How Different Sources of Protein Impact Your Body

If you’re considering a new fitness regime, whether you want to lose weight or gain muscle, you might be considering protein supplements. However, it’s better for your wellbeing to choose food choices of protein as your primary source of the nutrient. That said, not all food sources of protein are created equal; you need to choose better quality protein foods so that you can maximize the fat burning and muscle-building processes. Without doing so, you are robbing your body of the many benefits protein has to offer. All of the hard exercise you do is going to waste if you aren’t consuming an optimal amount of protein. Your body has to work hard to digest protein, and the energy cost of digesting, absorbing, and metabolising this nutrient leads to great fat loss. So which food sources of protein are the best, and why? Let’s take a look at your new, smarter way of eating protein:

 

The reason why it’s better to eat animal sources of protein is because they have a high content of a branched-chain amino acid known as leucine. Leucine is actually a strong indicator of the quality of the protein you’re consuming because it helps to raise muscle anabolism. Why is this important? When your muscle anabolism is raised, your body is put in a better position to induce the growth of your muscle tissues. The more muscle tissue your body has, the higher your metabolic rate is going to be. This helps you to lose fat way after you’ve finished working out.

 

According to study by Acheson et al., different protein sources can be used to modulate your metabolism and, as a result, your energy balance. For the study, “Protein choices targeting thermogenesis and metabolism,” the researchers looked at how four isocaloric (same calorie) meals eaten at different times had an impact on 23 sedentary, lean, healthy men and women. The investigators took data before meals, and 5.5 hours after consumption. While three of the meals contained 50% protein (whey, casein, or soy), 40% carbohydrate, and 10% fat, the fourth meal consisted of 95.5% carbohydrates.

 

The results of the study revealed that the thermic effect (or energy cost) was greater after the whey than after the casein and soy meals. However, the thermic effect was still much greater after the whey, casein, and soy meals (all three proteins) than after the high carbohydrate meal, meaning that any of these proteins can have a decent thermic effect. The study results also showed that total fat oxidation tended to be greater after the whey meal than after the soy meal, and was greater after the whey and soy meals than after the high carbohydrate meal. This was because the high leucine content in the whey protein meal activated MPS in all participants and was more energy costly, leading to greater fat loss.

 

So which protein foods should you eat? The protein foods you should be aiming for are those that are packed with leucine. This means eating animal products such as beef, chicken and pork, as well as eggs, fish, whey, casein, and milk. These foods should help you get over the leucine threshold and activate MPS, depending on the amount you’re consuming. However, in order to elicit a greater thermic response, your best bet is whey as opposed to either casein or soy. That said, don’t make the mistake of thinking soy and casein are pointless; if your body can’t tolerate whey for whatever reason, the research shows that soy and casein still have a decent thermic effect.

Categories: carbohydrate meal, decent thermic, fat loss, Food Sources, high carbohydrate, muscle anabolism, Protein, protein foods, soy meals, thermic effect, whey casein

Are Fibre Supplements as Good as Getting the Real Thing?

As part of a complementary wellness regime, many people turn to supplements to help give their wellbeing a bit of a boost. The logic goes that if you don’t get enough of a certain nutrient, such as fibre, in your diet, you can easily add it in by sprinkling a bit of powdered fibre supplement into your soup, sauce, dip or yogurt. But is adding fibre through supplements really as beneficial to your wellness as getting it through food?

 

Joanne Lupton, a spokesperson for the American Society of Nutrition and professor of nutrition at Texas A&M University, notes, ‘The real issue here is that eating a high-fibre diet from foods is almost, by definition, an excellent diet. It’s hard to reach dietary fibre recommendations without eating a lot of fibre . . . so once you take it out of the food, you probably won’t have a very good diet.’ According to the American Dietetic Association, you should be eating between 21 and 38 grams of fibre every day, albeit depending in your gender and age. Still, most of us in this country are only getting half that amount.

 

There are two types of fibre or roughage: soluble fibre, which dissolves in water and helps carry food though your digestive tract, and insoluble fibre, which doesn’t dissolve in water and rapidly passes through your digestive system largely intact. The National Fibre Council recommends that you eat fruits, vegetables, beans, oats and whole grain breads and cereals for good sources of both types of fibre. But where do supplements – such as psyllium, methylcellulose, wheat dextrim and inulin — come into the equation?

 

While tasteless and odourless fibre powders have been marketed in a way to encourage you to add them to an endless list of soft foods and batters and change only the texture, the low ratio of fibre to size means that there’s no way you could get the fibre you need just by adding it in supplement form. There are only roughly three grams of fibre per tablespoon of supplement and so Lona Sandon, assistant professor of clinical nutrition at University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, asserts, ‘You would be sprinkling it on everything all day long. Just adding fibre to a food doesn’t necessarily make it a health food. I’m sure there are people out there who try to justify it.’

 

However, both Lupton and Sandon do allow that fibre supplements offer some of the same health benefits as food-based fibre. Powdered fibre can regulate your bowel movements, help to lower your cholesterol and maintain your blood-sugar at a stable level – just like the real thing. Where fibre supplementation falls short is in providing you with the vitamins and minerals that come from fibre in whole foods. Moreover, fibre supplements may also come with unpleasant side effects. Sandon comments, ‘Some of them cause more GI [gastrointestinal] rumblings than maybe people would care to have.’

 

The University of Maryland Medical Centre advises people taking certain medications — including tricyclic antidepressants, diabetes drugs, cholesterol-lowering drugs, lithium, digoxin or the seizure drug carbamazepine — to talk to a medical health professional before using fibre supplements. Lupton clarifies, ‘People can take them without problems, but just because a little is good, a lot is not necessarily better. If someone is taking daily medications, maybe they should take that at different times than the supplements.’ She adds that, if you’re struggling with your weight, you should not use fibre supplements as a way to excuse eating foods that are not high in nutrients.

