The Dr. Hyman Show - How To Get More Protein In Your Diet

Starting point is 00:00:00 Coming up on this episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy. Quality matters. Not all protein is the same, just as not all fat is the same or carbs are the same. Hey everybody, it's Dr. Mark. Getting quality sleep is incredibly important to me. Sleep is really one of the pillars of good health. So you can imagine my frustration when I used to lie down at night but couldn't fall asleep because I was just too hot. But those sleepless nights are behind me now thanks to Cozy Earth. The bed sheets are made from temperature regulating fabric that keeps you comfortable all night long. but couldn't fall asleep because I was just too hot. But those sleepless nights are behind me now thanks to Cozy Earth. The bed sheets are made from temperature-regulating fabric that keeps you comfortable all night long.

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Starting point is 00:01:47 forward slash Hyman. That's drinkag1.com forward slash Hyman and check it out. And now let's get back to this week's episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy. Welcome to The Doctor's Pharmacy. I'm Dr. Mark Hyman as Pharmacy with an F, a place for conversations that matter. And if you're confused about protein, you're going to love this podcast. Should you be a vegan? Should you eat meat? Should you be a carnivore? Should you be an omnivore? What is the amount of protein we need? What kind of protein is good for us? When should we eat it? We're going to answer all these questions today in our new series called Health Bites, which are little bits of information, little bites of information, small steps that you can use every day to make

Starting point is 00:02:30 big changes over time in your health. So let's get into it. Protein is a critical nutrient. A protein is interesting because it's the only macronutrient, like protein, fat, and carbs, that we need in large amounts. There is no biological requirement for carbohydrates, despite what you may think. It doesn't matter if you eat a single carb. Your body doesn't need it. It's not an essential nutrient. Now, there are a lot of benefits from eating different carbs, for example, like vegetables or carbs, but your body doesn't need it. Second is fat. Now, fat, there are essential fatty acids, but they only need them in gram amounts, very small, like a couple of fish oil pills, basically, amount.

Starting point is 00:03:11 It's not a huge amount. Protein, on the other hand, we need in very large amounts in multi-gram amounts. We need probably 30 to 40 grams a meal, maybe 90 to 120, 180 grams a day, depending on your size. This is a very interesting thing. So the question is, what does protein do? Well, why do we need so much of it? Well, it's an essential nutrient because it's the stuff we're made of, right? We make proteins. That's all your DNA does. The DNA is very simple. It basically transcribes the sequence of amino acids that are needed to build a particular protein. That's all your DNA does. So it assembles

Starting point is 00:03:52 amino acids to proteins. Proteins are the structural material for your body, muscle, bone, pretty much everything. Your immune system is made from protein. For example, the antibodies, your peptides are made, which are these thousands of cellular communication molecules. It's critical that we eat adequate amounts of protein. It's also the most essential thing we need to build and maintain muscle and prevent muscle loss. And as you know, I've been very focused on longevity. Of course, I'm going to be 64 this year, so I get more and more interested in it as the time goes by. And you need adequate types of the right protein to make sure you don't get what we call sarcopenia, which is muscle loss. And that is one of the biggest drivers of age-related disease. And we're going to talk more about that. So you need to optimize your nutrition. You need

Starting point is 00:04:40 to make sure you're eating the right amount for you. And you need to make sure that we understand protein and get out of the weeds of the ideological view and talk about the science. Today, we're going to talk about science. We're going to talk about how to up your protein intake. We're going to talk about why the guidelines for protein intake are wrong and confusing for people and even give you a delicious smoothie, protein-rich smoothie that you can use, that I often use to start my day. All right. a delicious smoothie, protein-rich smoothie that you can use, that I often use to start my day. All right. So we've known for years and decades that protein is a critical part of our diet because they're basically the building blocks for our body. It makes everything from muscles,

Starting point is 00:05:13 organs, our skin, neurotransmitters, cytokines, peptides, all the things that our body is doing to actually run everything. It's really one of the most essential things because we can't get all the amino acids from eating other foods. We have to eat the protein in the right amounts, and we have to have the right amount of amino acids. Our body doesn't make them. Some are derivatives, so there's some core essential amino acids, and we have to make sure we get them from our diet in the right amounts and the right time. And when we look at the research on longevity, there's a lot of controversy. Some people say, oh, don't eat protein because it's going to actually activate mTOR, or what is known as one of the key regulators of longevity.

