Tuesday, April 14, 2015

protein quality and quantity

Some sectors of the keto-blogosphere restrict protein to maintain a ketogenic state for weight-loss or brain health.  I suspect that their biggest problem is not generically PROTEIN as it is the SOURCE.

While on this Strong Medicine regimen of mine (which got sidetracked over the weekend because of a theatre evening and two days out-of-town, alas), my intake is approximately 120 g. of animal protein per day, at least half of which is beef or lamb.  I allow myself fresh pork, fatty poultry or fish as the rest of the ration, but usually avoid eggs because they don't seem to satisfy me as well.  My ketone readings get up into the moderate range.

And i'm highly-talented at gluconeogenesis.  On a ZC or ULC diet, my morning glucose can read in the low-to-mid nineties.  If anyone were to be able to screw up ketogenesis, it would be me.

Do people who complain of too much protein converting to glucose eat MORE than i do?  120 grams are almost TWO grams per ideal-weight-in-POUNDS for me -- that's a shitload of protein!  Is their idea of restriction 80 or 90 grams?  Or is it around the one-gram-per-kilo-ideal?

I've paid attention to Wooo's twitter-observations about how she feels after eating different meat-meals.  After chicken she's far more likely to report brain-noise and malaise than after eating ribeye.  She's inclined to think it might be factory-farm-polluted animals, but I think it's more likely to be:  1) seasonings on commercially-cooked birds;  2) preservatives in the brining solutions of conventional poultry;  3) an intrinsic inferiority of the chicken proteins themselves.

We know that different amino-acids have different physiological effects.  I think a problem with poultry (especially chicken- and turkey-breast) might just be the quantities and proportions of various aminos. 

...Just like I think that one of the problems with even heritage wheat is its overabundance of glutamic acid....

Think about it, and observe it in yourself:  exactly what kinds of meat do you feel best eating?  What kinds have less-than-ideal after-effects -- do you FEEL different after eating beef as compared to chicken?  The habit of keeping a food-journal that includes state-of-wellbeing can be a very helpful practice, in teaching you DETAILS of how different foods make you feel.

We've been brainwashed to believe that variety in our diets is important -- well, it especially is, if we're eating things that aren't intrinsically nourishing to begin with!  It's enlightening how little variety you need from a nutritional point of view, if your main foodstuffs are organ meats, pastured eggs, wild-caught fish, and fresh fatty meats.  Theoretically we don't NEED red meat AND white meat -- our tendency toward mixing-it-up has more to do with the entertainment aspect of our food rather than essential nourishment in it.

14 comments:

  1. I MUCH prefer beef to anything else. Chicken...totally 'meh' over. It has no flavor to me, except the flavors added TO it. Pork is too salty, but I love bacon once or twice a month. I love fresh fish...of the Hawaiian variety (i.e., doesn't taste like fish.) tuna is good, halibut is good, crab is good. But bring me all the beef, all the time. :)

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    1. yes, with me the ruminant meats -- beef and lamb mostly -- are my first choices for filling, satisfying meals. i LIKE other things, but they're definitely second-string.

      FRESH pork you find salty? when i'm talking about pork for a MEAL, i'm looking at loin roast, "picnic" (unsalted shoulder) roast, J's no-salt-added home-made rub on spareribs, or the absolutely plain ground pork i get from my local pig-farmer. we use a certain amount of bacon as garnish, but i avoid almost all pre-made sausage, for containing some highly-questionable ingredients.

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  2. I think our up-bringing has a bearing on the foods we eat, what exposure we had to variety etc. When growing up it was always meat and three vegetables, with fish once a week. Nowadays my menu plans still echo this but no potatoes just a lower carb alternative in their place.

    All the best Jan

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    1. oh, what we grow up with has a huge influence on our tastes, i'm sure you're right!

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    2. I grew up on a limited variety of vegetables during winter time - cabbage(fresh and fermented), onions, beets, carrots, reddish, garlic, pickled and canned summer vegetables, but there were a lot of very tasty recipes which provided variety in taste, especially home canned things - fit for a feast, actually.

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    3. :-) our cold-climate ancestors had to learn to preserve any food available, against winter dearth -- and they were impressive in their ingenuity and technical accomplishment!

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  3. My first choice is a NZ lamb, a shoulder chop costs $5.99 - 5.49 for lb without a sale, which is still less than a beef. I like it done medium in a Foreman grill or braised. My second choice - a cheek beef from Walmart, cooked in salted water in a pressure cooker for at least 2.5 hours. It is a conventional meat, but I like how it tastes because it contains a lot of connective tissue and fat.

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    1. thinking of those dishes makes my mouth water, and I just had my dinner not long ago! :-)

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  4. Sardines and grass-fed beef normally give me a sense of bliss. But since I've been sick, I've craved Quest bars and nacho cheese. I don't think I've even thought about nacho cheese since I started LC five years ago.

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    1. :-) the good news is that queso dip can be made in a whole-food manner.... yes, every once in a blue moon i'll get a strange desire for a food i haven't eaten in decades -- in my case i think it has more to do with memories of good times rather than nutritional cravings, though.

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    2. Oddly enough, the stuff in the jar doesn't make my face break out as much as the homemade whole-food kind does. Processing FTW for once?

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  5. I can tell for sure that aiming for a variety helps if you want to eat more, not less.
    I am absolutely not ready to be a food spartan, but I think it is better to be realistic about the importance of so called "rainbow on your plate" - it is just a luxury.

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    1. it never could have happened before the twentieth century ... when luxury became possible for non-elite classes. :-) and that's a very good point -- variety does encourage us to eat more!

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  6. I've been on a ribeye kick myself, although I was disappointed that local big-box store had sold out of their Pretty Darn Good rotisserie chickens the other day - I kept on hovering around, could see the next batch back there rotating on their spits, but finally couldn't wait any longer.
    (I have been trying to follow internal cues, which mostly have craved beef here lately)

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