StoneColdNTO
Administrator
I just stole (borrowed) this post from Mallet over at IFL. It's a good read, hope ya'll enjoy !!
Probably the most frequently asked question in the area of diet, health, and weight loss is "where do you get your protein?" The fear of dying in this world doesn't begin to compare with people's fear of not getting enough protein. The problem, however, is not how to get enough, it's how not to get to much. Having to much protein in one's body is easily as dangerous as not having enough.
In the words of Mike Benton of the American College of Health Science, "Perhaps never have so many been so confused over a subject about which they know so little."
I know what an exceedingly confucing topic this is. Everyone seems to have a different opinion as to how much protein should or should not be eaten and why. What always frustrated me was listening to a 'board-certified authority' discuss in a msot convincing manner what I should know about protein. Then i would hear another equally authoratative 'expert' speak as convincingly as the first but say the exact opposite! That i think is the possition most epople are in. The 'experts' are argyuing up and back, burying the listener under an avalanche of so-called facts, figures, statistics and proof. The public winds up feeling like a ball ata tennis match. One thing in all of this is people are undeniably true: People are confused!
My intention here is not to persuade you to accept what I know to be true, nor is it to totally re-educate you right here and now. It is going to take more than i am about to relate. It is going to take some study and experimentation on your part. My intention is to get you to feel confident that you can make an intelligent decision for yourself, without having to depend on the 'experts' who are arguing with one another. You already have the tools to do so, and you know what those tools are: common sense, logic, and instinct. I will be appealing to your inherent ability to 'know' the right thing to do.
There is a voluminous amount of information showing a relationship between the consumption of concentrated protein foods and heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, arthritis, osteoporosis, gout, ulcers, and a host of other maladies. I'm going to confine this thread to the effects on ones weight loss and energy level without getting intio any of the other subjects mentioned above.
Protein is the most complex of all food elements, and it's assimilation and utilization are the most complicated. The easist food for the body to break down is fruit; the other end of the scale, the hardest is protein. When protein food is eaten, more energy is necessary for it to go through it's process of digestion than for any other food. The average time for food (other than fruit) to pass through the entire gastrointestinal tract is between twenty-five and thirty hours. When flesh food is eaten, that time is more than doubled. Therefore, logically the more protein one eats, the less energy will be available for other necessary functions, such as the elimination of toxic waste.
The entire protein issue has been blown so far out of proportion that it is doubtful that people will ever feel at ease with it. The bottom line is that we simply don't need as much as we have been led to believe. First of all, the human body recycles 70 percent of it's proteinaceous waste. That's 70 percent! Second, the human body loses only about 23 grams of protein a day. That's eight tenths of an ounce. It is lost through the feces, urine, hair, sloughed off skin, and perspiration. To replenish eight tenths of an ounce you would need to eat about a pound and a half of protein a month. Most people eat far in excess of that, eating protein at every meal. The RDA (hahaha) protein requirement is fifty-six grams daily (less than two ounces), and that is with their built in safety margin of nearly doubling the actual need! Consuming more than the body requires places a heavy burden on the system as it tries to rid itself of the excess. It is a dreadful waist of your precious energy that is so dearly needed in the quest for weight-loss. An eight ounce glass can only hold eight ounces of liquid. If you poor sixteen ounces into the glass, everything over eight ounces will go to waist. So it is with your body. Once the daily requirements are met, eight tenths of an ounce, that's it. Another problem is that the excess protein not only robs you of your energy, but also must be stored in your body as toxic waist, adding weight until the organism can muster sufficient energy to get rid of it But the next day there is another surplus to deal with, so the situation is worsened.
Actually protein is not any more or less important than any other constituents of food. We have been led to believe that one is more important, but that simply is not accurate. They all play a crucial role in making a food a food. Given a choice, which would you choose to give up if you had to choose one: your heart or your brain? It's the same with food. The constituents of food that that compose a typical meal are always the same. There are vitamins, minerals, carbs, fatty acids, amino acids, and maybe more that have yet to be isolated and named. They are all important! They are all used together synergistically. To single out one as more important than another is to fail to understand the biological and physiological needs of the organism.
