic acid (vitamin B5)

biotin (vitamin H)

folic acid (vitamin B9)

vitamin C (ascorbic acid)

If you take a look at the lable on one of the popular Propel bottles, you will see that they include vitamin E. So how do they get the fat in the water? Does it float at the top? Why do they do this?

The major function of vitamin E is to serve as a chain-breaking antioxidant, protecting cell membranes against free-radical damage. From the material which I’ve read thus far, I see no reason to take more the recommended RDA of this vitamin, and do not see how they get a fat to be in a water drink unless they use an homogenizer or emulsifying agent. When I look more closely at the label, I can see that they are using the Acetate form of this vitamin. Any acetate form (A salt or ester of acetic acid) mixes well in water.

Since, I love oatmeal for all of the positive things that it does for me, I choose not to take a suplemental vitamin E, so I don’t have an adverse effect an the thyroid problem I have. The excessive supplementation of vitamin E without selenium may deplete selenium and therefore contribute to thyroid disease.

Others sources of vitamin E:

Wheat germ oil (215.4 mg/100 g)

Sunflower oil (55.8 mg/100 g)

Hazelnut (26.0 mg/100 g)

Walnut oil (20.0 mg/100 g)

Peanut oil (17.2 mg/100 g)

Olive oil (12.0 mg/100 g)

Peanut (9.0 mg/100 g)

Pollard (2.4 mg/100 g)

Corn (2.0 mg/100 g)

Asparagus (1.5 mg/100 g)

Oats (1.5 mg/100 g)

Chestnut (1.2 mg/100 g)

Coconut (1.0 mg/100 g)

Tomatoes (0.9 mg/100 g)

Carrots (0.6 mg/100 g)

At a buck or more a bottle, for a 22oz shot of fortified water is to me too expensive. I have found however that there is an alturnative to this. I like the “turn to open plastic” bottles of Gatoraid and Propel, so I save a few of the used bottles (a cheaper way than buying those expensive special bottles), and then buying the one shot powdered energy drink packets from the local grocery store. A very good one that I’ve found is the Kroger brand “In an Instance, Fitness” (The levels of vitiamins are low, so the chance of getting a toxic dose while keeping hydrated seems less likely).

Energy and Hydration:

One of the most important thing that I’ve found while living here in Las Vegas is to keep hydrated. Face it, on one of those famous vegas scorcher, (generally around indepenance day,) you can dehydrate enough to suffer a heat stroke. As far as water is concerned, it’s critical for the body to stay hydrated. You can survive a month without food, but you may not last a week without water. You’re going to have to face it, if you don’t hydrate, you’re going to feel tired. An insufficient amount of water in your system causes a reduction in blood volume, which means less oxygen gets to your working muscles. In fact, some experts even contend that staying well-hydrated contributes to long-term high energy by helping to relieve enervating conditions such as arthritis, body aches, constipation, indigestion, ulcers and stress.

Caffeinated sodas, tea and coffee, which actually leach fluid from your body with their diuretic effects. Why heck, even having a beer or glass of wine will drain the body of water, as good number of individuals know when they realize that they must pay a visit to the nearest restroom. So, although you may feel the need to get stimulated now, going down the the local Starbucks may not be best choice. Not that I’m asking you to swear off any sort of predictable habit, but sometimes the best thing to do is just following your thirst. That is if you feel that your throat is going dry, then maybe this is a signal that it’s time to take a drink of water. If you’re feeling a bit hungry, then perhaps it’s time to take a small protien snack and a large amount of water to get it digested and absorbed easier. And remember a little exercise can do wonders to your energy level (all you just need to do is about 10 to 20 minutes a day of the necessary heart pumping activity for you to break a sweat and begin to feel the energizing effects).

It looks like I’ll leave this here as it is, and call it a day. Again, I’m not really qualified to be giving any real advice, but I’m free to blog on what I’ve found and hope that it’s possibly helpful to someone else. But don’t take my word for it, please do your own research. In my opinion, the vitamin waters do far more good for you than harm, but is it worth the cost to you? I buy the little pouches and add them as I think I need to. Until the next blog.

Have fun and take care.

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Mark Spilmon’s Weblog

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What is the big deal with being high on protien?

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