Food Fact or Fiction: Does More Protein Equal Bigger Muscles? dōTERRA’s nutrition expert, Dr. Tory Parker, busts a common food myth: In the world of nutrition, there are an incredible number of myths that continue to be perpetuated. Here are a couple of examples that were sent to me recently: One claimed that onions clean the air of bacteria just by being in a room (they may oxidize, turning brown much like an apple, but this has nothing to do with bacteria in the air). Another suggested that eating certain foods together will cause them to turn to acid, as if this were a bad thing (your stomach turns everything you eat to a very acidic mixture). Sometimes I attempt to dispute the claims, or set the record straight. But most times, as long as the suggested practice causes no harm, I let it pass. Sometimes I wonder how such information, which to me is clearly not correct or possible, continues to get passed around. Even with the internet and all its knowledge at the fingertips of the reader, these myths remain alive and well! There are two main reasons, the second much more important than the first. First, we tend to trust the content, especially if sent or posted by a family member, friend, or co-worker. We assume they have read it, vetted it, and checked to make sure it’s true before posting. If we thought about it, we would realize that we don’t do those things ourselves before forwarding or reposting such content on social media. Yet we tend to assume others have. Then we read the content. It may seem authoritative, or tell a good story, or appear to fit within our knowledge base. On those assumptions, we send it along to others. And sometimes, the information is accurate. Second, while we all eat and have a general knowledge of food and nutrition, most people lack enough depth of information to really know if something is possible or not. The field of nutrition can be divided into two categories. The first, food science- what happens to food before you ear it; and the second, nutrition- what happens to food after you eat it. Depending on the information you are reading, you would need a great depth of understanding of one or the other, or both, to make a correct judgment. Nutrition can be further defined as requiring a deep understanding of physiology and chemistry of the human body. This level of understanding cannot be gained simply through an internet search, but requires many years of focused study. You have to understand what a food item is made of, how it interacts with its environment, and how it is processed by your body through many different organs and individual cells. Let’s return to the topic of myths. For the remainder of the article, I’ll focus on just one. Then I will apply principles of nutrition to determine whether it is true or not. A common myth is that you can eat some specific thing and it will only affect a specific part of your body. On first look, this sounds reasonable. Eat protein and your muscles grow. Eat more protein and your muscles will grow bigger. So why is this a myth? In the study of nutrition we learn about all the physiological movements and the chemical changes a food goes through before it even makes it to your blood. One aspect of this is that your body always breaks down everything you eat into the simplest form then rebuilds it in a way that the body wants it to be built, based on its needs at the time. If you were to eat a house (a very small one of course…stick with me here), your body would turn it back into bricks, boards, electrical wiring, etc., move them through the body, then begin building a house of a different shape. If the house you originally ate was larger than the one your body wanted to build, it wouldn’t store extra electrical wiring in the “garage,” but throw it in the trash, or turn it into something it can efficiently store, such as stacks of bricks (fat). Since we rarely eat any one thing in isolation, the boards from the many houses you ate would get intermixed, with no way of knowing where they originally came from. Even if we eat just one food item for an extended period of time, our body sloughing off and remaking cells (houses) and secretions (plumbing) constantly, so it would get mixed with those things regardless. Once this great mix of building components gets into the blood, there is no way to direct it to just one organ. A cell (construction site) may send out a signal (supplies request) when it needs certain supplies, but this happens everywhere. You can’t help but affect the rest of the body, no matter what you eat. In the case of a vitamin or mineral, there is nothing wrong with this. But on many occasions, a nutrient or supplement that is thought to be healthy for one part of the body, say, the fingernails, may be harmful to another organ. Especially if the dose were too high. An example of this I heard many years ago was that Jell-O was good for you and your nails. Using the model I described above, this can’t be true. While gelatin is a protein that contains some amino acids, it is an incomplete protein. This means it doesn’t have enough building components to build a house. If you eat Jell-O occasionally with a normal diet, even if you believe it will help your nails, there is no harm done. But if eating Jell-O becomes a significant part of your diet as a result of this belief and you are displacing healthier foods, then you will be missing essential amino acids, depleting your body of its stores, and causing long-term harm. In the end it would be no more beneficial to your nails (and probably less) than just about any other protein source in your diet! Thus this myth is potentially harmful. I mentioned earlier that if we ate too much of one thing for the houses the body was building, our body would get rid of excess material. Weightlifters commonly fall prey to this scenario. Unfortunately, trainers who often have little to no nutrition training, only weight training, routinely recommend to their clients that they should take up to 200 grams of protein a day, when about 100 grams a day is sufficient to build muscles at the same rate. When the liver and kidneys are healthy this is not usually harmful, although it does place some burden on those organs. Here’s why: After digesting and absorbing all that protein very efficiently (we absorb 95% or more of all protein, fat, and carbohydrates we eat), it then moves to the liver. The liver is presented with a problem. There is way too much protein (think of it as a single building material, such as boards) for the houses in the plans to be built. So the liver proceeds to immediately break down more than 50% of that protein, turning it into carbohydrates or fat. In fact, the liver breaks down 50% of the protein you eat even in the range of 50-100 grams of intake, which is typical for non-exercisers. That is an expensive and inefficient way to get carbs and fat. Many weightlifters have told me emphatically that their protein intake is why they have such large muscles. I insist that their hard and consistent weight-lifting efforts and a balanced diet with enough protein to support that growth are why they are so large. If you know how the liver handles protein, then this makes sense. If not, you may be caught up in the myth. dōTERRA takes a sound nutritional approach with the products we provide. We consider the physiology and chemistry of the body. We don’t focus on any one thing as being a cure-all or exaggerate its benefits. We recognize the variety nature offers and focus on educating how to best use a particular product when appropriate. For example, our Lifelong Vitality Pack targets the needs that are most requested– energy, pain, immunity, and mood. We care about meeting your needs and not just providing a single ingredient because we know it will not meet your true nutritional needs. THE DR. RECOMMENDS: TrimShake as part of a balanced diet that provides a perfect dose of protein. Lifelong Vitality to treat the whole body, not just one part. Dr. Parker holds a PhD in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has extensive experience in food processing, food chemistry, biochemistry, physiology, and human nutrition. He has worked both in the supplement industry and in academia, making him uniquely positioned to understand product development, research, and the physiology and chemistry behind nutrition. Dr. Parker has a contagious passion for teaching people about the connection between nutrition and living a long life free from the early onset of degenerative conditions associated with poor lifestyle choices. Read the whole story here. doterrablog/food-fact-or-fiction-does-more-protein-equal-bigger-muscles For more information and to purchase CPTG Essential Oils please contact me. Zachary M West, D.E.O.S., N.S.P.H.S., D.S.H.E.A. Certified Owner, Nohelani Natural Health 816-200-1097 (Work) 816-289-1884 (Mobile) eyota2004@gmail mydoterra/nohelani
Posted on: Thu, 01 Aug 2013 17:42:17 +0000
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