Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1220: The 4 Best Sources of Protein

Episode Date: February 3, 2020

In this episode, Sal, Adam and Justin discuss the pros and cons of the four best sources of protein. The magic macronutrient, protein. (3:14) Why protein is important for the human body, muscle building, and fat loss? (5:44) Busting the myth that the body ‘burns’ muscle. (13:35) Two things you want to use to your advantage in the modern world when it comes to protein intake. #1 – Faster metabolism. (16:39) #2 – The satiety and thermic effects. (17:09) Making the case for high protein vs low protein diets. (19:50) The Best Sources of Protein.  #1 - Wholefoods. (26:26) #2 - Animal. (28:22) #3 – Plant. (30:00) The popular Amino Acids. (31:48) The drawbacks to whole food protein consumption. (34:30) #4 - Protein powders. (37:50) Whey. (45:27) Egg. (52:05) Planet based. (58:53) Why BCAA’s are a waste of money. (1:04:42) The controversy surrounding soy protein. (1:06:15) Related Links/Products Mentioned February Promotion: MAPS Split ½ off! **Code “SPLIT50” at checkout** Visit Legion Athletics for the exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code “mindpump” at checkout** Visit Organifi for the exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code “mindpump” at checkout** Protein intake and exercise for optimal muscle function with aging: Recommendations from the ESPEN Expert Group Optimising foods for satiety The Myth of Optimal Protein Intake - Mind Pump How Much Protein You REALLY Need to Build Muscle & Maximize Health – Mind Pump TV Branched-chain amino acids and muscle protein synthesis in humans: myth or reality? Not All Protein Is Created Equal (PROTEIN POWDER GUIDE) - Mind Pump TV The Dirty Dozen  Effect of different protein sources on satiation and short-term satiety when consumed as a starter Protein supplement may cut risk of heart disease and stroke The protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score Arsenic, Lead Found in Popular Protein Supplements Mind Pump 1215: Dr. Becky Campbell on Thyroid Disease, Autoimmune Disease & Histamine Intolerance Mind Pump Free Resources

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. In this episode of Mind Pump, we talk all about your favorite macronutrient protein. Now protein is an essential macronutrient. This means you need to consume this. You have to have protein in your diet in order to thrive and survive.

But we go deep. We talk about why protein is important besides the survival aspect. Like why is it important for muscle building fat loss? We talk about high protein diets versus low protein diets. We talk about the satiety effects of protein. That means the fact that it can lower your appetite. We talk about the effects of protein on your thermic effect.

You actually burn more calories, burning protein or eating protein than you will with other macronutrients. Then we get into the best sources of protein. We get questions all the time. What's the best source of protein or what's the best protein powder? We talk all about whole food sources of protein, our favorite sources of protein from food, then we talk about our favorite types of protein powders.

First, we get into way protein. Way protein is one of the most popular forms of protein out there. We talk about egg protein, then we talk about plant-based protein. So we go into the powders, their benefits, their detriment, who they're best for, who they're not best for.

Now we do make some recommendations, because I know a lot of you are gonna message me afterwards and say, hey, I heard the podcast on protein. What's a great way protein to buy? If you want way protein, here's our recommendation. Legion makes it a phenomenal way protein isolate that's naturally flavored, and we have a discount for you. Go to buy legion.com that's B-U-Y-L-E-G-I-O-N.com-forestash-mime pump. Use the code

mine pump at checkout for 20% off. And then plant based. If you like plant based protein, either because you have an intolerance to other types of protein, it's easier to digest for you. Or maybe you're a vegan, our favorite source of vegan protein is Organify. Hands down. We have a discount with them as well. Go to Organify.com-flash-mind-pump and use the code MindPump for 20% off. Now before the episode starts, we're in February, which means we have a brand new promotion. This is a very popular program and it's half off. The program I'm

talking about is Maps Split. This is a body builder focused muscle sculpting focused program. Is it advanced split routine where you're training upper body, lower body with volume and different phases. There's exercise demos and blueprints in the program. Basically everything you need to follow a muscle building split routine. We wrote this program so I know it's good. It's half off. Here's how you get that discount.

Go to mapsplit.com. That's M-A-P-S-S-P-L-I-T.com and use the code split50. That's S-P-L-I-T-5-0, no space for the discount. I want to touch on a topic that we've talked about many, many times, but we've never really gone into certain details into because I still get questions quite a bit on what are the best protein sources. We've talked a lot about protein, why it's important, I think we should cover that too, but then I'd love to go into best sources of protein and why they're the best sources of protein, because it's that macro nutrient that, especially in our space,

first off, it's the number nutrient that especially in our space. First off, it's the number one selling supplement that there is. It's in all sports regarded as one of the more important, especially in the strength sports. Strength sports for sure, protein is just regarded as the most important. Very often, you see supplement, you know, athletes supplementing with protein, not as often, you see athletes supplementing with protein, not as often do you see athletes supplementing with other? I think this is a hot topic because, you know, there's lots of vested interest in getting you to think a certain way

so they can sell you a specific product. And I think that it's created a lot of different camps in terms of like where the best sources, you know, lie what you should really focus on getting, like how quickly you need it, based off your workouts, all kinds of folklore. I mean, I love this conversation. It's been due, overdue for us,

and this will help me, I know I get a ton of DMs regarding this. Should I do a vegan protein? Should I do a way? Should I do concentrate? Should I do collagen? Let's everybody wants to know the benefits and which ones better um uh and of course if you're asking somebody who sells one of those products, they're always going to make the case for their protein powder or whatever they're doing better so I think it's I think for us to break down

all of them and share the benefit the pros cons of of it I think would be of great. Totally, and we'll get into this, but as with almost everything, whether it's food, whether it's micro nutrients like vitamins and minerals or exercises, the individual determines what's best for them. And so what I want to do is I want to be very balanced with our recommendations because there are some protein sources that will be superior for some people and inferior for other people and that's why I want to make kind of like this This episode guide where people can go in and kind of determine Okay, you know based off of you know who I am what I'm looking for This is the best you know source of protein for me. Well, Well, at first we should start with why do you even need protein?

Yeah, it's an essential macronutrient, meaning if you don't eat protein, your body will fail to thrive. When you break protein down, it's broken down into amino acids. Those are the constituents that make up protein. Some amino acids are non-essential. What does that mean? That means that some amino acids your body can synthesize so you don't necessarily need to consume non-essential proteins because your body will just make them.

But some amino acids your body won't make. Those essential amino acids are what make protein an essential macronutrient. You simply, without eating them, your body needs them. Without eating them, you're screwed. And if you do this long enough, you'll actually die. You can cause lots of problems. Yeah, that's the extreme, right, talking about somebody dying. But what are some signs of somebody who potentially is under-consuming protein? Oh, you know, okay.

So why do people even supplement with protein in the first place? Athletes have noticed for a long time. Actually, we could go all the way back to gladiators and soldiers thousands of years ago that identified that consuming more meat. They didn't know it was protein carbohydrates and fats, but they noticed that when I eat more meat, I'm stronger. I build more muscle. Then you go fast forward to the early days of strongmen competitors. And these are the guys that are, you look at the circus strongmen, you know, kind of tubby looking really strong, did these crazy feats of strength. And they would consume gallons of milk

and eat lots of red meat and eggs. Again, they didn't know about macronutrients necessarily, but they did notice, hey, when I consume these foods, I get really strong. Then you get, move a little further forward and bodybuilders really started to kind of piece this together. And the first supplements that really made waves further forward and bodybuilders really started to kind of piece this together. And the first supplements that really made waves in the fitness space were protein supplements.

