protein

Your time is valuable and should not be wasted. With that, I give you myths and mistruths that for some reason have shown a great amount of longevity. It’s time for that to stop.

So with that, here we go:

Spot reduction of fat: Myth. It cannot be done. This is a common one mainly perpetuated by people doing ab work to get that six pack. Sorry to disappoint but doing a bunch of ab work to get rid of that fat around you belly will not make it disappear quicker. If you do a lot of ab work, along with eating a whole foods plant based diet then you will get there, but not because of the ab work alone, that’s just using up calories. The fat you eat is the fat you wear. Based on your body type the fat will deposit where it wants to, with women mainly in the hips and butt, and with guys usually the belly. That’s just the way it is. So the same goes for these area’s. You can’t target specific areas of your body with exercise to remove fat from that area. By eating correctly and exercising correctly the fat will come off and eventually will also leave those places you want it gone, eventually. But always remember, your overall health is much more important than where you might have some fat. Focus on health and well being, not just looks.
Fat burning zone: I haven’t heard this for a while up until a few weeks ago. The ‘fat burning zone’ was huge about 10 – 12 years ago. Is there such a thing, a fat burning zone? Yes, in the sense that when exercising at a lower heart rate, let’s say a moderate intensity, the body tends to use more fat as a preferred fuel. Not exclusively but it does use fat. The problem is that’s about it. It does not increase the amount of fat used post exercise and doesn’t really do anything to raise your resting metabolic rate. And you have to exercise for a much longer duration to burn the fat you want to. Comparing this to a high intensity interval workout where the primary fuel is glycogen the body will still not use as much fat. With a high intense interval workout the body uses both glycogen and fat for fuel but the big benefit is afterwards the body uses fat as fuel to help replenish the oxygen consumed (EPOC). Sometimes this can take up to 36 hours depending on the intensity. Also, the resting metabolic rate is raised thus consuming more calories (fat) when resting. So why was the fat burning zone so popular? It was a great way to make money. People loved to hear that they could work out in the fat burning zone with little effort and get results. It’s a good example of the echo chamber, people love to hear positive reinforcements of their bad habits. Books, videos, magazines, etc. where sold by the thousands making people a lot of money.
Work abs every day: Another myth. I’m not sure if this one is still popular today but there was a time where people would work their abs every day. Sit ups, leg raises, crunches. Maybe pushups is the new ‘abs every day’. If you are already aware that you need to let your muscles rest, recover after a good workout for up to 48 hours then why would abs, or chest muscles be any different? I don’t know either but people treat them differently. Just like you wouldn’t do legs every day, don’t do ab work, or pushups every day either. Work them hard one day then let them recovery over 48 hours.
Protein after a workout: This is still very common. People have a tough work out, maybe an hour long, or longer. Lots of sweat, lots of work. The body is exhausted. Then, they go and down a protein shake. Believe it or not you are not doing yourself any favours, in fact you are denying your body what it needs: carbs. Most of us have only about 60 minutes of fuel in the form of glucose and glycogen in our body. This is when we are in a state where we are fully fueled, the gas tank is full. Most of us aren’t even at that state when we show up to exercise, we are already running a deficit. So why is this a problem? When you have depleted your fuel, your glycogen stores, you need to replenish them. Glucose and glycogen (the stored glucose) is needed for everything your body does: the brain and other organs functioning, walking, talking, everything including digesting food. If your body doesn’t have the glucose it needs it goes to the glycogen stores and if that is empty because you have just used it all up exercising it will then metabolize muscle tissue into glucose to fulfill it’s needs. So your body is now consuming the muscle tissue you worked so hard to build. It’s awful. So what do you do? After a tough workout consume carbs. Apples, oranges, bananas, berries or anything that is whole foods and high in carbs. I like to have a shake consisting of a banana, a cup of frozen berries (blueberries, strawberries, black berries are great), some unsweetened Almond milk, and some spinach. This gives me both the carbs my body needs to replenish my glucose deficit and also gives me protein the body needs to start the recovery process. An ideal ratio of carbs to protein is 4:1. Later, about 90 minutes I can then have a meal that is more protein focused to also help the body start the healing process. But, if you follow a whole foods plant based diet then you really not worry about this at all as you will be getting the correct ratio of carbs, proteins, fats and importantly fiber.
You need lots of protein: This is probably the largest myth out there. I’m not going to write too much as I already have an article on this. It comes down to money. The protein supplement industry is a multi billion dollar industry and it’s growing. Hard on our body especially when animal based, too much protein can damage the kidneys, can speed up the aging of cells and basically it is not needed. Your money can be used for better purposes then buying protein supplements. What the message should be is fiber. The lack of fiber in people’s diet is evident in the increase of cancers: colon cancer, prostrate cancer and other sicknesses. Fiber is used by the body to flush out the excess hormones and toxins we have in our body. Without enough fiber, the toxins and hormones stay in the blood and are not removed. We can do a lot in our lives to avoid toxins but we cannot get away from them. Eat any processed foods lately? What about the things you put on your body like shampoos, toothpaste, deodorant and so on. Driving, walking, just being outside we breathe in toxins. It’s really unavoidable. But having a diet low in fiber is not unavoidable. Increasing fiber will help the body in removing these toxins and hopefully help in preventing disease.

