Post by Gaz on May 30, 2016 17:19:42 GMT 10
Food Facts: Important Information:
Protein is a macronutrient that is essential to building muscle mass. It is commonly found in animal products, though is also present in other sources, such as nuts and legumes.
There are three macronutrients: protein, fats and carbohydrates. Macronutrients provide calories, or energy. The body requires large amounts of macronutrients to sustain life, hence the term “macro,” according to the University of Illinois McKinley Health Center. Each gram of protein contains 4 calories. Protein makes up about 15 percent of a person’s body weight.
Chemically, protein is composed of amino acids, which are organic compounds made of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen or sulfur. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, and proteins are the building blocks of muscle mass, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“When protein is broken down in the body it helps to fuel muscle mass, which helps metabolism," said Jessica Crandall, a registered dietitian nutritionist, certified diabetes educator and national spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. "It also helps the immune system stay strong. It helps you stay full. A lot of research has shown that protein has satiety effects.”
For example, two recent studies showed that satiety, or feeling full after a meal, improved after consuming a high-protein snack. A 2014 study published in the journal Nutrition compared afternoon snacks of high-protein yogurt, high-fat crackers and high-fat chocolate. Among the women who participated in the study, consuming the yogurt led to greater reductions in afternoon hunger versus the chocolate. These women also ate less at dinner compared to the women who snacked on crackers and chocolate.
A similar study published in 2015 in the Journal of Nutrition found that adolescents who consumed high-protein afternoon snacks showed improved appetite, satiety and diet quality. The teens also had improved moods and better cognition.
How much protein?
The Institute of Medicine recommends that 10 to 35 percent of daily calories come from protein. How that equates to grams of protein depends on the caloric needs of the individual. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the amount of protein foods a person should eat depends on age, sex, and level of physical activity. Most Americans eat enough food from this group, but need to make leaner and more varied selections of these foods.
“A safe level of protein ranges from 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight [2.2 lbs.], up to 2 grams of protein per kilogram for very active athletes,” said Crandall. “But most Americans truly need to be eating about 1 to 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.”
Most people need 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal, said Crandall. “For example, that’s 2.5 egg whites at breakfast or 3 to 4 ounces of meat at dinner.” She said that most American women are not getting anywhere close to adequate protein at breakfast. “That could be hindering their muscle mass, their metabolism and their hormone levels.”
Crandall cautioned parents against stressing protein consumption for their children, who typically get sufficient protein easily. “It’s important to focus on fruits and vegetables for kids, but protein supplementation for kids is going overboard,” she said. When considering how to get protein into kids’ diets, parents should focus on whole foods and natural sources.
Sources of protein
All food made from meat, poultry, seafood, beans and peas, eggs, processed soy products, nuts and seeds are considered part of the protein group, according to the USDA. Most people eat enough food in this group, but they should select leaner and more varied selections.
Besides animal sources, there are several alternative sources of protein, including soy, hemp and whey.
Crandall said that all are good options and it comes down to personal preference. For example, whey protein is better for building and regenerating muscle mass, so people looking to bulk up or who exercise a lot may prefer it.
Whey protein is a by-product of the cheese-making process and therefore not vegan. It is typically found in supplements, such as protein powders, according to Medical News Today. It is usually used to promote lean muscle mass and is also associated with weight loss, according to a 2008 study published in Nutrition & Metabolism. There are 20 grams of protein per scoop of whey protein.
Hemp protein comes from the hemp plant, which does not have THC (the active ingredient in marijuana), according to the North American Industrial Hemp Council. Hemp is available as seeds, a powder and milk. There are 5.3 grams of protein per tablespoon of hemp seeds, about 5 grams per scoop of hemp powder and 5 grams per cup.
Soy protein comes from soybeans and is available in many different forms, including milk, tofu, various meat substitutes, flour, oil, tempeh, miso nuts and edamame, according to the University of California San Francisco Medical Center. Crandall said that soy is a good source of protein.
“Soy has been shown to have a little more phytoestrogens in it from isoflavones, which really helps to increase antioxidants,” she said. “But a lot of people are hesitant to do soy because of a myth that associates it with breast cancer. But that myth has been minimized based off of a large body of evidence that supports the actual anticancer properties that soy has.” She pointed to a 2012 study published by the American Institute for Cancer Research.
To get the maximum benefits from soy, Crandall recommended eating whole sources, like edamame. Processed forms like tofu are the next best option, followed by protein powders and drinks.