I believe some of the first ones were made by a, I believe it was a company called Blair. And they would make this, this dairy based protein that you would mix with milk and it would kind of turn into like a yogurt of some sort custard. And you did it. And the first Mr. Olympia Larry Scott ate tons of these. And bodybuilders said they just saw this. Like, okay, if I eat a lot of protein, I build muscle. So this was observed for a long time.

Now we have studies that show that there's evidence that why? Why these people saw great benefits? Well, I think I believe it was Blair who originally put this together that it was because before that it was oval team. All right. And they were, Oval team was used for the medical community, for people that were lacking that and needed that for protein. It was minerals, vitamins, that kind of stuff. Right. So, Oval team was the first kind of example of like a protein powder. It was just, it was marketed to just a demographic of people

that absolutely needed it or. And it was low in protein, it was malt based, and you'd mix it with milk, but one of the benefits was, oh, I'm getting some extra protein, vitamins and minerals. But yeah, we've identified for a long time that, and you could go back, you could read old texts, you could read some of the you could read, you know,

some of the things that the Greeks wrote about in the Romans, you could go even in Chinese medicine that protein or high protein containing foods have been connected to strength, performance and vitality. Now what is the, what does the science say? The science 100% supports this This is unequivocal if you and this is a broad, okay? Okay, of course when you go down to the individual there's gonna be some variances here But generally speaking a high protein diet is superior for muscle building It's also superior for fat burning. It's also superior in some cases for health.

They're finding in older populations that they seem to be healthier when they start to increase the protein intake because it has a muscle preserving a fact. As far as fat loss is concerned, why would protein be good for fat loss? There's two reasons. One, it prevents in comparison to other same calorie diets, higher protein diets,

preserve muscle. So if you go on a diet and you lose 10 pounds, and there's a lot of ways you can preserve muscle, right? Lifting weights helps do this a lot. But all things being equal, when you have a low calorie diet that's low in protein and you lose 10 pounds, I'm going to use an arbitrary number. You may lose four pounds or three pounds of muscle. Part of the reason is your body is trying to slow its metabolism down to in order to match the lower calories, trying to become more efficient. When the protein is high, you lose less muscle.

That means your metabolism tends to stay higher and that means that it's easier to lose body fat. It's also satiating. This is a really good point too because this was a common thing I remember as a trainer before this all got pieced together for me that, you know, you would, you'd get a client that you would put on a calorie restrictive diet. You'd, you know, put them on the treadmill, you'd exercise them and we'd lose 10 pounds. Oh, we're excited. They, oh, they lose another 10 pounds.

Oh, we're excited, oh, they lose another 10 pound, oh, we're excited again. And then we'd do their body fat test and their body fat sometimes would go up. And as a trainer, you'd be scratching your head and remember early, what the hell? They're eating clean because they're eating good choices. They're eating low calories. You're lifting weights, you're doing cardio.

How could this person's body fat percentage go up? And a lot of people don't understand how body fat percentage works, and how could that be possible? How could somebody lose 20 pounds on the scale and they're eating good food, but yet they got fatter. Well, they got fatter percentage-wise.

And that's because what ended up happening is they lost 20 pounds, but actually 11 of that was muscle, and only nine of it was fat. And that's actually happens a lot. It happens a lot, and so in other words, the ratio of fat to muscle on that person or fat to lean tissue has changed. So you lost weight, but your percentage of body fat is higher.

The same reason why 10 pounds of body fat on a 100 pound person would be 10% body fat and a 200 pound person would be 5% body fat. I've seen that many times. Studies show this effect especially when people die it without resistance training. That's what they see the biggest one. Oh of course. If you do cardio, restricted calories and low protein, you can almost guarantee that's going to happen. It's going to happen. What your body is always trying to do is it's always trying to become more efficient. And in efficient, remember, the human body, we live in modern times, but the body that we live in now is the product of thousands of years of evolution where food was scarce.

So imagine if you're designing a car in a gasoline scarce environment, very, very scarce environment, you are going to design a car that has extremely high, like a really, really good gas mileage. You're gonna be able to travel very, very far per gallon of gas. Well, the human body's really good at that.

So when you're reducing calories and there isn't a strong signal to keep muscle, nor are there building blocks to keep muscle, your body will lose weight, but it'll reduce muscle mass to make up the difference. You need to make sure that you're fostering this environment that, you know, muscle building is necessary. That signal is there. And so you're stressing the body with the right amount of dose. So that way too, it's not you're cutting calories, but also, you know, you're, you're not matching that with that demand that your body needs to send that signal building muscle. Well, this is a good time to explain why this happens, right?

I mean, you're, we've heard the myth or what we used to probably even say as trainers at burn muscle, like the body doesn't burn muscle. It just pairs it down. It pairs it down. And then you ask, well, why does it do that? Why does it, well, because it's cheaper to get rid of the muscle than it is to get rid of the body fat. Your body muscles an expensive tissue,

meaning it takes a lot of calories to support it. So if you're in a caloric, restrictive diet and you're pushing the body cardiovascular wise and you're not sending a good signal to build muscle, then your body says, we don't need this all this muscle. It's very expensive for us to keep it. Again, to Salis Point, it's trying to become efficient. So it pairs down muscle, it gets rid of it.

And so that's where this idea of, you know, burning muscle came from of, oh, you don't want to burn muscle. Well, that theory is if you are not giving the body enough protein to sustain the muscle mass you have on it, and then in addition to that, you're in a caloric restricted diet and you're pushing doing cardio. And you're not lifting weights.

And even if you are lifting weights, you still could be at risk a little bit. Pushing on cardio, calorie restricted, even doing that. Now, doing weights is gonna help that situation, but we see this, even like I see this in the competitive world all the time, where you have, and they're on anabolic steroids,

they're always top of it. Right, you have these body builders that, they go on, they bulk up like crazy, they put on 30, 40 pounds, you know, and of that 30, 40 pounds, maybe they added 10 pounds of muscle, then they go on a hard cut for their show, and then when they end up at the end of the show, they end up losing all those 10 pounds of muscle, then they go on a hard cut for their show, and then when they end up at the end of the show,

they end up losing all those 10 pounds of muscle. And that they're eating a lot of protein, they're a bodybuilder, most of them are, but it's because you are pushing the body so hard, cardiovascular-wise, you're in a caloric restrict to diet, and the body is, it's learning that, oh my God, this is expensive tissue, sure it shreds some body fat too,

but then it also goes, hey, you're gonna keep keep pushing these double day cardio days and not feed me. I don't want to keep this muscle. Even though you're pushing the weights, that's why it ends up paying down. And you may be wondering, well, cardio uses muscle. Why wouldn't I keep muscle from doing lots of cardio? Because cardio vascular activity does not require lots of strength. All it requires is efficiency of energy use, okay? So again, to use the car analogy, if I wanna go quarter mile and nine seconds, I need a lot of horsepower that's gonna burn a lot of gas.

If I wanna drive 100 miles on one gallon of gas, I'm gonna do a very slow, very easy and become very efficient and what does cardio look like? Slow energy efficient. I'm look like? Slow energy efficient. I'm just getting my body energy efficient. And protein is part of that signaling process. If protein is high, buy itself, by the way, this is an important thing to understand.

