050. Protein, Potency, Powders and Politics
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The Body’s Builder: Protein
It’s been touted the most important macronutrient in bodybuilding magazines since the 1950s.
Is it all it’s cracked up to be?
You’ll discover the history of protein, along with its building blocks, amino acids as well as its functions.
The World of Muscle
Link: www.theworldofmuscle.com
Hosts: Tamas Acs and Randy Roach
Episode #50
Protein Potency, Powders and Politics
In This Episode:
Functions of protein
The building blocks of protein: amino acids
The 20 standard amino acids
The nine essential amino acids
The six conditionally essential amino acids
The five non essential amino acids
Complete proteins
In complete proteins
Soy protein
Recommended protein intake
Episode Summary and Updating
Randy started their 50th show by wishing Tamas a happy birthday
The subject of the day was the macronutrient, protein
Protein is and has been the buzzword of the bodybuilding industry since the 1950s
When people hear the word proetein they immediately think about how much they are eating
Proteins are not simply a food source, they are prominent in our bodies as structure, carriers, receptors and catalysts
Collagen is an example of a structural or fibrous protein, enzymes are globular proteins and receptors are examples of membrane proteins
Nex to water, protein is the next most abundant compound in the body
Proteins differ from each other based on the sequencing of their building blocks, amino acids
There are roughly 500 amino acids known with the 20 standard amino acids encoded in our DNA
The 20 standard amino acids are referred to as proteinogenic for building and they are found in our human and plant biology
All proteins that are manufactured in the body have their amino acid sequencing in our DNA
These protein building instructions are transferred from the DNA via RNA out of the cell nucleus to what are called ribosomes in the cell’s cytoplasm where the proteins are assembled based on DNA/RNA instruction
With the 20 standard amino acids Human cells can encode 20,000 proteins
Of the 20 standard amino acids, eight are considered essential because the body cannot produce them
The body has instructions in the DNA as how to use them but cannot produce these eight amino acids
Randy said he used the acronym TV TILL PM over the years to remember the eight essential amino acids
Threonine
Valine
Tryptophan
Isoleucine
Leucine
Lysine
Phenylalanine
Methionine
Histidine is often considered an essential amino acid under certain compromised conditions in the body
Similar, six other amino acids are considered conditionally essential in the human diet, meaning their production can be limited under special conditions, such as prematurity in the infant or individuals in severe catabolic distress
Arginine
Cysteine
Glycine
Glutamine
Proline
tyrosine
The remaining five amino acids can be synthesized in the body at all times
alanine,
aspartic acid
asparagine
glutamic acid
serine
Like fats and carbohydrates, amino acids are made of hydrogen, carbon and oxygen, but also proteins contain nitrogen
Isoleucine, leucine and valine are the three branch-chain amino acids and contain an extra , nitrogen atom
Methionine and cysteine are known as the sulfur containing aminos as they have a sulfur containing side group
Amino acids link together to form dipeptides (two), tripeptides (three) and polypeptides (many)
When poly peptides expand over 20 amino acids and begin forming additional branches of amino acids the compound then becomes a protein
The side groups and chains Which usually results in the protein folding into a specific three dimensional structure will determine its function .
Human cells can contain up to one or even three billion proteins
The nine essential amino acids that the body cannot synthesize must be supplied by food and the foods that contain these nine essential aminos are called complete proteins
Animal products such as milk, eggs and meat are the primary complete proteins
The vegetable kingdom does contain much or all of the amino acids but one or more of the essential eight are usually in very low amounts, thus these foods are typically referred to as incomplete proteins
Lysine, methionine, and threonine are the amino acids usually lacking in vegetable and legume foods
Many cultures around the world have come to mix their incomplete proteins so that all essential amino acids are in good quantities
Soy beans are low in methionine so they are typically combined with rice or corn:
Beans and corn
soybeans and rice
or red beans and rice
Randy said he was up on these combinations from his vegetarian days back in the mid to late 1980s
It is also believed that the combined foods did not have to be eaten at the same meal
Tamas added that the difference between getting the essential aminos from animal products and combining vegetable sources is that the latter method brings a much higher intake of carbohydrates
There have been a number of protein scorring methods through the years such as:
biological value
net protein utilization
protein efficiency ratio
protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score
complete proteins concept.