High-protein foods
According to Matthew Kadey, a registered dietitian writing for Bodybuilding.com, some high-protein meats include:
• Top or bottom round steak (23 grams of protein per 3-ounce serving)
• Lean ground beef (18 grams per 3-ounce serving)
• Pork chops (26 grams per 3-ounce serving)
• Skinless chicken breast (24 grams per 3-ounce serving)
• Turkey breast (24 grams per 3-ounce serving)
• Sockeye salmon (23 grams per 3-ounce serving)
• Yellowfin tuna (25 grams per 3-ounce serving)
High-protein dairy foods include:
• Greek yogurt (23 grams per 8-ounce serving)
• Cottage cheese (14 grams per half-cup serving)
• Eggs (6 grams per large egg)
• 2 percent milk (8 grams per cup)
Some other high-protein foods are:
• Some canned foods, like sardines, anchovies and tuna average around 22 grams of protein per serving
• Navy beans (20 grams per cup)
• Lentils (13 grams per quarter-cup)
• Peanut butter (8 grams per 2 tablespoons)
• Mixed nuts (6 grams per 2-ounce serving)
• Quinoa (8 grams per 1-cup serving)
• Edamame (8 grams per half-cup serving)
• Soba noodles (12 grams per 3-ounce serving)
Complete or ideal proteins
People can produce some amino acids, but must get others from food.
The nine amino acids that humans cannot produce on our own are called essential amino acids, according to the NIH. Essential amino acids are: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine.
Protein foods that contain all essential amino acids are called complete proteins, according to Crandall. They are also sometimes called ideal proteins or high-quality proteins. Complete proteins include meat and dairy products, quinoa, hemp seeds, chia seeds, buckwheat and soy.
Many plant-based proteins are not complete proteins. These include beans, grains and legumes as well as vegetables, which contain small amounts of protein. According to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, incomplete proteins can be combined to create complete proteins. Beans and rice, peanut butter and whole grain bread, and macaroni and cheese are examples of combinations that create complete proteins.
For a long time, nutritionists thought that complementary proteins had to be eaten together to make a complete protein. But it is now understood that the foods don’t have to be eaten at exactly the same time, said Crandall. As long as you eat a wide variety of foods, you can usually make complete proteins, even if you’re a vegetarian.
How Much Of Protein Sources Should You Eat?
The current Recommended Daily Allowance of protein for adults is 0.36 grams per pound of body weight. This translates to 64 grams of protein for a 180lb man. Research shows that protein intakes as high as 0.8 – 1.0 gram/lb can help those individuals looking to build muscle, or retain muscle while losing fat during a resistance training program. We will cover protein requirements and absorption in more depth in other articles.
A higher protein diet is often recommended during a fat loss program because of protein’s high thermic effect (up to 30% of calories from protein are burned off during digestion) and its ability to satisfy hunger.
For your reference:
• 1 cup of milk has 8 grams of protein
• An 8-ounce container of yogurt has about 11 grams of protein
• A 3-ounce piece of meat has about 21 grams of protein
• 1 cup of dry beans has about 16 grams of protein
We have spoken about Protein, now we need a quick look at fat:
The truth about fats: the good, the bad, and the in-between
The Family Health Guide
For years, fat was a four-letter word. We were urged to banish it from our diets whenever possible. We switched to low-fat foods. But the shift didn’t make us healthier, probably because we cut back on healthy fats as well as harmful ones.
Your body needs some fat from food. It’s a major source of energy. It helps you absorb some vitamins and minerals. Fat is needed to build cell membranes, the vital exterior of each cell, and the sheaths surrounding nerves. It is essential for blood clotting, muscle movement, and inflammation. For long-term health, some fats are better than others. Good fats include monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Bad ones include industrial-made trans fats. Saturated fats fall somewhere in the middle.
All fats have a similar chemical structure: a chain of carbon atoms bonded to hydrogen atoms. What makes one fat different from another is the length and shape of the carbon chain and the number of hydrogen atoms connected to the carbon atoms. Seemingly slight differences in structure translate into crucial differences in form and function.
Bad fats
The worst type of dietary fat is the kind known as trans fat. It is a byproduct of a process called hydrogenation that is used to turn healthy oils into solids and to prevent them from becoming rancid. When vegetable oil is heated in the presence of hydrogen and a heavy-metal catalyst such as palladium, hydrogen atoms are added to the carbon chain. This turns oils into solids. It also makes healthy vegetable oils more like not-so-healthy saturated fats. On food label ingredient lists, this manufactured substance is typically listed as “partially hydrogenated oil.”
Early in the 20th century, trans fats were found mainly in solid margarines and vegetable shortening. As food makers learned new ways to use partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, they began appearing in everything from commercial cookies and pastries to fast-food French fries.
Eating foods rich in trans fats increases the amount of harmful LDL cholesterol in the bloodstream and reduces the amount of beneficial HDL cholesterol. Trans fats create inflammation, which is linked to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and other chronic conditions. They contribute to insulin resistance, which increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Research from the Harvard School of Public Health and elsewhere indicates that trans fats can harm health in even small amounts: for every 2% of calories from trans fat consumed daily, the risk of heart disease rises by 23%.