No debate on protein would be complete without discussing meat-eating, because the world over, meat is generally thought to be the most ideal source of protein. One of the major reasons is that animal protein much more closely resembles that of the human body than plant protein. It's an excellent argument for eating one's neighbour, actually, but even the heartiest meat-eater would find that idea repugnant.
One of the groups of animals that is eaten for protein is cattle, some fourty million a year. that's alot of meat. For strength! that's actually the first reason given for the necessity of eating meat. "we need to keep up our strength." Well, lets just take a look at that. What would you say is the strongest animal on the planet? Most people would say an elephant. i would agree. As a matter of fact, if you had to think of the strongest animals in the world, the ones used for centuries for their superior strength and endurance, what would they be? Elephants, oxen, horses, mules, camels, water buffalo. What do they eat? Leafy matter, grass, and fruit. Have you ever seen a silverback gorilla? the silverback gorilla physiologically resembles the human being. It is incredibly strong. Even though one is three times the size of the average man, it has thirty times a man's strength! A silverback could toss a two-hundred pound man across the street like a frisbee. And what does the silverback eat? Fruits and other vegetation! What does that indicate to you about the necessity to eat meat for strength? Forget for the time being all the input and opinions you've heard. What do you think? What about the steer meat being eaten for it's near-perfect protein? What did the steer eat to build that protein? Meat? No! Grain and grass! Interesting, isn't it? How can that be? On one side we have all the scientific data showing the benefits of eating meat, and on the other we have our common sense finding that point of view hard to swallow.
This brings us to the most misunderstood area of the entire question of meat-eating. The people who know the situation for what it is find this to be the most ironic aspect of this subject: protein is not built in the body by eating protein. Yes, you read that correctly. Protein is built from the amino acids in food. The only extent to which protein is built to from protein food is how well the amino acids in that food are utilized. The idea that you can eat a piece of steer or pig or chicken and that it will become protein in your body is absurd. Animal protein is just that; animal protein, not human protein. Amino acids must be understood if you wish to understand the protein issue.
The body cannot use or assimilate protein in it's original state as eaten. The protein must first be digested and split into it's component amino acids. The body can then use these amino acids to construct the protein it needs. The ultimate value of a food's protein, then, lies in it's amino acid composition. It is the amino acids that are the essential components. All nutritive material is formed in the plant kingdom; animals ahve the power to appropriate but never to form or create protein's source, the eight essentila amino acids. Plants can synthesize amino acids from air, earth, and water, but animals, including humans, are dependant on plant protein--either directly, by eating the plant, or indirectly, by eationg an animal that has eaten then plant. There are no 'essential' amino acids in the flesh that the animal did not derive from the plants, and that huimans cannot also derive from plants. That is why all the animals of strength have all the protein they need. They built it from the abundance of amino acids that they consume eating plant life. This is also why, except in emergencies, carnivorous animals generally don't eat other carnivorous animals. they instinctively eat animals that have eaten plabnt life.
There are twenty-three different amino acids. All are essential, or they wouldn't exist. As it happens, fifteen can be produced by the body and eight must be derived from the foods we eat. Only these eight are called essential. If you eat any fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, or sprouts on a regular basis, you are recieving all the amino acids necessary fro your body to build the protein it needs, just like the other mammals who seem to manage without eating meat. The fact is you couldn't have a protein deficiency unless you worked hard at having one. Do you know anyone with a protein deficiency? I don't either.
Now don't let the amino acid issue confuse you. All that talk about having to eat all the essential amino acids at one meal or at least in one day is pure balderdash. there is no question but that this is the most controversial subject i know. I know that the belief that the need for the 'eight essential' amino acids at every meal has been nutritional gospel for years, but there is strong evidence mounting that this is not the case. People who cut back on their meat consumption always have a fear that they are not meeting their protein requirements, but this is not the case as i have just shwon you that protein ingested doen't equal protein built, and that all the essential amino acids are found in fruits, nuts, veggies, seeds.