Protein by itself sends a muscle building signal. You can actually show this in studies where you have sedentary individuals and you have one e to high protein diet and the other one e to low protein diet, both having same calories and the higher protein diet will result in a little bit more muscle. So that also sends that muscle building signal. And there's two things you want to focus on in the modern world or two things you want

to use to your advantage that can actually, actually are derived from the disadvantage of the modern world or two things you want to use to your advantage that can actually actually are derived from the disadvantage of the modern world. One is you want to faster metabolism because we're so sedative because we don't move much, we have food everywhere, we want a faster metabolism. Muscle provides a faster metabolism. The second thing is you have all this very, very tasty food around you. You're probably going to want to eat a lot of it. So why not eat the foods that tend to be the most that produce the most satiety? Things that tend to control your appetite the most. They actually have done lots of studies on this. And on a gram-program basis, in other words comparing one gram or protein to

one gram of fat to one gram of carbs, protein by far produces the most of tight. It just blunts your appetite the most and you can test this out yourself. And in metabolic speaking, it's the most beneficial. Right. You know, if we're talking about gram for gram or calorie for calorie, protein is going to provide the most towards building muscle or keeping muscle, which then in turn helps the metabolism. So, metabolically speaking, it's also best.

So, not only to help you not eat other foods and over consume calories, but also in the pursuit of speeding your metabolism up, it's better. Grafford. And then there's also the thethermic effect. Now, this is a small effect, but it does add up over time. So the thermic effect refers to the amount of energy your body burns in order to process the food that you eat. The whole digestive process. Yeah, so like you eat something and it's 50 calories,

and I'm gonna use arbitrary numbers. Maybe it costs your body five calories to utilize that 50 calories. So the net caloric calories you got from that food was 45 calories, right? Protein's thermic effect is about 10 to 15% higher than fats or carbohydrates. It has a high thermic effect as well.

So it's also a nutrient that burns more calories simply by eating it than other macronutrients. I'm assuming this is really based on the whole foods versus powdered proteins. Whole foods have a higher thermic effect because there's a longer digestive process. But when we're comparing apples to apples, like let's say you do a gram of a pre-digested protein powder to a gram of a carbohydrate powder or fat, like an oil or whatever, or calorie to calorie, not a gram to guarantee, because that gram of fat is higher in calorie. The thermic effect is still higher in protein.

It's protein when it comes to body composition goals, when it comes to building muscle, burning body fat, reducing my appetite, when it comes to, what's gonna benefit me the most in a modern world? A hands down, a high protein diet is superior across the board, and this is not just my opinion, this is backed by all the studies that have been done on these things. Now that being said, there's always individual variances. So I know I'm saying high protein low protein. What, you know, what does that all mean? What, they'll throttle all the way down. Right, right. Two, three X, their bodyweight of protein,

now they're doing two, three, 400 grams of protein a day. You say that to somebody who eats relatively no protein or very low protein and high protein to them could be double, which could still be under what they need to be eating. So I've always liked the one to one ratio because all the literature out there pretty much shows that even if you are not super lean, if you're relatively lean, we're not obese. We're not talking about somebody who is obese, somebody who is

even overweight. If you stick around that one gram to pound a body weight, you're going to cover yourself for the max benefits. You're now, you arguably could be eating a little more than you need for some people, especially if you're not really lean or relatively lean, but it's an easy thing for people to track and pay attention to, hey, I weigh 220 pounds, I'm targeting about 220. If I fall a little short, I knew I was going a little bit,

I'm adding a little extra than what I actually need. I'm not in any of the dangerous areas of over consumption approaching the amount that you would have to consume for it to be dangerous, would be really high. So that's a good place and it's easy for people. We know that all the research supports 0.6 to 0.8, but you tell a client or you tell the average listener, hey, get 0.6 to 0.8 of lean body mass, that's your optimal protein intake. That just goes right over somebody's ahead. One person, most people don't know how to compute

what their lean body mass is. Other people don't want to fucking calculate what 0.6.8 is. One is a pretty good easier. Yeah, I agree with you. You're right, though. The literature does show about 0.6 to 0.8 grams per pound of body weight is what the literature shows, meaning all the studies that have been done on this show

that as long as protein is in that range, you're gonna yield the max benefits out of a high protein diet, like the ones we just talked about, right? Muscle, you know, satiety, fat loss, strength, and performance, all those different things. But I do like aiming for one gram per pound of body weight because it's a target, it's not a must. And it's nice to have a target of one

because typically, my, here's my experience, I'm sure you guys have a similar one. When I tell clients aim for one gram per pound of body weight, they usually fall around 0.6 to 0.8. Right. Because a gram of protein is a decent amount of protein. And the neurotic ones that hit it are go a little over. That's fine.

You know as a coach, you're not risking anything. We're not doing anything absurd or well beyond what they should be at. That's why I like it. And I know there's so much stuff on social media on what is right and these debates. And oh, it's this. Oh, it's that. And oh, this research shows that one and a half grams they showed some bit, it's listen. If the average person is listening and you're hitting one to one on your body weight, you are, you're covering your basic spot.

Yeah, you are in a very good spot. The difference of that to 1.5 or lower at 0.8 point six is splitting serious hair. So, again, it's, and here's the thing, there is an individual variance with this. So, we're talking about what the studies could show kind of across the board. But the individual variance is within the range that we just gave you, you know, point six to one. Below the point six, most of you listening will probably experience fewer results, less gains. You might not build as much muscle and as much strength.

In the long run, this does definitely, you know, it does add up. Now, here's some things to pay attention to. Digestion, if you're, there are some people that when they start pushing protein up to a gram per pound of body weight, they just don't feel like they don't feel good. It doesn't affect their digestion well. They may start to notice constipation. That's the most common thing. Those are the people that I would say, okay, let's reduce your protein intake and replace

it with some good fibers carbs to help you with your digestion. The other one is flatulence. That can sometimes happen where people feel like, especially if you're consuming a lot of sulfur based proteins. I just gonna say, I wanna comment on what you're saying right now because I wanna comment on how rare that is, that you know, because there are some,

oh yeah, that's me. I started in some protein and I start farting like a also evaluating where you're getting your protein. On the person. Because you can have, yeah, you can have, let's get into that. Yeah, you can have an intolerance to certain things, you know, like eggs, like dairy. And because all of a sudden you're having all this way protein

or you're also in your bump in all your eggs up because you're getting, it's not the protein itself, it's the source of the protein. You put that same person on a bunch of fish or chicken or turkey and they eat the same amount of grams, they feel absolutely fine. It's just that the way they decided to bump their protein is in an area

that's what could be causing the problem. So I wanna make that clear because I've had that with clients before. They found it was a protein. Right, and they think it's the protein. It was the source. It's the source. It's like, oh, well, that's because your last trainer

that helped you put you on two shakes a day and it's way and you have an intolerance to dairy and now you're gassy and farting and you think it's because you can't handle high protein. No, it's not that at all. It's actually because of the source that you're getting. 100%. The other thing is that is an individual variance

is that you may just not like the taste of protein. You may not like protein containing foods. Now that's a perfectly reasonable individual variance because here's the thing, at the end of the day, the diet, the type of diet that you eat, that's gonna be the most successful. The one that you can follow for the longest period of time, the one that fits into your normal lifestyle.