Trans fats have no known health benefits and that there is no safe level of consumption. Today, these mainly man-made fats are rapidly fading from the food supply.
In-between fats
Saturated fats are common in the American diet. They are solid at room temperature — think cooled bacon grease. Common sources of saturated fat include red meat, whole milk and other whole-milk dairy foods, cheese, coconut oil, and many commercially prepared baked goods and other foods.
The word “saturated” here refers to the number of hydrogen atoms surrounding each carbon atom. The chain of carbon atoms holds as many hydrogen atoms as possible — it’s saturated with hydrogens.
A diet rich in saturated fats can drive up total cholesterol, and tip the balance toward more harmful LDL cholesterol, which prompts blockages to form in arteries in the heart and elsewhere in the body. For that reason, most nutrition experts recommend limiting saturated fat to under 10% of calories a day.
A handful of recent reports have muddied the link between saturated fat and heart disease. One meta-analysis of 21 studies said that there was not enough evidence to conclude that saturated fat increases the risk of heart disease, but that replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat may indeed reduce risk of heart disease.
Two other major studies narrowed the prescription slightly, concluding that replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fats like vegetable oils or high-fiber carbohydrates is the best bet for reducing the risk of heart disease, but replacing saturated fat with highly processed carbohydrates could do the opposite.
Good fat
Good fats come mainly from vegetables, nuts, seeds, and fish. They differ from saturated fats by having fewer hydrogen atoms bonded to their carbon chains. Healthy fats are liquid at room temperature, not solid. There are two broad categories of beneficial fats: monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.
Monounsaturated fats. When you dip your bread in olive oil at an Italian restaurant, you’re getting mostly monounsaturated fat. Monounsaturated fats have a single carbon-to-carbon double bond. The result is that it has two fewer hydrogen atoms than a saturated fat and a bend at the double bond. This structure keeps monounsaturated fats liquid at room temperature.
Good sources of monounsaturated fats are olive oil, peanut oil, canola oil, avocados, and most nuts, as well as high-oleic safflower and sunflower oils.
The discovery that monounsaturated fat could be healthful came from the Seven Countries Study during the 1960s. It revealed that people in Greece and other parts of the Mediterranean region enjoyed a low rate of heart disease despite a high-fat diet. The main fat in their diet, though, was not the saturated animal fat common in countries with higher rates of heart disease. It was olive oil, which contains mainly monounsaturated fat. This finding produced a surge of interest in olive oil and the “Mediterranean diet,” a style of eating regarded as a healthful choice today.
Although there’s no recommended daily intake of monounsaturated fats, the Institute of Medicine recommends using them as much as possible along with polyunsaturated fats to replace saturated and trans fats.
Polyunsaturated fats. When you pour liquid cooking oil into a pan, there’s a good chance you’re using polyunsaturated fat. Corn oil, sunflower oil, and safflower oil are common examples. Polyunsaturated fats are essential fats. That means they’re required for normal body functions but your body can’t make them. So you must get them from food. Polyunsaturated fats are used to build cell membranes and the covering of nerves. They are needed for blood clotting, muscle movement, and inflammation.
A polyunsaturated fat has two or more double bonds in its carbon chain. There are two main types of polyunsaturated fats: omega-3 fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids. The numbers refer to the distance between the beginning of the carbon chain and the first double bond. Both types offer health benefits.
Eating polyunsaturated fats in place of saturated fats or highly refined carbohydrates reduces harmful LDL cholesterol and improves the cholesterol profile. It also lowers triglycerides.
Good sources of omega-3 fatty acids include fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, and sardines, flaxseeds, walnuts, canola oil, and unhydrogenated soybean oil.
Omega-3 fatty acids may help prevent and even treat heart disease and stroke. In addition to reducing blood pressure, raising HDL, and lowering triglycerides, polyunsaturated fats may help prevent lethal heart rhythms from arising. Evidence also suggests they may help reduce the need for corticosteroid medications in people with rheumatoid arthritis. Studies linking omega-3s to a wide range of other health improvements, including reducing risk of dementia, are inconclusive, and some of them have major flaws, according to a systematic review of the evidence by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Omega-6 fatty acids have also been linked to protection against heart disease. Foods rich in linoleic acid and other omega-6 fatty acids include vegetable oils such as safflower, soybean, sunflower, walnut, and corn oils.
February 3, 2015
Updated: August 7, 2015
What happens if I don’t get enough fat?