Starting point is 00:06:02 If you activate mTOR, it increases protein synthesis, it increases muscle mass, it can actually accelerate even cancer growth. So it's not good in certain ways. But if you inhibit mTOR, you actually cause autophagy and self-cleaning and the longevity process. So what should you do? Well, I wrote a lot about this in my book. It's like anything else. You want periods of fasting and not eating, like overnight at least, 12, 14, 16 hours. And then you want to make sure you have enough protein during the day so you actually can do the functions of protein in your body, for example, muscle building and so forth. So it's not like it's all bad or all good. It's really about how and when and what. So we're going to get into the how and when and what. And if you look at the biggest risk factor for age-related decline, it's loss of

Starting point is 00:06:54 muscle. Because when you lose muscle, you increase inflammation, you increase insulin resistance, your sex hormones go down, your cortisol goes down, your growth hormone goes down. I mean, cortisol goes up. I mean, so you basically end up in this hormonal chaos of levels of inflammation, prediabetes. It's really bad. Now, let's talk about how it affects our appetite, our metabolism, and so forth, and why it's important. So we're going to talk about a little bit more about why protein matters. But in terms of hunger, when you eat protein, it actually inhibits ghrelin and increases the production of a hormone called peptide YY or PYY, which is a gut hormone or peptide that makes you feel full and satisfied, right?

Starting point is 00:07:41 So higher amounts of a protein can decrease the ghrelin, which is the hunger hormone. It also increases your metabolic rate. There's something called the thermogenic effect of protein. You basically, you know, it takes more energy to break down protein. So you burn more calories metabolizing protein. So in a way, even though you, let's say a hundred calories of sugar, maybe it takes like three calories to actually metabolize it. Whereas protein, it might take 20 calories to metabolize. So your net calories is lower when you're having protein. So it's been linked to weight loss also.

Starting point is 00:08:18 Having protein in each meal provides a way to regulate your appetite, helps with weight management, helps with maintaining muscle mass. Because often people lose both muscle and fat when they lose weight. And then you end up having a slower metabolism, which people say, oh, geez, I don't know why I lost weight. And I have to eat less because if I eat a little more, I gain weight. Or people who are overweight say, I don't really eat that much. And sometimes that's true because they've lost so much muscle, their metabolism is so slow that they can't burn the calories. So the protein is critical and your muscle burns a lot of calories. It actually burns about seven times as much calories as fat. So the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, the easier it is to maintain your weight. I've had analysis, for example, in 2020 found that a high protein diet can increase weight loss and help the weight stay off and prevent obesity and various related

Starting point is 00:09:10 diseases. So that's really important. Also, the requirements that the government has, the recommended dietary allowance or RDAA or RDI, reference dietary intakes. They change the terminology all the time. But essentially, we were told that we need about 0.8 grams per kilo of protein. Now, how do they come up with that number? Well, that number is based on how much protein do you need to not get a deficiency disease? In other words, how much protein do you need to not get Kwashiorkor or Merasmus, which are these protein deficiency diseases? And that's not that much, right? So it's not the amount we need for optimal health. And people go, oh, I don't eat more than 0.8 grams per kilo. Well, no, that's the floor for most people. So what do we actually need? Depends on your activity level, how much strength training you do, your life goals,

Starting point is 00:10:06 and your age. But as we age, we don't actually build muscle as easily. We have something called anabolic resistance. So we actually need more protein as we get older. I tell a story in my book about Emma Moran on my book, Young Forever. She was 117 years old when she died. When she was in her 90s, she was starting to get frail and her doctor told her to eat, I think, 150 grams of meat a day, which sounds like a lot, but it actually is not as much as you think. And she was fine and she got strong again and she ended up living to 117 years old. So I think we have to kind of look at that and go, wait, go, maybe, maybe they're onto something. So the, uh, the amount we need is probably more like up to a gram per pound or 1.6 or

Starting point is 00:10:55 even up to, uh, two grams per kilo, uh, in a day. And that may seem like a lot, but there's a way to do it. And it's not as much as we think, for example, you know, a example, a small chicken breast, like four ounces, which is not that much. It's probably like half of what people normally eat is actually 40 grams of protein, almost 40 grams of protein. So that's important to understand. You don't have to have huge amounts of steaks or meat or anything like that. It's really relatively small amounts that gives

Starting point is 00:11:25 you a big bang for your buck. Now, here's another really important point. Quality matters. Not all protein is the same, just as not all fat is the same or carbs are the same. Broccoli is a carb, but so is Coca-Cola, right? Trans fat or Crisco is fat, and so is omega-3 fats, or olive oil. They have profoundly different effects on the body. Same thing with protein. Not all protein is equal. Now, part of the problem is right now, I think people think that eating meat is bad for your health and bad for the planet. I've written a lot about this. I've talked a lot about it. I think it's a complicated subject, but from a health perspective, the data just isn't there to show that meat is bad for your health. It really is not. When you look at these population studies, they're confounded. There's