Common sense makes me ask why humans would be the only animal species to have such a complicated time of it obtaining the necessary components of protein. No animal in nature needs to combine different foods to get all the essentials. It is my contention that the reason it is so complictaed for humans is because humans are the only animals with the ability to reason, and we have made it far more complicated for ourselves than it actually is.
Merely because something is believed for a very long time does not make it true. For example, in 1914 Robert Barany won a Nobel prize in phsiology and medicine for his theory that relates to the workings of the inner ear and the body's balance mechanism. In December 1983 a test aboard the Space Shuttle showed his theory to be false. Even though it was being taught in Colleges throughout the world, in one fell swoop it was disproven. The fact that it was taught for nearly three quarters of a century did not make it true. Now the text books must be revised. I have powerful resources to back me up on the issue of protein, but remember, it took only one test to destroy a seventy-year old belief that a simple inner ear test could evaluate a persons equilibrium--a test rioutinely by ear, nose, and throat specialists, for decades. The information i'm going to priovide you with here will make obsolete the present theories governign amino acids and how we get them. Time will prove this to be true.
The human body and it's infinite wisdom knows full well how to insure itslef adequate protein production. how could it be otherwise? The body has a most remarkable mechanism to guarantee that somethign as crucial as protein is manufactured regularly and with great proficiency. That is the amino acid pool.
From the digestion of foods in the diet and from the recycling of proteinaceous wastes, the body has all the different amino acids circulating in the blood and lymph system. When the body needs amino acids, they are appropriated from the blood and lymph systems. This continous circualting available supply of amino acids is known as the amino acid pool. The amino acid pool is like a bank that is open twenty-four hours a day. The liver and cells are continually making deposits and withdrawls of amino acids, depending upon the concentration of amino acids in the blood. Whent eh number of amino acids is high, the liver absorbs and stores them until needed. As the amino acid level in the blood falls due to withdrawls by the cells, the liver deposits some of the stored amino acids back into circulation.
The cells also have the capacity to store amino acids. If the amino acid content of the blood falls, or if some other cells require specific amino acids, the cells are able to release their stored amino acids into circulation. Since most of the body's cells synthesize more protein than is necessary to support the life of the cell, the cells can reconvert their proteins into amino acids and make deposits into the amino acid pool. This pool of amino acids is critical to understanding why complete proteins are not necessary in the diet. I know it sounds a bit involved, but relax, that's about as technical as i'm going to get. The amino acid pool exists, and understanding it will free you from the oneous protein myth.
The existence of the amino acid pool is by no mesna a new discovery. Much of the information about diet today is based on outmoded data that have not been updated. New knowledge has completely reversed the old theory, which was based on studies between 1929 and 1950 that used purified amino acids. We eat foods -- not purified amino acids. Studies since 1950 have shown that it is not necessary to eat complete proteins at every meal or even every day.
A study conducted by E.E Nasset, detailed in world review of nutrition and dietetics, reported that "the body can make up any of the amino acids missing ina particular meal from it's own pool of reserves, as long as a variety of foods are included in the diet"
Presenting strong evidence for the amino acid pool theory are the books on physiology by Arthur C. Guyton. his books are the standard physiological texts in Colleges throughout North America.
T.C Fry, the dean of the American College of Health Science, is another authority on this matter. His life science Health system course teaches the amino acid pool theory.
This information has been available for over twenty years and is now coming to light. The main reason this information is being questioned is because it does not fit into the mold of what has traditionally been taught. It seems that new information is usually rejected before it's excepted. There will always be new information filtering down from the enormous body of knowledge that i refer to as the great unknown. To scrutinize it is fine. To condem it without investigation is folly. In addition to scientific verification, this information can be verified by simply putting it into practice. People who eat this way over long periods of time or even lifetimes have no protein problems. The Hunzas, Vilcabambans, Asians, and half a billion Hindus eat very little protein food in comparison with Western populations, yet have no protein deficiencies. And not surprisingly, no wieght problems!