Ever heard of "Rabbit Starvation"
In A Nutshell
While some people can’t fathom eating a cute, fuzzy little rabbit, the reality is that they are a good source of food. With their renown for breeding and their widespread habitat range, they are an effective source of nutrition. However, one must be careful when eating rabbit, as eating nothing but rabbit can actually kill you. It’s called rabbit starvation, and it’s one of the more paradoxical things out there.
The Whole Bushel
Rabbits are among the most populous food sources in the world. And while they aren’t terribly common today as mass production of beef, pork, and chicken has become easier, their meat was once an important food source. However, if one was to stay on a diet of entirely rabbit meat, they would begin to suffer from various, rather unpleasant symptoms, ranging from diarrhea, discomfort, headache, and (most paradoxically of all) hunger. This strange “rabbit starvation” was noted by many explorers and travelers, who relied on hunting the local game for nutrients.
Explorers who traveled to the Northern Arctic, where snow rabbits were plentiful and carrying supplies from civilization was a hassle, were confronted with it while also dealing with the harsh climate. Additionally, it was noted by Charles Darwin in his account of his famous sea voyage on the HMS Beagle. He observed that people who fed mainly on dried or lean meat gained an insatiable craving for fatty and oily foods, even actual fats and oils themselves, even though they would be quite unappetizing when consumed raw.
The lack of fat in the rabbit meat was actually causing the confusing hunger and malnutrition. While meats, even those with little fat, have nutritional value, fats are a very important part of the diet. Modern-day diets and health trends tend to demonize fats as something that people consume in excess (which is certainly true to an extent). But fats are a vital part of the body’s ability to generate energy and support its most fundamental systems.
This becomes especially important when the subject is in a particularly hostile environment, like the Arctic explorers. Without any fat in their diets to break down into energy, which can be converted into heat, their bodies burned away their own fat stores quickly in an attempt to keep their bodies warm. This is normally something that is done to help the individual seek out more food and is not a long-term survival solution. They likely weren’t even aware of their lack of fats (outside of feelings of hunger and cravings) until it was too late.
Another explanation for rabbit starvation lies in the bio-transformation of proteins in the body. Being a chemical process, the metabolization of proteins produces by-products. This includes urea (and by extension amino acids) and ammonia, which must be processed by the body’s waste filtration systems before the bloodstream is saturated with them. If they are not filtered out, the result is eventually death.
A little snippet of information for you from my home made receipt book :
Pemmican
Mixture of Protein and Fat combined to form a very energy efficient food. Mixed with berries and spices for extra flavor will give you some long lasting emergency flight (Run for your life food.)
or fight food.
Pemmican is a concentrated mixture of fat and protein used as a nutritious food. The word comes from the Cree word pimîhkân, which itself is derived from the word pimî, "fat, grease".[1] It was invented by the native peoples of North America.[2][3] It was widely adopted as a high-energy food by Europeans involved in the fur trade and later by Arctic and Antarctic explorers, such as Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, Fridtjof Nansen, Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen.
The specific ingredients used were usually whatever was available; the meat was often bison, deer, elk, or moose. Fruits such as cranberries and saskatoon berries were sometimes added. Blueberries, Cherries, chokeberries, and currants were also used, but almost exclusively in ceremonial and wedding pemmican.[4]
How to make:
Traditionally, pemmican was prepared from the lean meat of large game such as buffalo, elk, deer, or moose. The meat was cut in thin slices and dried, either over a slow fire or in the hot sun, until it was hard and brittle. (About five pounds of meat are required to make one pound of dried meat suitable for pemmican.) Then it was pounded into very small pieces, almost powder-like in consistency, using stones. The pounded meat was mixed with melted fat in an approximate 1:1 ratio.[5] In some cases, dried fruits, such as blueberries, choke cherries, cranberries, or saskatoon berries, were pounded into powder and then added to the meat/fat mixture. The resulting mixture was then packed into rawhide bags for storage.
A bag of buffalo pemmican weighing about 90 lb (41 kg) was called a taureau (French for "bull") by the Métis of Red River. These bags of taureaux (lit. "bulls"), when mixed with fat from the udder, were known as taureaux fins, when mixed with bone marrow, as taureaux grand, and when mixed with berries, as taureaux à grains.[6] It generally took the meat of one buffalo to fill a taureau.[7]
Serving
In his notes of 1874, North-West Mounted Police Sergent-Major Sam Steele records three ways of serving pemmican: raw; boiled in a stew called "rubaboo"; or fried, known in the West as a "rechaud" [1]
"The pemmican was cooked in two ways in the west; one a stew of pemmican, water, flour and, if they could be secured, wild onions or preserved potatoes. This was called "rubaboo"; the other was called by the plains hunters a "rechaud". It was cooked in a frying pan with onions and potatoes or alone. Some persons ate pemmican raw, but I must say I never had a taste for it that way." (Sam Steele 1874)[8]
Protein is a macronutrient that is essential to building muscle mass. It is commonly found in animal products, though is also present in other sources, such as nuts and legumes.