Randy mentioned that in Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors, Volume I he wrote on protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score (PDCAA) which he said should have been called, Politicians Did correct the amino acid score because milk and eggs were capped so that soy was scored almost as high
As mentioned, Soy is lacking in the essential amino acid methionine
Soy also contains amino acid inhibitors
When protein is eaten, digestion begins in the stomach withHCL (hydrochloric acid) and pepsinogen which is converted to pepsin that stargs to break down the protein into polypeptides
The digestion then continues in the duodenum (first part of small intestine) where the peptides are broken down further to smaller peptides and amino acids by the enzyme trypsin
Soy contains compounds that block trypsin from digesting further the protein
Soy also contains mineral binders (phytates) that interfere with the absorption of calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc
These amino acid inhibitors and mineral binders in soy are called anti-nutrients
In order to neutralize these anti-nutrients soy must undergo a significant amount of processing thus compromising the protein
Sally Fallon and Dr. Mary Enig, in their 1995 article on Soy, wrote on its history and place in culture:
“Soybeans come to us from the Orient. During the Chou Dynasty (1134 – 246 BC) the soybean was designated one of the five sacred grains, along with barley, wheat, millet and rice. However, the pictograph for the soybean, which dates from earlier times, indicates that it was not first used as a food; for whereas the pictographs for the other four grains show the seed and stem structure of the plant, the pictograph for the soybean emphasizes the root structure. Agricultural literature of the period speaks frequently of the soybean and its use in crop rotation. Apparently the soy plant was initially used as a method of fixing nitrogen.3 soybean did not serve as a food until the discovery of fermentation techniques, sometime during the Chou Dynasty. Thus the first soy foods were fermented products like tempeh, natto, miso and shoyu (soy or tamari sauce). At a later date, possibly in the 2nd century B.C., Chinese scientists discovered that a puree of cooked soybeans could be precipitated with calcium sulfate or magnesium sulfate (plaster of Paris or Epsom salts) to make a smooth pale curd – tofu or bean curd.”
For the first 50 years of 20th century western culture, soy was primarily an industrial product used for its oil for paints and grease with the remaining meal buried into the soil
Industry began feeding the meal to livestock then it quickly made its way into the human diet
Soy and all other beans are a tougher digest compared to animal products
Tamas noted that many female clients and friends don’t like to eat protein and many are
lethargic and anemic
He noted how those who began eating more protein, saw their fat begin to melt away
Randy inserted how that was the case for him back in the mid 1990s when he switched to a higher animal protein and fat based diet and watched his body fat drop rapidly
Randy also had the same experience as Tamas when Randy worked as a computer programmer and would often talk about nutrition with his female coworkers who Randy said ate at times up to a 90% carbohydrate diet
Randy also added that when eating this way for many years, plus taking antibiotics, it can really screw up the intestinal ecosystem making protein digestion more difficult
Tamas would often recommend some supplemental digestive enzymes when protein digestion was difficult
Randy stated that raw meat breaks down quite easily but knows that most will not go that route
The conversation turned to protein quantities
Randy spoke on how Bob Hoffman (owner of York Barbell and Olympic weightlifting coach) drew from the 1921 League of Nation’s protein recommendations for his own 1939 publication, Better Nutrition
The League of Nations was suggesting 0.45 g per lb of bodyweight at that time
This was more conservative than the popular 1 g per lb of bodyweight practiced for many later decades in bodybuilding
The US FDA recommends 50 g per 2000 calories which workds out to only 10% of the diet
A bodybuilder eating a4000 calorie diet would be consuming 100 g of protein which Randy stated was a decent amount but still considered low in bodybuilding
Tamas also added that an important factor is how much of the consumed protein is actually being absorbed for muscle building