Starting point is 00:12:12 problems with them. And there's been a lot of reviews of this. I go into it in depth in a number of my books, including Food, What the Heck Should I Eat? and The Pegan Diet. If you want to read more about it, we'll link to those. But I think it's a whole nother podcast to get into that conversation. But the reality is that when you, for example, look at meat eaters and vegetarians who shop in health food stores, they did a study of 11,000 people. They found that their risk for death was reduced in half for both groups. It's not the meat, it's what you're eating it with. If you're having, you know, hamburger fries and a Coke, it's different than having, you know, a grass-fed piece of meat with tons of veggies. For example, when I have a grass-fed steak or a regenerative steak, I'll have like three or four different vegetable dishes. So I have a lot of phytochemicals. I don't

Starting point is 00:12:59 need a ton of sugar and starch with it. And it's a very different kind of approach. Now, industrial meat is not good. So we should not be eating feedlot meat. We should not be eating industrial agricultural products. And when you have industrial meat, it's got hormones, antibiotics, they feed it grain and soy and so forth. They're not used to their diet and they get different types of fats and more inflammatory process. But grass-fed meat is far superior. And so is regenerative meat. Regenerative is way better. And there's a company called Force of Nature, which you can go on forceofnature.com. I don't have any financial ties to them, but they're a great resource for finding regeneratively raised meat from around the world that actually is delicious, whether it's venison, bison, beef.

Starting point is 00:13:44 And it's amazing because they're raised in their natural environments. They have higher levels of omega-3 fats. They have higher levels of minerals, higher levels of antioxidants. And it's powerful. So also, if you're eating fish and you want to eat fish, I know wild-caught fish can be great. But there's also regenerative fish that can be regeneratively farmed, which, again, is unusual. But fish is delicious. Another company called Seatopia.fish. we'll put that in the show notes. Again, no relationship to them,

Starting point is 00:14:10 but I just love their products. And here's the other part about protein. If you're a vegan, it's problematic because not all protein has the same types of amino acids. And one of the things in building protein in your body that's so important in activating muscle synthesis and protein synthesis for muscle is an amino acid called leucine. And leucine is very low in plant proteins. Now, you can get enough, but you have to eat a lot. In other words, to eat, to get enough of the same you get, for example, in four ounces of chicken,

Starting point is 00:14:53 you'd need like two cups of beans or six cups of rice or four cups of quinoa. It's a lot. So you can't really eat that much. It's very tough to get the right amounts of leucine unless you supplement. Now, if you want to be a vegan and you're committed to that, you have to optimize your health by adding certain amino acids. And you can do that. You can make smoothies. You can put in branched-chain amino acids. You can make sure you have the leucine you need.

Starting point is 00:15:15 It's doable, but it's a lot harder. And you see often as people stay on a vegan diet, they tend to have muscle loss. And that's a big concern, particularly as we age. So make sure you're getting, you know, plenty of the right kinds of protein, you're supplementing with amino acids and consider, you know, maybe even becoming a vegetarian and having grass fed goat whey, for example, which is a really great source of protein, which I use. So let's talk about how we can get more protein diet. What are a few ways to get more protein? Well, it's not hard if you actually know what you're doing and plan, you think about it. First is, and this is a really important thing.

Starting point is 00:15:54 You want to get at least 30 to 40 grams of protein per meal. And usually, you know, you can think about for your size, the palm size of a piece of protein is probably what you need. So I'm 6'3", 180 pounds. It's different than if I'm 5'2", and, you know, 110 pounds, right? So we need different amounts depending on our size. But basically, whatever your size of your palm is really a good amount. And you can focus on, you know, things like four ounces of chicken, four ounces of meat, you know, probably more like six ounces of fish because it's the lower. And you can use whey protein.

Starting point is 00:16:30 I like goat whey really. It's a powerful whey protein that doesn't have as much allergenic properties where you can get regeneratively raised grass-fed goat whey, ate two cows, a little harder to find. So basically, you want to make sure you get adequate protein. Now, it can be any of those things I just mentioned. For example, for lunch, I grab a can or two of sardines. It's really easy. It doesn't have to be that hard. The other thing is when you eat what?

Starting point is 00:16:54 For example, if you eat sugar and starch at the beginning of your meal, for example, you go to a restaurant, they give you bread, basket, and wine, the worst thing you could possibly do. You want to eat protein and fat before you eat starch and any carbohydrates because it blunts the effect of the absorption and insulin secretion, which leads to sort of less weight gain and more feeling full and so forth. So you want to make sure you start with protein in your meal. And then the last thing is, you know, we have the worst breakfast in America and the most important time to eat protein is on a fasted state. So it's not just the fasting that

Starting point is 00:17:33 works to help your body, right? When you, when you've had this overnight fast of, you know, 12, 14, 16 hours, you, you activate something called autophagy, which is a process of self-cleaning and repair. But what matters also is what you eat after, right? If you have the typical American breakfast, which is basically sugar for breakfast, cereal, muffins, bagels, pancakes, and then I can go on and on. You know, Pop-Tarts even. I used to eat Pop-Tarts for breakfast as a kid. It's amazing I'm still as healthy as I am. You want to not eat sugar for breakfast. You want protein for breakfast. And you want a good load of protein. And when you refeed is when you activate muscle synthesis, activate stem cell production, produce all sorts of important benefits that are downstream from eating protein in the morning.