There are eight amino acids that the body must appropriate from outside sources, and although all fruit and vegetables contain most of the eight, there are many frutis and vegetables that conatin all the amino acids not produced by the body: Carrots, bananas, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, corn, cucumber, eggplant, kale, okra, peas, potatoes, summer squash, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes. Also all nuts, sunflower and sesame seeds, peanuts, and beans contain all eight as well.
You might be interested to know that the utilizable amino acid content found in plant life is far in excess of that to be found in flesh foods. I knwo it must sound like i'm going to try and make a vegetarian out of you. Actually that's not my intent, although, in the words of Albert Einstein, "it is my view that the vegetarian manner of living, by it's purely physical effcets on the human temperment, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind" Remeber Bill Pearl, a proclaimed vegetarian bodybuilder from the 60's and 70's. Most vegetarians learned a long time ago that it's easier to sneak up on plants.
The question should be: Are human beings designed and intended to eat meat? What all the available evidence points to is that there is no nutritional, physiological, or psychological justification for meat-eating by humans. Whoa! Okay, pick yourself up off the floor and i'll explain. First, lets look at the nutritional aspects of flesh food. As indicated earlier, the number one prerequisite of a food is most certainly it's fuel value, fuel as it relates to energy for the body's use. Flesh foods supply no fuel, no energy. Fuel is built from carbohydrates. In other words, NO FUEL VALUE. Fats may supply energy, but they must undergo a longer and less efficient digestive process, and fats may be converted into fuel only when the body's carbohydrate reserves are depleted. It should be understood that fat in the body does not all come from the fat that is eaten in the diet. When an excess of carbs are eaten it is converted by the body into fat and stored. In this way the body can store and use fat without having a large amount of fat in the diet. The fat deposits could be viewed as a type of carbohydrate bank, where deposits and withdrawls are made as necessary. So utilizable fat is ultimately dependant upon carbohydrate intake.
Another consideration is fiber, every area of health care is stressing the importance of fiber in the diet. Among other things, fiber helps to avoid constipation and hemorhoids. Meat has virtually no fiber content. Now lets look at the availability of amino acids in flesh food. An amino acid chain can contain anywhere from fifty-one to two hundred thousand amino acids. When flesh protein is in gested, the chain has to be broken down and reassembled into 'human' protein. Amino acids are somewhat delicate. The heat of cooking coagulates or destroys many of the amino acids so they are not available for body use. These unusable amino acids become toxic, adding to one's weight, increasing the chores of the body, and depleting energy. Meta would have to be eaten raw, the way carnivorous and omnivorous animals eat it, for any potential useage of amino acids. Meta is also very high in saturated fat. Not the kind to be used for energy--the kind that causes heart attacks! So nutritionally, not withstanding all the propaganda to the contrary, meat has very little, if anyhting, going for it.
Now let's look at the physiological aspects of meat eating. A carnivore's teeth are long, sharp, and pointed--all of them! We have molars for crushing and grinding. A carnivore's jaw moves up and down only, for tearing and biting. Ours moves from side to side for grinding. A carnivore's saliva is acid and geared to the digestion of animal proteins; it lacks ptyalin, a chemical that digests starches. Our saliva is alkaline and contains ptyalin for the digestion of starch. A carnivore's stomach is a simple round sack that secretes ten times more hydrochloric acid than that of a non-carnivore. Our stomachs are oblong in shape, complicated in structure, and convoluted with a duodenum. A carnivore's intestines are three times the length of it's trunk, designed for rapid expulsion of food stuff, which quickly rots. Our intestines are twelve times the length of our trunks and designed to keep food in them until all nutrients are extracted. The liver of a carnivore is capable of eliminating ten to fifteen times more uric acid than the liver of a non-carnivore. Our livers have the capacity to eliminate only small amounts of uric acid. Uric acid is an extremely dangerous toxic substance that can wreak havoc in your body. All meat consumption releases large quantities of uric acid into the system. Unlike carnivores and most omnivores, humans do not have the enzyme uricase to break down uric acid. A carnivore does not sweat through the skin and has no pores. We do sweat through the skin and have pores. A carnivores urine is acid. Ours alkaline. A carnivore's tongue is rough, ours smooth. Our hands are perfectly designed fro pl;ucking fruit from a tree, not for tearing the guts out of the carcas of a dead animal as are a carnivores claws. There is not one anatomical faculty the human being has that would indicate that it is equiped for tearing, ripping, and rending flesh for consumption.