There are three macronutrients: protein, fats and carbohydrates. Macronutrients provide calories, or energy. The body requires large amounts of macronutrients to sustain life, hence the term “macro,” according to the University of Illinois McKinley Health Center. Each gram of protein contains 4 calories. Protein makes up about 15 percent of a person’s body weight.
Chemically, protein is composed of amino acids, which are organic compounds made of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen or sulfur. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, and proteins are the building blocks of muscle mass, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“When protein is broken down in the body it helps to fuel muscle mass, which helps metabolism," said Jessica Crandall, a registered dietitian nutritionist, certified diabetes educator and national spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. "It also helps the immune system stay strong. It helps you stay full. A lot of research has shown that protein has satiety effects.”
For example, two recent studies showed that satiety, or feeling full after a meal, improved after consuming a high-protein snack. A 2014 study published in the journal Nutrition compared afternoon snacks of high-protein yogurt, high-fat crackers and high-fat chocolate. Among the women who participated in the study, consuming the yogurt led to greater reductions in afternoon hunger versus the chocolate. These women also ate less at dinner compared to the women who snacked on crackers and chocolate.
A similar study published in 2015 in the Journal of Nutrition found that adolescents who consumed high-protein afternoon snacks showed improved appetite, satiety and diet quality. The teens also had improved moods and better cognition.
How much protein?
The Institute of Medicine recommends that 10 to 35 percent of daily calories come from protein. How that equates to grams of protein depends on the caloric needs of the individual. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the amount of protein foods a person should eat depends on age, sex, and level of physical activity. Most Americans eat enough food from this group, but need to make leaner and more varied selections of these foods.
“A safe level of protein ranges from 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight [2.2 lbs.], up to 2 grams of protein per kilogram for very active athletes,” said Crandall. “But most Americans truly need to be eating about 1 to 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.”
Most people need 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal, said Crandall. “For example, that’s 2.5 egg whites at breakfast or 3 to 4 ounces of meat at dinner.” She said that most American women are not getting anywhere close to adequate protein at breakfast. “That could be hindering their muscle mass, their metabolism and their hormone levels.”
Crandall cautioned parents against stressing protein consumption for their children, who typically get sufficient protein easily. “It’s important to focus on fruits and vegetables for kids, but protein supplementation for kids is going overboard,” she said. When considering how to get protein into kids’ diets, parents should focus on whole foods and natural sources.
Sources of protein
All food made from meat, poultry, seafood, beans and peas, eggs, processed soy products, nuts and seeds are considered part of the protein group, according to the USDA. Most people eat enough food in this group, but they should select leaner and more varied selections.
Besides animal sources, there are several alternative sources of protein, including soy, hemp and whey.
Crandall said that all are good options and it comes down to personal preference. For example, whey protein is better for building and regenerating muscle mass, so people looking to bulk up or who exercise a lot may prefer it.
Whey protein is a by-product of the cheese-making process and therefore not vegan. It is typically found in supplements, such as protein powders, according to Medical News Today. It is usually used to promote lean muscle mass and is also associated with weight loss, according to a 2008 study published in Nutrition & Metabolism. There are 20 grams of protein per scoop of whey protein.
Hemp protein comes from the hemp plant, which does not have THC (the active ingredient in marijuana), according to the North American Industrial Hemp Council. Hemp is available as seeds, a powder and milk. There are 5.3 grams of protein per tablespoon of hemp seeds, about 5 grams per scoop of hemp powder and 5 grams per cup.
Soy protein comes from soybeans and is available in many different forms, including milk, tofu, various meat substitutes, flour, oil, tempeh, miso nuts and edamame, according to the University of California San Francisco Medical Center. Crandall said that soy is a good source of protein.
“Soy has been shown to have a little more phytoestrogens in it from isoflavones, which really helps to increase antioxidants,” she said. “But a lot of people are hesitant to do soy because of a myth that associates it with breast cancer. But that myth has been minimized based off of a large body of evidence that supports the actual anticancer properties that soy has.” She pointed to a 2012 study published by the American Institute for Cancer Research.
To get the maximum benefits from soy, Crandall recommended eating whole sources, like edamame. Processed forms like tofu are the next best option, followed by protein powders and drinks.