Starting point is 00:18:28 So make sure you have at least 30, 40, even 50 grams, depending on your size of protein in the morning. My typical way of doing it is to have a goat whey protein shake. I'll also use my super simple protein as an added benefit as well, because it's got some collagen in it. So I kind of sometimes mix proteins. But the key is to get protein in the morning and make sure you do not have sugar for breakfast. Now, you can have chicken for breakfast.

Starting point is 00:18:55 You can have eggs. Eggs, you need a little more eggs. It's only about, I think, five grams per egg. So to get 30 grams, you need six eggs, which is a lot of eggs. But, you know, you can have that, scrambled eggs or an omelet and so forth. So I'm going to give you a little recipe I use, which is kind of a breakfast recipe. And I have many of them. I have a healthy aging shake in my book, Young Forever, but this is a chocolate raspberry smoothie bowl. So here's what you do. You blend your smoothie bowl with spinach, frozen cauliflower rice and flax seeds. It gets it kind

Starting point is 00:19:23 of thick. It's like you can eat it with a spoon, flax seeds, kind of thicken it up. Then I top it with cacao nibs, hemp seeds, almonds, raspberries, but you can use any berries or fruits. And it's a combination of great protein, healthy fats, fiber, and phytochemicals. And it'll leave you feeling alert, focused, and energetic. And here's what I use. A smoothie base is basically a scoop of pharmacy super simple grass-fed chocolate protein. I use three-quarters of a cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk, but you can use macadamia milk. One cup of baby spinach, loosely packed. Two-thirds of a cup of cauliflower rice. Now, I know that sounds weird, but actually it comes out good because it makes it kind of creamy. One tablespoon of flax seeds.

Starting point is 00:20:06 And flax seeds have so many benefits. They're a source of ALA, which is omega-3 fats. They have lignans, which help prevent cancer. They balance female hormones. They help with prostate health. They're great for constipation. If you can't go to the bathroom, I guarantee you this will be a winner for you. And put in cinnamon, a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon. Cinnamon has wonderful properties, for example, of modulating blood sugar.

Starting point is 00:20:24 Plus, it just tastes good. The toppings I use are a little teaspoon and a half of cacao nibs, a teaspoon of hemp seeds, a tablespoon of sliced almonds, a bunch of raspberries. And so basically, you put all the smoothie-based ingredients in a blender. You puree it until it's nice and smooth. And then you put the smoothie kind of bowl thing in a bowl. That's what I call a smoothie bowl. And then you top it with the toppings. Pretty easy. It doesn't take that long to make. You have all the ingredients in your house. But the key here is make sure that you get adequate protein,

Starting point is 00:20:53 the right kinds of protein at the right time, and your life will change dramatically. For me, we may be putting this show on us, but I had a picture of me when I was 40, and I was eating kind of mostly on the vegetarian side, not quite vegan, but mostly. And I wasn't eating that much protein and I exercised a lot. I was, you know, doing yoga, running, you know, a lot of stuff. And I was kind of scrawny and very low muscle mass. And, you know, and I started to change my diet as I learned more and more about the science and started to exercise differently. And, you know, I I started to change my diet as I learned more and more about the science and started to exercise differently. And, you know, I have such more, much more muscle mass and more definition at 64 than I did at 40.

Starting point is 00:21:33 So it's quite amazing to see when you do the things right, your body can dramatically change and you can get much healthier. All right. So however you choose to go about it, I really encourage you to find more ways to add protein to your diet. There's lots of benefits, especially as you get older. It helps you maintain muscle mass. It helps you with weight loss. It has essential nutrients in your body. It needs to do everything it's supposed to do.

Starting point is 00:21:56 So maybe you start off your day with a good protein smoothie, a delicious way to start the day, and it's getting rid of sugar for breakfast. So that's it for today's Health Byte. If you want to share this with your friends and family, go ahead. We'd love to have you do that. Really appreciate it. And also, subscriber, every year podcast, leave a comment.

Starting point is 00:22:16 How have you noticed your diet change if you add protein? What have you learned about your own body's response? We'd love to hear from you. And we'll see you next week on The Doctor's Pharmacy. Hey, everybody. It's Dr. Hyman. Thanks for tuning into The Doctor's Pharmacy. I hope you're loving this podcast.

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The Dr. Hyman Show - How To Get More Protein In Your Diet

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