Lastly, we as humans are not even psychologically equipped to eat meat. Have toy ever strolled through a lush wooded area, filling your lungs with good air while listening to the birds sing? Perhaps it was after a rain, and everything was fresh and clean. The sun was filtering through the trees and glistening off the moisture on the flowers and grass. Just then perhaps a chipmunk scurried across your path. What was your very first instinctive inclination upon the sight of the chipmunk, before you even had time to think? To pounce on it, grab it with your teeth, rip it apart, adn swallow it, blood, guts, skin, bone, flesh and all? Then lick your lips with delight and thank the powers that be you choose this particular path through the woods so you had the oportunity to devour this delectable little tidbit? Or would you instantly, upon sight of the furry little creature, say, "shhh, did you see that cute little chipmunk?" I wonder how many more vegetarians there would be if when people wanted a piece of steak, they had to go out, beat a defenseless steer to death, cut it open, and wade through the blood and guts to slice out the particular parts they desired. Kids are the real test. Place a small child in a crib with a rabbit and an apple. If the child eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, i'll buy you a new car.
So, why do people eat flesh? Two very simple reasons: number one, habit and conditioning--if hundreds of billions of dollars were spent regularly to convince people that if they cut off their feet they would never stub their toes, probably some would see the virute of that way of thinking: number two, some poeple happen to like meat. I'm one of them. And that's it. Which is alright as long as people aren't convinced that they eat meat for health reasons, because the only effect meat-eating has on health is that it deteriorates it. It demands a tremendous amount of energy to digest it, and it makes the task of losing weight more of a chore than it should be. If you do wish to continue to eat meat, I would like to offer three simple hints on how to minimize its negative effects.
1) Seek a good source. Some of the chemicals given to animals destined for slaughter are dangerous. This can include penicillin, tetracyline, sewage sludge pellets decontaminated with cesium-137, radioactive nuclear waste, fattening agents, and a host of other chemicals and antibiotics to "prime" the animal for sale. Not to mention the chemical treatment some meat recieves when it is routinely dipped in sodium sulphite to decrease the stench of decay and turn it red rather than the gray of dead flesh. Even cement dust! That's right! Nutrition health reported in 1981 that some cattle farmers in the mid-west of the USA were feeding their steers hundreds of pounds of cement dust to get their weight up for sale. A consumer group, hearing of this ploy, complained to the FDA to halt it, and the FDA's statement after investigation was that since there has been no indication of harm to humans by ingesting some cement dust, the practice can continue until some harm is proved. Can you imakgine trying to lose wieght while you're eating cement dust? I don't like it. There are places that guarantee that their beef and chicken are naturally grazed and raised with absolutely no chemical additivesa at all. Seek out these sources. You're worth it. If your butcher doesn't carry it, ask for it.
2) Try to eat flesh no more than once a day. If meat is eaten more than once a day, they enormous amount of energy necessary to digest it would not leave sufficient energy for other important body functions, such as elimination. The one meat meal should be late in the day. And some days don't have any meat at all if possible. Don't worry, you'll wake up the next day, probably with more spunk than the day before.
3) Properly combine. There are times when you will eat foods that are not properly combined. But try not to let it be a time when you are having flesh food. Flesh food combined properly places enough of a burden on the body, don't complicate it.