High-protein foods
According to Matthew Kadey, a registered dietitian writing for Bodybuilding.com, some high-protein meats include:
• Top or bottom round steak (23 grams of protein per 3-ounce serving)
• Lean ground beef (18 grams per 3-ounce serving)
• Pork chops (26 grams per 3-ounce serving)
• Skinless chicken breast (24 grams per 3-ounce serving)
• Turkey breast (24 grams per 3-ounce serving)
• Sockeye salmon (23 grams per 3-ounce serving)
• Yellowfin tuna (25 grams per 3-ounce serving)
High-protein dairy foods include:
• Greek yogurt (23 grams per 8-ounce serving)
• Cottage cheese (14 grams per half-cup serving)
• Eggs (6 grams per large egg)
• 2 percent milk (8 grams per cup)
Some other high-protein foods are:
• Some canned foods, like sardines, anchovies and tuna average around 22 grams of protein per serving
• Navy beans (20 grams per cup)
• Lentils (13 grams per quarter-cup)
• Peanut butter (8 grams per 2 tablespoons)
• Mixed nuts (6 grams per 2-ounce serving)
• Quinoa (8 grams per 1-cup serving)
• Edamame (8 grams per half-cup serving)
• Soba noodles (12 grams per 3-ounce serving)
Complete or ideal proteins
People can produce some amino acids, but must get others from food.
The nine amino acids that humans cannot produce on our own are called essential amino acids, according to the NIH. Essential amino acids are: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine.
Protein foods that contain all essential amino acids are called complete proteins, according to Crandall. They are also sometimes called ideal proteins or high-quality proteins. Complete proteins include meat and dairy products, quinoa, hemp seeds, chia seeds, buckwheat and soy.
Many plant-based proteins are not complete proteins. These include beans, grains and legumes as well as vegetables, which contain small amounts of protein. According to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, incomplete proteins can be combined to create complete proteins. Beans and rice, peanut butter and whole grain bread, and macaroni and cheese are examples of combinations that create complete proteins.
For a long time, nutritionists thought that complementary proteins had to be eaten together to make a complete protein. But it is now understood that the foods don’t have to be eaten at exactly the same time, said Crandall. As long as you eat a wide variety of foods, you can usually make complete proteins, even if you’re a vegetarian.
How Much Of Protein Sources Should You Eat?
The current Recommended Daily Allowance of protein for adults is 0.36 grams per pound of body weight. This translates to 64 grams of protein for a 180lb man. Research shows that protein intakes as high as 0.8 – 1.0 gram/lb can help those individuals looking to build muscle, or retain muscle while losing fat during a resistance training program. We will cover protein requirements and absorption in more depth in other articles.
A higher protein diet is often recommended during a fat loss program because of protein’s high thermic effect (up to 30% of calories from protein are burned off during digestion) and its ability to satisfy hunger.
For your reference:
• 1 cup of milk has 8 grams of protein
• An 8-ounce container of yogurt has about 11 grams of protein
• A 3-ounce piece of meat has about 21 grams of protein
• 1 cup of dry beans has about 16 grams of protein
We have spoken about Protein, now we need a quick look at fat:
The truth about fats: the good, the bad, and the in-between
The Family Health Guide
For years, fat was a four-letter word. We were urged to banish it from our diets whenever possible. We switched to low-fat foods. But the shift didn’t make us healthier, probably because we cut back on healthy fats as well as harmful ones.
Your body needs some fat from food. It’s a major source of energy. It helps you absorb some vitamins and minerals. Fat is needed to build cell membranes, the vital exterior of each cell, and the sheaths surrounding nerves. It is essential for blood clotting, muscle movement, and inflammation. For long-term health, some fats are better than others. Good fats include monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Bad ones include industrial-made trans fats. Saturated fats fall somewhere in the middle.
All fats have a similar chemical structure: a chain of carbon atoms bonded to hydrogen atoms. What makes one fat different from another is the length and shape of the carbon chain and the number of hydrogen atoms connected to the carbon atoms. Seemingly slight differences in structure translate into crucial differences in form and function.
Bad fats
The worst type of dietary fat is the kind known as trans fat. It is a byproduct of a process called hydrogenation that is used to turn healthy oils into solids and to prevent them from becoming rancid. When vegetable oil is heated in the presence of hydrogen and a heavy-metal catalyst such as palladium, hydrogen atoms are added to the carbon chain. This turns oils into solids. It also makes healthy vegetable oils more like not-so-healthy saturated fats. On food label ingredient lists, this manufactured substance is typically listed as “partially hydrogenated oil.”
Early in the 20th century, trans fats were found mainly in solid margarines and vegetable shortening. As food makers learned new ways to use partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, they began appearing in everything from commercial cookies and pastries to fast-food French fries.
Eating foods rich in trans fats increases the amount of harmful LDL cholesterol in the bloodstream and reduces the amount of beneficial HDL cholesterol. Trans fats create inflammation, which is linked to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and other chronic conditions. They contribute to insulin resistance, which increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Research from the Harvard School of Public Health and elsewhere indicates that trans fats can harm health in even small amounts: for every 2% of calories from trans fat consumed daily, the risk of heart disease rises by 23%.