Finally

Those are only a few. If you are serious about your health and wellness it may make sense to challenge the things you do, to seek out more qualified information. There is a lot of information out there, a lot of ‘bro science’ which to me again is perpetuating the echo chamber. A good example is the JRE, the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast. Don’t get me wrong, I like Joe especially when it comes to Martial Arts as I don’t think there is a better colour commentator out there. But, when it comes to perpetuating misinformation I don’t think anyone reins greater than Joe. Too many times he has had guest on his show promoting Keto diet, Carnivore diet, low carb diet, carbs are bad, veganism unless done absolutely correctly will cause you health issues (veganism is more than just what you eat but yes, a ‘vegan’ diet should be done correctly but why is it always said veganism has to be done right where as a non vegan diet doesn’t?) His guests on his show spew out ‘facts’ from industry funded studies and no one challenges it. Thus more people end up harming their body, sometimes the effects not known until 20 years later and no one the wiser.

But I digress. Getting the results you want isn’t that hard, really. It takes a bit of work initially to find good sources with reliable, accurate information but once you do, it gets even easier. Book mark those sites and go back to see what else you can learn from them. After all, the choices you make are the choices you live with.

Yours in health,

Darryl

They decide and the shotgun sings the song.

I think it’s safe to say most of us believe what we believe due to what we constantly hear. What we hear on the radio, on the internet, what we read from news sites, blogs, social media sites. And what we hear from people that are influential in our lives: friends, family. For the majority of us what we hear from these sources can dictate how we live our lives from simple things such as a movie we choose to see or major things that can directly impact our lives like the foods we choose to eat. And the ironic thing about this last sentence is most people will not consider that a major choice that will impact our lives.

Impact

But the food we choose to eat has a major impact on our lives. Having finished a certification in plant based nutrition run by the leading medical experts in heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and so on, my belief about this was confirmed, and reinforced. Did you know the only diet to reverse heart disease is a whole foods plant based diet? This is only one of the many benefits of following a whole foods plant based diet. I’ll be posting more in the future but for now, lets get on with the subject of this post.

Protein

I’m sure if I were to take a quick survey on how much protein people thought we need we would get answers such as 20%, 30% or even higher. If you are trying to add muscle, or are an active body builder you are probably consuming levels higher than 30%. And for the vast majority of these people their protein is coming from animals, not plants. Is that an issue? Absolutely. Read the China Study or watch Fork over Knives to see the direct impact on cancer tumor growth when consuming animal protein at levels above 20%. To summarize IGF-1 (Insulin growth factor 1) is in high levels in animal products and IGF-1 is responsible for cell replication, which is ok when you have a cut that the body needs to repair but when in your body at high levels due to consuming animal protein it impacts the growth of cancer tumors. And a high protein diet damages our cells and accelerates aging. It makes our kidneys work so much harder as it has to process all this protein and this can lead to kidney stones.