Some of you who are athlete's might be saying, " But i need more protein, because i'm active." The following interesting comment appeared in the journal of the American Medical Association. The Associations department commented: "the ingestion of protein supplements by athletes who eat an other-wise well-balanced diet is of no use in bodybuilding programs. Athletes need the same amount of protein foods as nonathletes. Protein does not increase strength. Indeed, it often takes greater energy to digest and metabolize the excess of protein. In addition, excess protein in the athlete can induce dehydration, loss of appetite, and diarhea."
If more physical activity is anticipated, it is necessary only to increase your carbohydrate intake to insure more fuel. Proteins are disastrous in fuel effeciency and do not aid directly or efficiently in muscular activity. Protein does not produce energy, it uses it! A lion, which eats exclusively flesh, sleeps twenty hours a day. An organism, which eats exclusively plants, sleeps six. Also in the journal of the American Medical Association reported " A vegetarian diet can prevent 90 to 97 percent of heart diease." that's quite a statistic.
One last issue must be addressed: vitamin B12 supposedly, if you don't eat meat, you'll develop a vitamin B12 deficiency. Poppycock! Where do the animals whose meat we eat get theirs? Vitamin B12 is found in plants in very small amounts. But the way vitamin B12 is secured is primarily from that produced in the body. the stomach secretes a substance called "intrinsic factor," which transports the vitamin B12 created by the bacterial flora in our intestines. The vitamin B12 issue is part and parcel of the entir protein myth. WHERE DO THE CATTLE THAT SUPPLY US THE MEAT AND MILK GET THEIR B12? Supposedly we will perish without meat or dairy products. Without any source to show this false except our common sense, we could discount it. Howevere, there are numerous sources. Our actual need for vitamin B12 is so minute that it is measured in micrograms (millionth of a gram) or nanograms (billionth of a gram). One milligram of B12 will last you over two years, and healthy individuals usually carry around a fiver year supply. But here's the rub: putrefacation hampers the secretion of "intrinsic factor" in the stomach and retards the production of vitamin B12. So flesh-eaters are more apt to develop a vitmain B12 deficiency than vegetarians! This has been known for some time. there's a book you could read called "vitamins of the B complex" which would describe this in greater detail, but back to protein.
You may be wondering if eggs fare any better than flesh foods as a source for protein. Actually high quality protein is not what we should search for. high quality amino acids are waht we need to produce the protein we must have. Unless eggs are eaten raw, the amino acids are coagulated by heat and therby lost. Even if they are eaten raw, eggs are laid by hens that are fed arsenic to kill parasites and stimulate egg production, and you ingest some of that virulent poison. Also eggs contain much sulfur, which puts a heavy starin on the liver and kidneys. The beautiful human body does not require anything that stinks for it's survival/ Eggs stink. just drop one on your driveway ona hot day and let it sit there for about eight hours, then take a big whiff of the effluvium. There's no difference between that and putting eggs in your body at 98.6 degrees for eight hours. The next bowel movement after the consumption of eggs will certainly bear this out.
One last fact, Dr. Carl Lumholtz, a Norwegian scientist, conducted extensive studies ofanthropophagy (cannibalism). he indicated that some aborigine tribes in Australia would not eat the flesh of caucasians because it was salty and occasioned nausea. But asians and other native tribesmen were considered good eating because their food was chiefly vegetables.
To maintain your life and add life to your life, it is best to predominate your diet with those foods that are full of life! Incidentally, the word vegetable comes from the word 'vegetus', which means FULL OF LIFE!
THE END!
THE INFORMATION ABOVE IS NOT TO BE CUT AND PASTED PLEASE! THANK YOU!
Probably the most frequently asked question in the area of diet, health, and weight loss is "where do you get your protein?" The fear of dying in this world doesn't begin to compare with people's fear of not getting enough protein. The problem, however, is not how to get enough, it's how not to get to much. Having to much protein in one's body is easily as dangerous as not having enough.