So although a high protein diet may be superior from muscle building and fat loss and satiety, but you just hate or you don't like most protein containing foods, it's not going to work for you. I'm not going to force you to eat food. You can't stand. And I've had, and this isn't common. It's not very common. Most people have no problem meeting high protein containing foods, but I've had clients like this where they say, I don't like all the foods that contain protein. I'm gagging on it. And so I take a step back and they go, okay, we're not going to eat a lot of it and that's totally fine. So, although we're making the case, the strong case that a high protein diet is superior for performance, muscle building fat loss, the tidy.

Always the exception. Always listen to your body. Your body is going to coach you better than mind pump. Always remember that, that's number one. So I think the place to start then, because before we get it into different types of like protein powders and things like that, because I know we're going to cover that, I think something that we've said since day one will always remain consistent with this and make a case for this when when chasing protein number, your intake, right, which you're targeting every day,

the number one place to get that, the best source of protein for everybody is gonna be whole foods. Oh, 100%. 100%. First off, whole foods are unprocessed. They're natural. They're more, you're more likely to be able to continue

on eating them in your normal life, doesn't require to buy a supplement. And you know, here's the thing about Whole Foods that I love. They naturally contain other beneficial nutrients, not just other macro nutrients like fats and carbohydrates. Oftentimes really high protein sources can also contain some beneficial healthy fats, which some studies will actually show, help with the utilization of protein. In fact, there was a study a while ago that showed that whole egg consumption versus egg

white consumption. Whole egg consumption resulted in higher rates of protein synthesis. This is how they measure how your body's building muscle and utilizing that protein. Then there's other nutrients that are in whole sources. For example, I could have 50 grams of protein from a powder or I could have 50 grams of protein from lean red meat. And you guess what else comes along with that? Crayotene.

Crayotene is found in high amounts. In red meat, and Crayrateen is an amazing nutrient that benefits your not just muscle strength and power and size but brain health and heart health and anti-inflammatory effects. I mean Crateen is one of the most popular supplements for a reason. You find it naturally in animal sources of protein. Oh, animal sources, superior. Now here's the thing, I know people listening,

there's gonna be some vegans right now, they're gonna be like, that's not what, no, here's a deal. If protein intake isn't super high, if you're consuming on the lower end of the ideal range, like you're having half a gram per pound of body weight, then the animal sources are superior. On a gram per gram basis, animal sources of protein have better amino acid profile.

So if you remember the beginning of the episode, we talked about amino acids and how they make up proteins. There are certain, when you look at protein sources, if they're high in certain amino acids, they tend to be better for certain things. The branch chaining amino acids being one of them. Now branch chaining amino acids, there's three of them. There's isolucine and valine.

And what studies will show is on a gram-program basis, especially when protein intake is not at the super high range. If it's really high, protein sources aren't as important. You just have a lot of amino acids. But if you have more of a normal protein intake, not super high, then the protein sources that are high in branshemen acids are gonna build more muscle. They're gonna be better for your health.

They tend to burn more body fat, they're better for recovery. And animal sources of protein are the highest in branshemen acids. Well, they're also the only ones that provide creatine, like your reference. Yes, you're not gonna get creatine from plant sources. You have, in fact, if you don't have animal sources

of creatine, your body has to synthesize all of its creatine from, I believe, Argonine and Methionine, I think I'm pronouncing right? Which are two amino acids. You're just not going to get as much creatine through those sources. But yeah, back to the amino acids, branching amino acids, like you have egg and dairy, very high in branch amino acids. The only plant source that is even remotely comparable would be pea protein. And even pea protein is high as it is in branch amino acids

just doesn't come close on a gram program basis. The other thing with plant sources is typically you have to get a lot of plant sources of protein to get those high amounts of protein. And one of the drawbacks of that is, now I'm eating a lot of tons of calories. If I want to eat a hundred grams of protein from tofu and edamame and hemp seeds, I'm eating a lot of them, just a lot of volume and a lot of calories from those things, which can make it hard to have a diet that works with maybe your body composition,

you know, type goals or what. What is, have they found the highest source of protein from plants, like which one like produces the most naturally? On a, well on a gram program base, like spirulina, or these kind of least algae that you can consume. But nobody really eats us. Yeah, well. You know, if you're gonna consume spirulina,

that's usually an supplement. I don eats us. Yeah, I love it. If you're gonna consume spirulina, that's usually an assoupliment. I don't see anybody having a bowl of algae. And that's relatively new, and they combine that with a lot of other vegetable sources. Well, that's the thing. When you're a vegan, what you wanna do is, first off, can you eat a very high protein diet vegan? Yes, it's harder though, but yes, you can.

Can you get that same branch, chiming acid profile and all that stuff with the, you can, but you need to mix protein sources. Whereas when you consume an animal source, it's all there. Yeah, from one source, you're gonna get a really high quality protein with plant. You tend to, not always, but you tend to,

because soy is not bad, but you tend to have to, you know, combine them and put them together. There are other amino acids I wanted to cover that I forgot to mention were that are popular, right? Lucine. Well, we talked about Lucine, which is branchamine acid, abranchamine acid. Lucine when it's high, they call that the anabolic amino acid, because Lucine is a signaler for muscle growth. This is why one of the reasons why animal sources of protein tend to be superior to plant

sources for building muscle, especially when protein intake isn't super high. Glutamine, this is another amino acid. Back in the day, people used to supplement with a like crazy bodybuilder used to, it's funny today, the people who supplement with glutamine are people interested in gut health, which is funny to me. Back in the day, that was a total bodybuilder supplement. Glutamine is utilized quite a bit by the gut. Glutamine is not an essential amino acid though.

So it's not essential that you consume a ton of foods that are high in glutamine. It's not essential. Organine, that's an amino acid that we've heard a lot about getting the pump. Should you seek out foods that are high in argonine, doesn't really make that big of a difference. Glycein, proline, you may not have heard a lot about those two,

but if you take any supplements for hair, skin, or nails, ladies, if you're listening and you have a supplement for those things, even if it's a cream, read the back, it's not uncommon that it'll contain both glycine and proline. Will you see that in like your most year collagen proteins? Collagen. So we hear a lot about collagen protein being the new hot protein right now. Yeah, and because it's... Ironically.

Because it's funny. It's a throat away. Oh, it's so funny about collagen. College and was considered for a long time in fear of your protein. Garbage, it was the garbage. Yeah, like when you would buy, you know, back when I was a kid and I go work out at the gym and they'd have like the blue thunder and the amino 5,000 drinks in the back, they would be filled with college and protein

because it was the, I mean, it's like, okay, you know what's hiding in college and protein? Hot dogs, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Like, you know, they talk about like, oh, hot's like, okay, you know what's high in collagen protein? Hot dogs, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Like, you know, they talk about like, oh, hot dogs are made with, you know, pigs, buttholes and, you know, lips or whatever. It's all the connective tissue,

all the cuts of meat that are not desirable. All the ligaments and internal organs, there we go. Right, now, and yes, proline, glycine, very important amino acids for skin, hair and nails. And will you benefit from supplementing with collagen protein? Will your skin, hair, and nails benefit from taking collagen protein?

Yes, if your protein intake is really low. Yeah, and you have a deficiency. Yes, well, that's what I'm saying. If you have really low protein, you'll supplement, you'll notice a difference. If your protein intake is high, collagen protein, no need to supplement with a total waste of time, no need to supplement with those two amino acids, complete waste of time. Now, here's a deal, whole food superior across the board,

but there are some drawbacks to whole food protein. I think the biggest one is just the inconvenience. Yeah, that's what I think. That's always, if I have a client that is using a powder or protein powder, including myself, it's just simply, I couldn't get to it yet. Today, I then have a chance to make myself another chicken breast or another piece of steak or ground up.