Trans fats have no known health benefits and that there is no safe level of consumption. Today, these mainly man-made fats are rapidly fading from the food supply.
In-between fats
Saturated fats are common in the American diet. They are solid at room temperature — think cooled bacon grease. Common sources of saturated fat include red meat, whole milk and other whole-milk dairy foods, cheese, coconut oil, and many commercially prepared baked goods and other foods.
The word “saturated” here refers to the number of hydrogen atoms surrounding each carbon atom. The chain of carbon atoms holds as many hydrogen atoms as possible — it’s saturated with hydrogens.
A diet rich in saturated fats can drive up total cholesterol, and tip the balance toward more harmful LDL cholesterol, which prompts blockages to form in arteries in the heart and elsewhere in the body. For that reason, most nutrition experts recommend limiting saturated fat to under 10% of calories a day.
A handful of recent reports have muddied the link between saturated fat and heart disease. One meta-analysis of 21 studies said that there was not enough evidence to conclude that saturated fat increases the risk of heart disease, but that replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat may indeed reduce risk of heart disease.
Two other major studies narrowed the prescription slightly, concluding that replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fats like vegetable oils or high-fiber carbohydrates is the best bet for reducing the risk of heart disease, but replacing saturated fat with highly processed carbohydrates could do the opposite.
Good fat
Good fats come mainly from vegetables, nuts, seeds, and fish. They differ from saturated fats by having fewer hydrogen atoms bonded to their carbon chains. Healthy fats are liquid at room temperature, not solid. There are two broad categories of beneficial fats: monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.
Monounsaturated fats. When you dip your bread in olive oil at an Italian restaurant, you’re getting mostly monounsaturated fat. Monounsaturated fats have a single carbon-to-carbon double bond. The result is that it has two fewer hydrogen atoms than a saturated fat and a bend at the double bond. This structure keeps monounsaturated fats liquid at room temperature.
Good sources of monounsaturated fats are olive oil, peanut oil, canola oil, avocados, and most nuts, as well as high-oleic safflower and sunflower oils.
The discovery that monounsaturated fat could be healthful came from the Seven Countries Study during the 1960s. It revealed that people in Greece and other parts of the Mediterranean region enjoyed a low rate of heart disease despite a high-fat diet. The main fat in their diet, though, was not the saturated animal fat common in countries with higher rates of heart disease. It was olive oil, which contains mainly monounsaturated fat. This finding produced a surge of interest in olive oil and the “Mediterranean diet,” a style of eating regarded as a healthful choice today.
Although there’s no recommended daily intake of monounsaturated fats, the Institute of Medicine recommends using them as much as possible along with polyunsaturated fats to replace saturated and trans fats.
Polyunsaturated fats. When you pour liquid cooking oil into a pan, there’s a good chance you’re using polyunsaturated fat. Corn oil, sunflower oil, and safflower oil are common examples. Polyunsaturated fats are essential fats. That means they’re required for normal body functions but your body can’t make them. So you must get them from food. Polyunsaturated fats are used to build cell membranes and the covering of nerves. They are needed for blood clotting, muscle movement, and inflammation.
A polyunsaturated fat has two or more double bonds in its carbon chain. There are two main types of polyunsaturated fats: omega-3 fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids. The numbers refer to the distance between the beginning of the carbon chain and the first double bond. Both types offer health benefits.
Eating polyunsaturated fats in place of saturated fats or highly refined carbohydrates reduces harmful LDL cholesterol and improves the cholesterol profile. It also lowers triglycerides.
Good sources of omega-3 fatty acids include fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, and sardines, flaxseeds, walnuts, canola oil, and unhydrogenated soybean oil.
Omega-3 fatty acids may help prevent and even treat heart disease and stroke. In addition to reducing blood pressure, raising HDL, and lowering triglycerides, polyunsaturated fats may help prevent lethal heart rhythms from arising. Evidence also suggests they may help reduce the need for corticosteroid medications in people with rheumatoid arthritis. Studies linking omega-3s to a wide range of other health improvements, including reducing risk of dementia, are inconclusive, and some of them have major flaws, according to a systematic review of the evidence by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Omega-6 fatty acids have also been linked to protection against heart disease. Foods rich in linoleic acid and other omega-6 fatty acids include vegetable oils such as safflower, soybean, sunflower, walnut, and corn oils.
February 3, 2015
Updated: August 7, 2015
What happens if I don’t get enough fat?