Why

Are we obsessed with protein? Yes. Recently I saw on a person’s computer monitor an image of all the logic fallacies such as straw man fallacy, appeal to authority, etc. I told this guy what a cool wallpaper and I could relate since a lot of the videos I watch having to do with veganism has examples of these as people use them to defend why they continue to eat animals. So, he said ‘Wow, I didn’t know you were vegan’, and then a look on his face of deep thought appeared and he asked me ‘Where do you get your protein?’ I’ve heard this so many times it didn’t phase me , but it speaks to my point. Why are we obsessed with protein? I think for a few reasons.

Here’s a bit of a history lesson. In 1839, protein was first isolated by a Dutch chemist, Gerhard Mulder, then named from the Greek word, proteios. Protein was isolated from meat, leading to the idea that meat and protein were the same; another mistaken belief that still survives for many people. Carl von Voit, a prominent German physiology professor recommended 118 g/day for an adult man of average weight, even though he had determined that 52 g/day was enough (later research showed even lower levels were enough). By the early 1900’s the link between meat was firmly established in the minds of men, the link that eating meat was macho, and not eating meat meant you were a wimp and through the years the stereotype has grown to political views – vegan = left leaning communist or socialist, terms used in the derogatory sense. Real men eat meat!

Eating meat, or protein, was also a status symbol as only the rich could afford it. But let’s look at another angle, the marketing angle.

It’s easy to market meat with these associations we have with meat, protein. The social statuses that come with it. The peer pressure. Riding on the belief that we need a lot of protein it’s so easy to add that to the sizzle of the commercial showing you the slab of beef grilling on the bbq, ‘get the protein you need from our grade A Alberta beef, only the best’, or ‘we have the juiciest chicken breasts for you to enjoy’. How do you do that with broccoli or spinach? ‘Our broccoli is super dark green and our spinach leaves are the finest and smoothest’. It just doesn’t sell does it.

Then we have the fitness industry pushing supplements. You are told by your trainer, the gym where they sell the shakes, by your friends and so on that you need to supplement with protein to ‘make those gains’. Of course they tell you that because that adds to their bottom line. It’s all about the dollar bills y’all. In 2016 the protein supplement industry size was at 12.5 billion expected to rise by 6%! These industries do not want you to understand that the notion that you need to supplement with protein is not true. And this is true for any protein supplement, plant based or not.

Let’s look at Robert Cheeke. Adopted a vegan life style in 1995 at the age of 15. A two time natural body builder champion, Robert does not supplement with protein. Not since 2011. Robert was like most of us, he bought into the lies that you need to supplement with protein, branch chain amino acids, etc. Then in 2012 after educating himself and digging deeper into the whole protein thing he decided to change it up. No more supplementing, nothing. Nothing but a whole foods plant based diet. So what happened? He lost 60 lbs and no longer competes. NO! This is what the industry would want you to believe! Robert MADE gains in both strength and muscle growth. Was it a fluke, a short lived benefit? No. Even to this day Robert is the strongest he has ever been. No supplementation and no focus on protein rich foods. In fact, his focus is on complex carbs because as we know, we need complex carbs, it’s what fuels our body. It gets you through those workouts. Yams, brown rice, lentils, leafy green veggies, fruits. All these gains while consuming only 10% – 15% of calories from protein. How is it possible? The meat industry, the supplement industry, the bro that pumps iron and has smelly protein farts would tell you different, ‘bro, you need to load up on protein, you better get a Casein or Whey shake from the counter or you won’t be making those gains!’.

I have the answer

Do you want to add strength, and muscle growth? It’s easy, it really is. Follow a whole foods plant based diet. And, eat as much as you want, don’t go hungry!

Most people, or really everyone who follows this diet and is not gaining strength and muscle mass (the assumption you are working out properly) are not eating enough calories. You need to consume enough high quality, nutrient dense calories so your body can grow.

Save your money! You worked hard for it! Don’t spend the $60 on the tub of cancer inducing protein powder because it’s going to end up in the toilet anyway! You are literally shitting your money away! Stop listening to uneducated people who are doing the things that another uneducated person showed them. It’s your body and what you put into it will directly impact your health.

Yours in health,

Darryl

Category: protein

into the echo chamber

words can be molded until they clothe ideas and disguise