I didn't have a chance to get to that. I still need 40 grams more protein for the day to hit my daily intake. Okay, here's where this. This is, I think, really important. I'm talking to somebody right now who I'm helping out, and she uses a protein shake on a, basically a daily basis, and I ask, why, why do you do that?

And most people, when they respond to that, it's, you know, well, aren't they healthy, or aren't they good for me? And a lot of people, when they first get back into exercising or working out or lifting weights, they tie building muscle to protein, protein shakes must be for that. And so they just automatically add a shake

into their diet every day, or a bar or whatever. And, you know, what I always try to explain in my clients is that, no, we don't want to do that. Like, it's there for convenience. It's a great tool that I think everybody should have. I think everyone should have a tub and they're in there covered. I think it's that valuable of a supplement that you can use.

But the goal is always try and target that through whole foods. And when you can't hit it in whole foods, the next best option, it would be something like that. Yeah, it's like a boxer who could take a punch. Like, that's cool that you could take a punch and not get knocked out. Yeah, don't go out there seeking it. Yeah, number one though is to move, like not get hit.

So number one is eat whole natural foods, but in the likely occurrence that you miss your targets or, cause here's what I used to find, the clients that would benefit the most from protein shakes were the ones that just had a tough time eating all of it. Yeah, because it was hard to digest for them sometimes. It was very satiating, so it was like, you're eating all this meat,

but then again, you're still not hitting your target, so this is a lot easier to assimilate. Oh yeah, you take a 130 pound female client and you tell them, okay, I want you to aim for 120 grams of protein. I mean, how many chicken breasts is that, Adam? How many, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, you're 35 grams per one, right?

And what, how many ounces is that? So that's six ounces. That's a six, first of all, six ounce chicken breast is a good size. It's a good size and it's how many of those? 30, 35 grams, so you said how much you want? 120? Yeah, so four of those a day.

Yeah, so you're gonna eat four decent sized chicken breasts a day. And if you're... Yeah, that would be considered a meal for somebody, right? A six ounce chicken breast with some rice and some broccoli would be a full meal for 130 pound girl. She's got to do that four times. Four times a day. Yeah, so if you're listening and you're not a body builder

or a strength athlete and you're a female, you're probably thinking, how could I possibly eat all that? And I would get that oftentimes with clients. Now, my goal was to try and work protein into their whole foods and work through that process. But sometimes, oftentimes, it just didn't, it just wasn't working for them. And in those cases, I would throw in a protein shake.

You know, they'd have a 30 gram. So instead of having four chicken breasts, they'd do three and a shake. And then that would help them out. But the number one goal though, always, always, always, always was get it from Whole Foods. Well, now that we're moving to protein shakes, there's so many different types.

So many. Oh yeah. And so let's talk about the best ones. Yes. And why they are, and then the potential, maybe drawbacks of those. Yes. So protein powders, all protein powders

can be broken down into three categories. You have your concentrates, which tend to be anywhere between 60 to 80% protein, meaning if you buy yourself a concentrate of whatever protein, what you're going to find in that shake is 60 to 80% of the calories coming from protein and 20 to 40% coming from carbohydrates or fats. These are most commonly when we see protein shakes that are, quote unquote, meal replacements. Yeah, they have everything. Yeah, exactly.

They have carbs and they have fat in it. That's what you'll see. A meal replacement type of shake will be your constant. And they tend to be less expensive, you know? And there's nothing wrong with them. And mainly, I think, okay, you have to make it why it's less expensive. I just had this argument too with somebody.

It's less process, less work. And less protein. Yeah, it's your... Protein's expensive. Yeah, you're getting less protein per gram of whatever powder is in there. And that's normally what you're paying for. So when a lot of times people freak out with,

oh my god, this protein is $70. This one's, I'm going to get this one that's $25. Look at the servings. Flip it around, read how many servings, figure out how many grams of protein. And what you'll see is most of them are pretty relatively close in price. Even the most expensive protein powders out there, if they're the most expensive, it's going to be some of the most protein you can't gram for gram, get in there. So pay attention to that.

Right. Concentrates tend to be less expensive. When you buy the big jugs of the inexpensive protein, it's typically off of a concentrate. And again, there's nothing wrong with a concentrate. But if you're looking to, because here's a thing, again, I would run into this with clients, I would say, you know, okay, we need to bump your protein by 40 or 50 grams. And then they'd say, oh gosh, you okay, we need to bump your protein by 40 or 50 grams. And then they'd say, oh gosh, if I eat this piece of steak, it's also coming with this fat.

And I'm adding all these extra calories, which now I have to cut from other things. Sometimes adding a shake, you just want the protein. You don't want to add all that other stuff, because you'd rather get it from your foods, your carbohydrates, and your fat containing foods, which I totally understand. And I think that's a good thing.

So the second type of protein that kind of takes care of that problem, the protein powders, I should say, are the isolates. And isolates are when they just, they purify it, if you will, they take out most of the fats in the carbohydrates. And so you're looking with a 90 to 95% protein. And isolates are typically what I recommend.

Ways. Well, way can come and concentrate, or it can come and isolate. And so if you're gonna do a protein, but a way isolate will be more expensive than a way concentrate. It's got more protein per serving. Right, and that's why.

And less carbs and all that other stuff. Absolutely. And the third one, which, you know, the body building world and the strength sport world and the supplement world makes a big deal about is protein hydrolycates. I don't see tons of value in this except for maybe the extreme individual who's training several times a day. Is this what casing falls under?

No, casing can be, so all protein sources can be concentrated or isolated. So you can get concentrated casing, you can isolate casing. I wasn't a pitch for casing that was a slower digested. Yeah, I don't worry about that. Yeah. The faster, slower digesting, protein powders are fast digesting. Regardless. Yeah, and the difference between them is it's not going to make a difference.

Right, if you want to slow down your protein digestion through the night, have a big juicy steak for you. There you go have been. Exactly, that's my move. Exactly. What hydrolycates are is when companies will take powders, they'll isolate them, so weigh isolate, casing isolate, egg isolate, soy isolate, whatever, then they'll break it down with some heat,

acids and enzymes, which breaks the bonds between amino acids and just speeds up the absorption of the proteins. So you absorb it much faster. Now, what's the benefit of that? First off, the benefit is small, it's tiny. And really, the only people I could see benefiting from that are people who are working out two or three times a day. So it's like, I work out in the morning,

I got three hours before my next workout, I need to absorb. Or even shorter. Like, you have some people that will do something. I think, who was I just painted, or watching one of our friends that went for like a five mile run I need to absorb. Or even shorter. Like you have some people that will do something, who was I just paying attention, or watching one of our friends that went for like a five mile run to the gym and then wanted a strength training.

Before he went into strength training, he had like a shake like this to kind of replenish that, let that kind of digest thing got into his workout. So it makes sense when you're utilizing it like that. If you're a normal gym goer, you have your one hour workout in the middle of the day, and you're eating the same amount of grams of protein, the difference is splitting here.