Ever heard of "Rabbit Starvation"
In A Nutshell
While some people can’t fathom eating a cute, fuzzy little rabbit, the reality is that they are a good source of food. With their renown for breeding and their widespread habitat range, they are an effective source of nutrition. However, one must be careful when eating rabbit, as eating nothing but rabbit can actually kill you. It’s called rabbit starvation, and it’s one of the more paradoxical things out there.
The Whole Bushel
Rabbits are among the most populous food sources in the world. And while they aren’t terribly common today as mass production of beef, pork, and chicken has become easier, their meat was once an important food source. However, if one was to stay on a diet of entirely rabbit meat, they would begin to suffer from various, rather unpleasant symptoms, ranging from diarrhea, discomfort, headache, and (most paradoxically of all) hunger. This strange “rabbit starvation” was noted by many explorers and travelers, who relied on hunting the local game for nutrients.
Explorers who traveled to the Northern Arctic, where snow rabbits were plentiful and carrying supplies from civilization was a hassle, were confronted with it while also dealing with the harsh climate. Additionally, it was noted by Charles Darwin in his account of his famous sea voyage on the HMS Beagle. He observed that people who fed mainly on dried or lean meat gained an insatiable craving for fatty and oily foods, even actual fats and oils themselves, even though they would be quite unappetizing when consumed raw.
The lack of fat in the rabbit meat was actually causing the confusing hunger and malnutrition. While meats, even those with little fat, have nutritional value, fats are a very important part of the diet. Modern-day diets and health trends tend to demonize fats as something that people consume in excess (which is certainly true to an extent). But fats are a vital part of the body’s ability to generate energy and support its most fundamental systems.
This becomes especially important when the subject is in a particularly hostile environment, like the Arctic explorers. Without any fat in their diets to break down into energy, which can be converted into heat, their bodies burned away their own fat stores quickly in an attempt to keep their bodies warm. This is normally something that is done to help the individual seek out more food and is not a long-term survival solution. They likely weren’t even aware of their lack of fats (outside of feelings of hunger and cravings) until it was too late.
Another explanation for rabbit starvation lies in the bio-transformation of proteins in the body. Being a chemical process, the metabolization of proteins produces by-products. This includes urea (and by extension amino acids) and ammonia, which must be processed by the body’s waste filtration systems before the bloodstream is saturated with them. If they are not filtered out, the result is eventually death.
A little snippet of information for you from my home made receipt book :
Pemmican
Mixture of Protein and Fat combined to form a very energy efficient food. Mixed with berries and spices for extra flavor will give you some long lasting emergency flight (Run for your life food.)
or fight food.
Pemmican is a concentrated mixture of fat and protein used as a nutritious food. The word comes from the Cree word pimîhkân, which itself is derived from the word pimî, "fat, grease".[1] It was invented by the native peoples of North America.[2][3] It was widely adopted as a high-energy food by Europeans involved in the fur trade and later by Arctic and Antarctic explorers, such as Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, Fridtjof Nansen, Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen.
The specific ingredients used were usually whatever was available; the meat was often bison, deer, elk, or moose. Fruits such as cranberries and saskatoon berries were sometimes added. Blueberries, Cherries, chokeberries, and currants were also used, but almost exclusively in ceremonial and wedding pemmican.[4]
How to make:
Traditionally, pemmican was prepared from the lean meat of large game such as buffalo, elk, deer, or moose. The meat was cut in thin slices and dried, either over a slow fire or in the hot sun, until it was hard and brittle. (About five pounds of meat are required to make one pound of dried meat suitable for pemmican.) Then it was pounded into very small pieces, almost powder-like in consistency, using stones. The pounded meat was mixed with melted fat in an approximate 1:1 ratio.[5] In some cases, dried fruits, such as blueberries, choke cherries, cranberries, or saskatoon berries, were pounded into powder and then added to the meat/fat mixture. The resulting mixture was then packed into rawhide bags for storage.
A bag of buffalo pemmican weighing about 90 lb (41 kg) was called a taureau (French for "bull") by the Métis of Red River. These bags of taureaux (lit. "bulls"), when mixed with fat from the udder, were known as taureaux fins, when mixed with bone marrow, as taureaux grand, and when mixed with berries, as taureaux à grains.[6] It generally took the meat of one buffalo to fill a taureau.[7]
Serving
In his notes of 1874, North-West Mounted Police Sergent-Major Sam Steele records three ways of serving pemmican: raw; boiled in a stew called "rubaboo"; or fried, known in the West as a "rechaud" [1]
"The pemmican was cooked in two ways in the west; one a stew of pemmican, water, flour and, if they could be secured, wild onions or preserved potatoes. This was called "rubaboo"; the other was called by the plains hunters a "rechaud". It was cooked in a frying pan with onions and potatoes or alone. Some persons ate pemmican raw, but I must say I never had a taste for it that way." (Sam Steele 1874)[8]