Randy said that through the years preceding the 1950s protein was not touted nearly as much as in later years
Again, in Bob Hoffman’s 1939, Better Nutrition, he really did not spout off anything excessive about specialized protein diets
He did have a chapter titled “What Strong Men Eat,” which simply divulged the tremendous appetites of many of the athletes Hoffman knew or read about
These strongmen certainly ate their share of protein and fats but no supplements were around at that time so there was no hyperbole on that subject
When Irvin Johnson introduced protein powder in the very early 1950s and Hoffman saw the financial potential of this new supplement, he released his second version of “Better Nutrition” in 1953 which suddenly had five new chapters touting:
A High Protein Diet May Perform Miracles for You
The High Protein Method of Bodybuilding
The High Protein Method of Reducing
Proteins – The Builders and Repairers
Why a High Protein Diet is More Desirable
Although Irvin Johnson’s first commercial protein powder was soy based he quickly changed to a milk and egg product within a few years, but Bob Hoffman owned land that grew soy so Bob was more committed to soy protein
Randy recalled his many conversations with those old enough to have used Hoffman’s products and how much gas they produced
Even Bob in an article commented on the fact that his soy protein could make you “windy”
Randy reiterated the difficulty for many to digest the oligosaccharides in soy
Randy stated that he felt that it was the actual financial boon that catapulted protein within the bodybuilding industry
Again however, men such as John Grimek and others of that early era did at times eat a lot of naturally occurring protein foods such as meat, milk and eggs
Irvin Johnson (Rheo H. Blair by the 1960s) promoted milk and eggs as the builder foods
Don Howorth, while training for his 1967 Mr. America title, did use Irvin Johnson’s (then going by Rheo H. Blair) protein poweder on top of two pounds of meat, three dozen eggs and a quart of raw cream
Randy feels that Don obviously did not need the powder
Raw food specialist, Aajonus Vonderplantiz believed that raw meat was the superior muscle building food
Randy stated that high protein diets had been targeted as being harmful to the kidneys but he did not believe it held any threat to a healthy individual
Tamas piped in that the claim had been debunked
Randy then added what he has stated for many years that he believes that protein powders do carry a threat to good health when consumed for long periods of time
Tamas and Randy both spoke on disadvantages of eating too much protein as it can and will be broken down and used for fuel under the right conditions
Amino acids can be broken into three carbon units that can be used to build glucose when carbohydrates are low
Only the three carbon backbone glycerol of a triglyceride can be used to build glucose in a pinch
So eating a lot of protein on a lower calorie diet can be an expensive way to fuel the muscles
They also debunked the decades old claim that the body could only digest and assimilate 20 to 30 grams of protein at one sitting
That notion lent heavily to the multiple meal per day approach which called for a lot of protein powders
Randy mentioned the cultures that violated this rule when they ate two primary meals per day
He also mentioned the Masai of Africa who consumed large quantities of raw milk and meat daily
The eskimo often ate up to four pounds of meat and/or fish daily
Randy brought up one more point on the digestion of proteins
It is believed in some parts of the alternative medical field that like proteins nourish like proteins such as eating liver will benefit one’s own liver
Proteins are not necessarily all broken down into their amino acid building blokcs during digestion
Many free form amino acids are in fact released during digestion but many various length peptides and polypeptides pass through the intestinal wall and may perhaps be destined for target tissues
Randy and Tamas concluded that if one does not work out then large amounts of protein are not required, but Randy said he has seen what higher quantities can do in bodybuilding
Protein intake is an individual thing as body types vary significantly
People need to become familiar with their bodies and determine for themselves what is best in terms of how much protein
Update
Randy told Tamas that he is working on the ultimate supinated (underhanded) pulldown bar for biceps and will show pics when finished