It's not gonna make a difference, because what you're looking for is replenishing glycogen and starting the recovery process. And here's the deal, it's equivalent between individuals, whether or not they have a faster, slower digesting protein powder, but when it makes a difference is when I'm going to work out again in an hour. So now I need to speed things up. And that's what hydrolysis do. Here's the thing

that hydrolysis do. They actually spike your insulin a little bit because they're absorbed so quickly, they may spike insulin a little bit. Now does this make a big difference? Not really, but if you're somebody who's monitoring insulin levels, if you have that kind of issue, then you may want to stay away from hydrolysis. In fact, I would say stay away from protein powders on their own anyway. I'd say eat it with a fat source. So if I'm considering to like getting an organic powder

versus not, is that really like, make that much of a difference at this point? Yes, organic can make a big difference, depending on what your goals are. If you want to avoid Potential hormones in your food if you want to avoid pesticides herbicides in your food But that's not the only thing. Yeah, that's not the only thing exactly that you want to look at you want to look at the quality First of all the sweeteners you want to look at the quality of the protein itself because just because it's organic doesn't mean

It's necessarily better, because sometimes like you said, you can find impurities in that protein. And then knock on that statement that would counter what's out saying too, when all the research would show on if we all we care about and are looking at body fat loss, building muscle, and aesthetics, then that's not true. Then it's not on the hierarchy.

And so there's a group of people that'll be listening right now and be like, oh, that's not true. But they's not on the hierarchy. And so there's a group of people that'll be listening right now and be like, oh, that's not true. But they're more short-term focus. 100%. But it has to be said, right? So that's when he says that, it's not him saying that they're on a macro, gram for gram, calories, standpoint.

Muscle fat loss. Right. As long as what's in there protein-wise says, what it is, calorie-wise, that's all true to what the label says. It could be totally not organic, have all that other crap potentially in it. It doesn't matter as far as aesthetics or concern. I would rank it like this,

quality of the protein itself. Is it pure, is it tested? Does it have heavy metals and impurities? So that'd be number one, number two. Is it artificially sweetened? I'm not a fan of artificial sweeteners. I like natural sweeteners, like monk fruit or stevia. And then third would be organic.

And the way I put it is this. If it's important to you to eat organic, then I would say fine, an organic powder. If it's not that big of a deal, or if you consume most of your stuff organic, should you, because you guys ever read that list of like what they call the dirty dozen of fruit. Like the ones that should- consume most of your stuff organic. Should you, you guys ever read that list of like, what they call the dirty dozen of fruit?

Like the ones that should- Like strawberries being at the top. Yeah, yeah. Give you an example like avocados. Should you get an organic avocado? Probably not because the skin is so thick that when you eat the meat of it, you're fine. Strawberries, strawberries, you're gonna get a higher

pesticide load because you eat the whole strawberry. You don't peel it or whatever. Well, along the lines of talking about way, I want to share a little bit because way is something that is consistently in my cupboard and why it is. So a way isolate. So what I want is I want the least amount of calories

and for the most amount of protein with the least amount of anything else in there so I can control and mix myself. So a good way isolate that I have in my house, and I like it to be pretty plain. So I typically lean towards like a vanilla flavor, that's kind of basic kind of vanilla goes with almost anything.

That way I can control the rest of the calories how I want. If it's a higher carb day, or if it's a higher calorie. There's some fruit in there. Right, banana, peanut butter, fruit, like I use all the other things that add to the smoothie to control where I'm at in my diet. If I'm on the bulk, I'm doing things like Nutella,

peanut butter, banana inside there, making this amazing bulk type of shake. If I'm trying to lean out, I'm doing way and maybe three strawberries in there. And I've got a little bit of flavor, but then my calories are like 200 calories for that. so I can make my own shake with the same way I salute protein. I can make it a lean-out, you know, type of protein shake with 200 calories or I can make it a bulk 900 calorie and I control all that with the same drug of protein. That's why that's always in my company. Now, way protein, let's start

with that. I would list that as the number one protein powder source just in terms of popularity, but also in terms of studies. As a single source of protein, way protein is amazing. It's very high in branch human acids. It's a dairy source of protein, by the way, so it does come from milk. So one of the drawbacks is if you have an intolerance to dairy, and dairy is probably, if it's not number one, it's two or three in terms of food people have issues with. Dairy, just some people just can't digest. I'm one of those people, regardless of whether or not it has lactose or not, dairy proteins don't do well for me. But if you can tolerate dairy, way is amazing. It's again, it's high in brand shimino acids.

Studies show that it's got health benefits. So they'll compare, they'll compare way to other protein sources for the elderly, for burn victims, for cognitive function. It's just a very, very amazing, easily assimilated if you don't have it intolerance to it type of protein. It tastes really good. That's the other one.

Way you can make it taste good. So good. You know, and it's because it's dairy, right? So it's like if you're going to taste a good protein, it's probably going to be pretty and the most like a real milkshake. It's the closest thing you're going to get. Now, one of the other drawbacks besides the fact that it's a common intolerance is that for some people, this is a drawback for the people nobody cares, but the fact that it's a common intolerance is that for some people,

this is a drawback for the people nobody cares, but for some people it's animal-based. So if you're a vegan and you're like, I would need to add protein into my diet, I'm gonna take a shake. Way protein is off the table, obviously. It's coming from milk so you can't do it. But ways been around for a little while now,

it started getting popular in the 90s, and I would say hands down, it's the most popular protein powder utilized by athletes, bodybuilders, or pretty much anyone. I think it's the top selling protein powder category if I'm not mistaken. One of the best brands of way protein,

because I know I'm gonna get this question. You know, where should I buy my way protein? We like Legion. We work with Legion, and they make a really good way protein isolate that has. I think per serving like one or two grams of carbohydrates, and it's flavored naturally, so it doesn't have any artificial flavors. Tastes really good, chocolate, vanilla.

I think they have a strawberry flavor. But yeah, definitely way is up there. I know you're a big fan, Adam, I know you two, you are too, Justin. And that was usually the one that I would recommend. So I keep both a plant-based protein and I keep a way in my house. And what I've noticed about myself personally

is I don't have as much of an intolerance as you do, Sal, where you can't have anything that's dairy. I notice if I have several servings of dairy in a day is when I start to get bothered a little bit. See if I'm very mild in tolerance. Right, so I know if I'm getting cheese earlier, I did a glass of milk, which I normally would never do, but if I had something like that or I had ice cream or something else that's dairy related into my diet, I know that adding also a way shake that day, not an ideal day to do that.

So then that's when I'll kind of bounce back and forth. So I utilize both a plant protein and a way kind of based off of what I've been eating regularly in my diet and so that's kind of how I manage that. So I pulled up some studies on way before we got started with the episode because I found some really interesting studies because we already made the case, high branching high-branching acids, fastest simulation, taste good, so it's a great source of protein for building muscle and that stuff.

But there's some other interesting studies, and way is actually a very well-studied protein. There's been a lot of studies done on way. They found that way protein, when they compared it to other types of protein, it seems to reduce appetite a little bit better, believe it or not. Seems to have a more of a satiety effect than other types of protein, which is, you know, if you're dieting, if you're cutting your calories, this may be something that's important. Well, it's funny that you say that because when you think about those and its whole food sense, if you were to compare plants versus dairy products, the whole food version of that is more satiating too

when you share that, right? Sure, sure, sure. There's also studies that show that way protein may actually reduce inflammation and improve certain health markers and overweight and obese people, so actually to study where they compared way to other forms of protein, and they found that there was a reduction in inflammation and in improvement or health.