In the words of Mike Benton of the American College of Health Science, "Perhaps never have so many been so confused over a subject about which they know so little."
I know what an exceedingly confucing topic this is. Everyone seems to have a different opinion as to how much protein should or should not be eaten and why. What always frustrated me was listening to a 'board-certified authority' discuss in a msot convincing manner what I should know about protein. Then i would hear another equally authoratative 'expert' speak as convincingly as the first but say the exact opposite! That i think is the possition most epople are in. The 'experts' are argyuing up and back, burying the listener under an avalanche of so-called facts, figures, statistics and proof. The public winds up feeling like a ball ata tennis match. One thing in all of this is people are undeniably true: People are confused!
My intention here is not to persuade you to accept what I know to be true, nor is it to totally re-educate you right here and now. It is going to take more than i am about to relate. It is going to take some study and experimentation on your part. My intention is to get you to feel confident that you can make an intelligent decision for yourself, without having to depend on the 'experts' who are arguing with one another. You already have the tools to do so, and you know what those tools are: common sense, logic, and instinct. I will be appealing to your inherent ability to 'know' the right thing to do.
There is a voluminous amount of information showing a relationship between the consumption of concentrated protein foods and heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, arthritis, osteoporosis, gout, ulcers, and a host of other maladies. I'm going to confine this thread to the effects on ones weight loss and energy level without getting intio any of the other subjects mentioned above.
Protein is the most complex of all food elements, and it's assimilation and utilization are the most complicated. The easist food for the body to break down is fruit; the other end of the scale, the hardest is protein. When protein food is eaten, more energy is necessary for it to go through it's process of digestion than for any other food. The average time for food (other than fruit) to pass through the entire gastrointestinal tract is between twenty-five and thirty hours. When flesh food is eaten, that time is more than doubled. Therefore, logically the more protein one eats, the less energy will be available for other necessary functions, such as the elimination of toxic waste.
The entire protein issue has been blown so far out of proportion that it is doubtful that people will ever feel at ease with it. The bottom line is that we simply don't need as much as we have been led to believe. First of all, the human body recycles 70 percent of it's proteinaceous waste. That's 70 percent! Second, the human body loses only about 23 grams of protein a day. That's eight tenths of an ounce. It is lost through the feces, urine, hair, sloughed off skin, and perspiration. To replenish eight tenths of an ounce you would need to eat about a pound and a half of protein a month. Most people eat far in excess of that, eating protein at every meal. The RDA (hahaha) protein requirement is fifty-six grams daily (less than two ounces), and that is with their built in safety margin of nearly doubling the actual need! Consuming more than the body requires places a heavy burden on the system as it tries to rid itself of the excess. It is a dreadful waist of your precious energy that is so dearly needed in the quest for weight-loss. An eight ounce glass can only hold eight ounces of liquid. If you poor sixteen ounces into the glass, everything over eight ounces will go to waist. So it is with your body. Once the daily requirements are met, eight tenths of an ounce, that's it. Another problem is that the excess protein not only robs you of your energy, but also must be stored in your body as toxic waist, adding weight until the organism can muster sufficient energy to get rid of it But the next day there is another surplus to deal with, so the situation is worsened.
Actually protein is not any more or less important than any other constituents of food. We have been led to believe that one is more important, but that simply is not accurate. They all play a crucial role in making a food a food. Given a choice, which would you choose to give up if you had to choose one: your heart or your brain? It's the same with food. The constituents of food that that compose a typical meal are always the same. There are vitamins, minerals, carbs, fatty acids, amino acids, and maybe more that have yet to be isolated and named. They are all important! They are all used together synergistically. To single out one as more important than another is to fail to understand the biological and physiological needs of the organism.
No debate on protein would be complete without discussing meat-eating, because the world over, meat is generally thought to be the most ideal source of protein. One of the major reasons is that animal protein much more closely resembles that of the human body than plant protein. It's an excellent argument for eating one's neighbour, actually, but even the heartiest meat-eater would find that idea repugnant.