Categories: adding fibre, american dietetic, dietetic association, fibre, fibre supplements, Food, Food Sources, nbsp, nutrients, powdered fibre, Supplements

How to Get Your RDA of Seven Vital Vitamins and Minerals

You may turn to supplements to get you vitamin and mineral fix, but you’re doing no favours to your wellbeing by avoiding food sources. Food provides much more of the nutrients you get in pills, as well as the fibre that pills lack, which are essential for your cognitive wellness and your immune system (which needs nutrients to ward off big and small illnesses). Jeffrey Blumberg, PhD, director of the antioxidant research lab at Tufts University, explains, ‘Vitamins should be used only as supplements to the diet, not substitutes for healthy food.’ So let’s take a look at the ones you need every day, and how you can include them in your diet.

 

1. Vitamins B6 and B12. These vitamins are vital for the functioning of your blood, nerves, and the immune system, and not getting enough could increase your risk for heart disease and stroke. You need 1.3 milligrams (mg) of B6 and 2.4 micrograms of B12 every day, which you can get from a cup of plain yoghurt and a banana, one ounce of sunflower seeds, and three ounces of roast beef.

 

2. Vitamin C. As you know, vitamin C is good for you immune system, but it also boosts you “good” HDL cholesterol. You need 75-200mg every day, which you can almost get from just one orange. Other food sources include strawberries, red and green peppers, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, spinach and kale.

 

3. Calcium. You need this mineral for bone health, which is vital as you age. Therefore, you want 1000mg every day before you turn 50, and at least 1200 thereafter. You want to spread your calcium consumption out throughout the day, as your body can’t absorb more than 500 milligrams of calcium at a time. The best daily menu is an eight-ounce glass of skimmed milk, one cup of yoghurt, one cup of cooked spinach, and one fig.

 

4. Vitamin D. As you need this vitamin to absorb calcium, a vitamin D deficiency can lead to osteoporosis, certain cancers, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, and other chronic illnesses. Before the age of 50, you should be getting 200IUs every day, and 400-600IUs after that. Your body produces this vitamin when your skin is exposed to sunlight, so you only need to get out in the sun (without sun cream) for 10-15 minutes three times a week. Otherwise, you can get 200IUs from a 3½ ounce serving of salmon, or two cups of fortified milk.

 

5. Vitamin E. As a powerful antioxidant, vitamin E is an amazing nutrient, especially with regards to your eye health and the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. You generally need about 22.5IUs a day, but anything up to 150IUs won’t hurt. You can get all you need from a cup of raw broccoli coupled with two ounces of either almonds or sunflower seeds.

 

6. Folic Acid (Folate). If you’ve ever had a baby, you’ll know how important folate is to your baby’s wellbeing. This B vitamin helps to prevent neural-tube birth defects, such as spina bifida, and deficiencies can increase your risk of certain cancers, heart disease, and stroke. You need 400 micrograms every day, which you can get from a ¾ cup serving of fortified breakfast cereal, or a combination of a cup of peas, a cup of cooked spinach, and about five spears of asparagus.

 

7. Iron. Iron-deficiency anaemia is common in women, as you lose a lot of the mineral during your periods, especially if you have heavy ones. To prevent this, you need about 18mg a day, which is best attained through a large spinach salad, a cup of lentil soup, and a small (three-ounce) serving of red meat.

Categories: calcium, cooked spinach, Food Sources, heart disease, nbsp, ounce serving, spinach, sunflower seeds, vitamin, vitamin c

The Famous Five: Vital Vitamins and Where to Find Them

You need a range of vitamins and minerals in your diet in order to maintain your well-being, but there are so many different foods that contain so many different nutrients, where do you find the best sources? We’ve rounded up the best, wellness-boosting wonders that will get your diet overflowing with the good stuff.

 

Vitamin A – This vitamin is especially important to your immune system, reproduction and vision. While beef liver, spinach, fish, milk, eggs, and carrots are good sources of vitamin A, you can’t go wrong with a sweet potato, as a medium-sized spud with give you 561% of your recommended daily value (DV).

 

B Vitamins – For vitamin B6, get your hands on chickpeas, fish, beef liver, and poultry, while animal products and oily fish are your best bet for vitamin B12. These vitamins metabolise foods, help form haemoglobin, stabilise your blood sugar, make antibodies that fight disease, improve your nerve function and ward of anaemia. If you’re pregnant, another B vitamin you’ll need is folate, which is found in dark leafy green vegetables, fruit, nuts, and dairy products.

 

Vitamin C – While you may think you’ve got this one covered with that orange juice sitting in the fridge, the Mac-Daddy of vitamin C content is the sweet red pepper. Aside from that, kiwi fruit, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cantaloupe can give you the vitamin C you need to metabolise protein and synthesis your neurotransmitters.

 

Vitamin D – Your body generates its own vitamin D when your skin is exposed to sunlight, but as you don’t get much sunshine in this country, you might want to stock up on fatty fishes – such as salmon and mackerel – or vitamin D-fortified foods such as milk, breakfast cereals, yogurt, and orange juice. This vitamin is vital for calcium absorption and bone growth, cell growth, immunity, and the reduction of inflammation.

 

Vitamin E – You need this powerful antioxidant in order to protect your cells from the harmful molecules known as free radicals. Vitamin E is important in immunity, healthy blood vessel function and clotting, so amp up your intake of wheat germ oil, sunflower seeds or almonds.

Categories: beef liver, Benefits, Food Sources, nbsp, nbsp vitamin, orange juice, vitamin, vitamins