Now, here's a thing, there's other studies that show that dairy does this in general. That dairy consumption, well-sourced dairy, reduces inflammation and is quite healthy. Now, here's the caveat. This is absolutely not true for people with intolerances. So if you have any issues, digesting dairy, you're not gonna gain those benefits

that I just talked about. So pay attention to if you get gassy or indigestion or if your gas smells really bad, that's another sign or if you get constipation or diarrhea. Dairy, when I would work with clients, if they had a food intolerance issue, we couldn't identify what the food was. The very first thing I would always cut out is dairy, and then the second thing would

be something like gluten and soy, and then we'd go down the list. But aside from that, if you could digest it, you don't have any intolerances, whey is a phenomenal, phenomenal source of protein for protein powder. Now, would you say that probably one of the second best protein powders would be egg? Egg is, so here's the thing, there's different ways to measure protein quality. There's like, there's like bioavailability,

there's certain amino acid scores, but one that I really like is called a digestibility corrected amino acid score. I love this one because what this is, this is a method that evaluates the quality of protein, but it's based on the amino acid requirements of humans and their ability to digest it. So what they did with the scores, they said, okay, way protein, high end branching amino acids, got all this wonderful peptides in it and stuff like that. But let's use that and put it together in the context of the amino acids that humans need

and how well they utilize those. So this is a great way to measure protein in the context of just being a human. And egg crushes, egg is number one. It's been called... The complete food forever, right? It's the perfect protein. It's what's been called for a long time. I love egg.

Now, it's a whole food source. It's the best source of protein that you'll find so long as you can tolerate it, so long as you don't have, like I said, food intolerances. And remember, the studies show that whole egg is the best source of egg protein, not just egg white. I would also imagine, and I don't know this at the top of my head, but I would speculate

that egg protein probably is higher in cholesterol, too. Well, diet, if you eat egg, yes, if you get egg protein powder, which they are out there, and before way exploded, that was like the one that bodybuilders would take. No, there's no cholesterol because they take it out. You will be hard pressed to find a whole egg protein powder. Oh, interesting. Yeah. All egg white based. Egg white.

Is there a reason for that? Yeah, most people who want a protein powder want protein. They don't want fat. They don't want any, so it's like, it would be like a milk based protein powder, but with all the fat. That's a bummer. So then you lose the cholesterol benefit. You lose the benefit. Yeah, because cholesterol's got muscle building benefits. You also lose some of that. Like I said, the protein digestibility corrected amino acid score goes down for just

egg versus, you know, whole eggs, I believe. So you lose some of those benefits. But egg white protein still phenomenal, phenomenal source of protein. Now, here's there's some drawbacks to it. Okay. It's very sulfurous. Yes. Have you guys ever taken an egg protein powder? Yeah. It went in and then out very quickly. Yes. And yeah, everybody paid for it. So do you think that's because of intolerance? Or do you think there's other factors playing around? So, sulfur is something that certain foods contain. Eggs have a very, very high... Eggs, broccoli, like... Yeah, so if you eat a lot of broccoli,

you may notice your fart smell a little more. Yeah, eggs, you know, that may happen as well. Plus, egg protein powders don't mix well. And, you know, whereas, ways got more of a neutral taste, you can flavor it with chocolate or vanilla or whatever. Egg protein powders. Egg tastes achy.

A little bit. It tastes a little like. There, man, there's trace elements of it. Yeah, like if you taste, I used to drink because when I first became dairy intolerant, I went to egg because I'm like, egg is the best, right? And the taste was just, wasn't that good. And then I would get like the gas and the smelly, fart type of thing.

Well, and you talk about two staple foods in the bodybuilder diet is broccoli and flucking eggs. And so, and you know, you know, if you're a bodybuilder or a competitor, you may want to evaluate this a little bit. Shit. And you're piecing. Yeah, you're not supposed to fart 15 times a day. That's not normal.

So if you are farting that much and they stink like crazy, it could very much so be exact. Which is a joke. You have an egg protein or you're eating lots of eggs and in addition to that, you're also doing broccoli, which is just too much salt for a diet. I know, I'm gonna correct that a little bit. You're insulting everything.

Yeah. Most people fart a lot of times a day. It's the memorable one. You should not have 15 memorable parts. You know what I'm saying? Most of us fart, we don't think twice about it, but if you got a lot of them, that you're's the memorable one. You should not have 15 memorable parts. You know what I'm saying? Most of us fart, we don't think twice about it, but if you got a lot of them, that you're like, wow, that was, yeah.

There might be something going on there, you might be having to, paint actually peels off the walls. Yeah, that's it. But yeah, again, egg protein powders are really, really good. I don't necessarily have a recommendation because I haven't, have you guys used the egg protein powder?

Yeah, I was like a J Rob, you remember that guy? That's the one that I think I used a long time ago. Yeah, I use that because it was highly recommended to me and I try to stick with it But yeah, I just didn't settle right. I've done the liquid stuff Oh, you know like muscle egg or like I've tried those before I used to add you just egg I you know you can just get straight egg white liquid, which is high in protein, too So we I used to make protein shakes. That's just a great thing. And then I used to take those little cartons. Yes, and then I take pure egg whites, and then I put it, and actually it frosts up the shake.

It does, and it's a cool way to bump your protein. And it's minimally processed. It's not a powder. It's pasteurized, so it doesn't have salmonella. And you're right, you could use it as the base. So let's say you have a way protein that's got 30 grams of protein, and then you add a egg white base,

now you've got like a 50-cent. Well, this is a living sense, I just add just eggs. Right, same difference, right? Yeah, I would do that sometimes too, if I didn't have the egg whites, I'd just throw the whole egg, especially when I'm on the... Especially when I'm on the...

What I'm on the bulk, again, this is why I carry, oh, just a pure way protein, is because this is the type of stuff that I like to manipulate myself. You know, people always ask, oh, what's the best Gainer shake? Well, the best Gainer shake is way protein is because this is the type of stuff that I like to manipulate myself. You know, people always ask, oh, what's the best Gainer Shake? Well, the best Gainer Shake is way protein and make it yourself. Yeah. Throw some milk in there at the egg.

And a combo. Yeah. Before you know it, it's a 900 calorie, 1000 calorie shake dead taste phenomenal peanut butter and a teleponanna with some extra egg whites on top of your protein. That's a little bit of coffee greens. Yeah. That's the old school bulking, you bulking shakes that I used to make. I sell them though.

You can crack eggs and make a shake or drink them. Now, here's the, I have to say this, this disclaimer. It's not advised by the FDA because of the risk of salmonella. Now, here's the deal. Rocky did it. That's the deal. The salmonella risk of doing that's actually low, but I still won't recommend it because I don't want to get sued

and because I don't want the FDA breathing down my pump snack. Now here's my personal. This is me, Sal. This is what I do. I use the eggs out of the shell. I crack them in a shake. And I drink them. Because I want the yolk. I don't want just egg white. It's got the cholesterol and you're right. You could throw it in a shake and add some protein powder and boom, you've got some great nutrients.

Whole eggs also have coloninum, which is like a phenomenal brain nutrient that some scientists should actually be considering essential nutrient, super, super vital for pregnant women or women who want to get pregnant. Definitely make sure you have adequate cooling intake. And if you eat eggs, that's a great source of one of the best sources of cooling. The third best source of protein, and I think we should go the vegan route because I want

to provide some good vegan alternatives to people who don't want to eat any animal sources. We can't have a way. And not just vegan, I think there's a lot of people that are in your boat that are to be intolerant. Yeah, 100 percent. For sure, when you talk about the things that I had clients that were intolerant, it, you know, dairy was one of the top. And to my earlier point that I made that many times when I would bump somebody's protein

intake and they would get gassy, their stool would be loose, they would have digestive issues, and they thought it was the protein. No, it was because we were using whey or we were using milk or using dairy products. And as soon as I switched that over to a plant-based protein or switched the source of protein, they were eating in whole foods, we saw a huge difference. So I think there's a lot of value for plant-based protein powders for not just vegans, but also for people that may have issues when they have weight-pots.

Why do you want to stay away from things you're intolerant to? Because intolerance has caused an immune system reaction, a small one, but there's still the systemic inflammation that happens. Can that slow down your progress? Well, absolutely. First off, if you have bad digestion, we all know what that feels like. But also that chronic low level of inflammation

could throw off the muscle building signal. It could change your appetite. I've seen studies that show that people who have an immune reaction will crave certain foods over others, which could throw you off your diet. You want to eat things that your body tolerates very, very well. I can't do way because I can't do dairy. I can't even do egg protein because I have it slight

in tolerance to egg whites. Egg yolks, I'm not a problem. Egg whites have a slight, so if I do a whole powder, it tends to mess me up. Plant-based proteins, I can digest very, very easily, and most people will have a easy time digesting a plant-based protein powder. Now, here's the problem.

It's on a gram-program basis, single sources of plant proteins are just not as good as egg or way. When we're comparing single sources. So they do have out there, please. Well, most are, most of them are. Pea or ham or a whey. Yeah, most are, most of them are. P or hemp or a waste. Yeah, they go, but the most superior or the best plant-based proteins are the ones that actually take a blend.

Yes, because what they'll do is they'll combine complementary plant-based proteins, organified deserts. Organified is my plant protein, powder protein choice. That's the one I choose above all others, and I've used a lot of them. And one of the reasons why I like them, there's a lot of reasons, but one of them is they use a really, really complimentary

combination of plant based proteins. The base being pea protein, because it's very high in those amino acids that we talked about that important, the branching amino acids. But it's got other sources of protein in there giving you that combination. That's what you want.

If you're a vegan and you wanna bump your protein and take up, or if you have an intolerance to, you know, egg and whey and other protein powders, and you, so you wanna go to the vegan route, go with something that's a combination, it's gonna be better than if you go with just a single source. Well, one of the other reasons why it organifies my favorite plant-based is because it tastes good.

And one of the drawbacks. I don't know how they do it either because plant-based getting there at like the warrior. I think sun or something like that. It's like getting dirt. One of the number one drawbacks of plant-based protein is it just, it does not taste good. Especially if you're comparing it to way. Oh yeah, it tastes like you mowed the lawn and then put that in. I'm not even exaggerating. Or you sprinkled soil in your protein.

I've gone through so many different plant proteins because again, because I have those intolerances and digestive issues. And I go through them and I'm sliding. And I can ground up ants concoction. I like it, I gave you guys the other day. Oh, no joke, you're right. It's pretty similar.

It actually tastes like a plant. Very earthy. It does, you're right. So taste is a big drawback with plant-based proteins, but there are a few that aren't bad. So combinations, you wanna look at combinations, you want office course taste matters for a lot of people. So that's really important.

Here's something else you want to pay attention to. We talked about protein quality. If you're going with a plant, especially a plant-based protein, whatever company you decide to go with, ask them for third-party testing for heavy metals. It was a couple of years ago, there was a study that came out that found some of the top plant-based proteins, organized by was not on the list. This is most common in vegan protein. This is more common in those because of the pesticides and herbicides that they use, especially here's the thing, organic.

The organic plant-based proteins were higher in heavy metals because the organic pesticides that they used were high in heavy metals. So then they were analyzing these protein powders and i'm talking about some of the top brands and if you want to know which ones they are just google this google plant based proteins and high in heavy metals and you'll find the report some of them were absurdly high you don't want to shock you don't want to consume heavy metals it can cause neurological disorders it can cause organ problems your body has a very tough time getting rid of them. Oh, especially when a lot of people consider that almost like a health food.

They're going into it thinking that they're doing their body, you know, getting all these nutrients from it and they're consuming those heavy metals. Well, especially when we know a lot of people that again, just put shakes into their diet because they think it's healthy. They're doing one, two, sometimes three shakes like this a day.

That's where this will start to lead to problems. Yeah, now again, organify was clean when that happened. I remember we got on the phone and they provided us with all the stuff that we need to see to show that they weren't high and heavy metals, but that's something you want to look at because the plant-based proteins were the ones that had a lot of problems along those lines. So that's basically it, I would say, right? Those are all the things you wanna pay attention to with your proteins.

Here's the thing though, at the end of the day, if you're consuming a high protein diet, the sources of protein don't matter as much. Okay, so I know we've said animal sources or superior, way is great, egg is great. That matters more when your protein intake is, you know, half a gram per pound of body weight or lower. When you're getting up to one gram per pound of body weight,

the studies show it's probably not gonna make a difference for you. And to that point, I want to touch on BCAAs because we didn't really touch it. Oh right. I know this conversation will also lead to more questions around this and I want to make this clear even though we've said it before, that in the context of hitting your protein in target, like you're saying right now, this is where BCA's are complete waste of money.

Oh yeah, if your protein intakes high, if you're in that 0.6 to 0.8 or 1 gram per pound of body weight, you are wasting your time and money by supplementing with any amino acid. You have more than enough of the amino acids from your protein, because that's what they're made up of. If your protein intake is low,

let's say you're a vegan, you don't want to supplement with protein powders, your protein intake is 50 grams a day, you're hitting your essential protein intake, but it's just still low. You'll benefit from branching amino acids. Well, and again, the suggestion that we give to that person, if you have a choice to take a scoop of branching amino acids

or just take a scoop of way protein or a protein powder, you're far better off just taking the protein. 100%. 100%. One more thing I want to touch on, soy protein, controversy around soy protein. So here's a thing. Certain foods have what can be loosely labeled as estrogenic effects

on the body. Soy is one of the most estrogenic foods on the planet. Now does this mean it's unhealthy? No. But if you're somebody who has estrogenic side effects, if you're a man and you're noticing estrogenic side effects or low testosterone, if you're a man and you're noticing estrogenic side effects or low testosterone, if you're a woman and you're working with a functional medicine practitioner and they've said, hey, you have estrogen dominance. If you want to learn more about that, we did a great episode with Dr. Becky Campbell recently that talks about that. Then you may want to stay away from

too much soy because it may cause more because it has phytoestrogens and it has has estrogenic-like plant compounds in there that may cause more of an issue. This is why a lot of bodybuilders and athletes tend to want to stay away from too much soy. Soy proteins, that's why I don't like them. If you're gonna consume soy, go with the fermented, natural sources of soy, like the ones that they eat in Japan, don't go with this processed GMO crap that we have here, because then you'll probably run into more of those, you know, estrogenic, like properties. And with that, go to minepumpfree.com and download all of our guides, resources, and books. They're all totally free. You can also find the three of us on Instagram. You can find Justin at Mind Pump Justin.

You can find me at Mind Pump Sal and Adam at Mind Pump Adam. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at Mind Pump Media dot com. The RGB Superbundle includes maps and a ballad, maps performance and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased, expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs.

With detailed workout blueprints in over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having Sal and I'm in Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money back guarantee and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at MindPumpMedia.com. If you enjoy this show,

please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is Mind Pump.