One of the groups of animals that is eaten for protein is cattle, some fourty million a year. that's alot of meat. For strength! that's actually the first reason given for the necessity of eating meat. "we need to keep up our strength." Well, lets just take a look at that. What would you say is the strongest animal on the planet? Most people would say an elephant. i would agree. As a matter of fact, if you had to think of the strongest animals in the world, the ones used for centuries for their superior strength and endurance, what would they be? Elephants, oxen, horses, mules, camels, water buffalo. What do they eat? Leafy matter, grass, and fruit. Have you ever seen a silverback gorilla? the silverback gorilla physiologically resembles the human being. It is incredibly strong. Even though one is three times the size of the average man, it has thirty times a man's strength! A silverback could toss a two-hundred pound man across the street like a frisbee. And what does the silverback eat? Fruits and other vegetation! What does that indicate to you about the necessity to eat meat for strength? Forget for the time being all the input and opinions you've heard. What do you think? What about the steer meat being eaten for it's near-perfect protein? What did the steer eat to build that protein? Meat? No! Grain and grass! Interesting, isn't it? How can that be? On one side we have all the scientific data showing the benefits of eating meat, and on the other we have our common sense finding that point of view hard to swallow.
This brings us to the most misunderstood area of the entire question of meat-eating. The people who know the situation for what it is find this to be the most ironic aspect of this subject: protein is not built in the body by eating protein. Yes, you read that correctly. Protein is built from the amino acids in food. The only extent to which protein is built to from protein food is how well the amino acids in that food are utilized. The idea that you can eat a piece of steer or pig or chicken and that it will become protein in your body is absurd. Animal protein is just that; animal protein, not human protein. Amino acids must be understood if you wish to understand the protein issue.
The body cannot use or assimilate protein in it's original state as eaten. The protein must first be digested and split into it's component amino acids. The body can then use these amino acids to construct the protein it needs. The ultimate value of a food's protein, then, lies in it's amino acid composition. It is the amino acids that are the essential components. All nutritive material is formed in the plant kingdom; animals ahve the power to appropriate but never to form or create protein's source, the eight essentila amino acids. Plants can synthesize amino acids from air, earth, and water, but animals, including humans, are dependant on plant protein--either directly, by eating the plant, or indirectly, by eationg an animal that has eaten then plant. There are no 'essential' amino acids in the flesh that the animal did not derive from the plants, and that huimans cannot also derive from plants. That is why all the animals of strength have all the protein they need. They built it from the abundance of amino acids that they consume eating plant life. This is also why, except in emergencies, carnivorous animals generally don't eat other carnivorous animals. they instinctively eat animals that have eaten plabnt life.
There are twenty-three different amino acids. All are essential, or they wouldn't exist. As it happens, fifteen can be produced by the body and eight must be derived from the foods we eat. Only these eight are called essential. If you eat any fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, or sprouts on a regular basis, you are recieving all the amino acids necessary fro your body to build the protein it needs, just like the other mammals who seem to manage without eating meat. The fact is you couldn't have a protein deficiency unless you worked hard at having one. Do you know anyone with a protein deficiency? I don't either.
Now don't let the amino acid issue confuse you. All that talk about having to eat all the essential amino acids at one meal or at least in one day is pure balderdash. there is no question but that this is the most controversial subject i know. I know that the belief that the need for the 'eight essential' amino acids at every meal has been nutritional gospel for years, but there is strong evidence mounting that this is not the case. People who cut back on their meat consumption always have a fear that they are not meeting their protein requirements, but this is not the case as i have just shwon you that protein ingested doen't equal protein built, and that all the essential amino acids are found in fruits, nuts, veggies, seeds.
Common sense makes me ask why humans would be the only animal species to have such a complicated time of it obtaining the necessary components of protein. No animal in nature needs to combine different foods to get all the essentials. It is my contention that the reason it is so complictaed for humans is because humans are the only animals with the ability to reason, and we have made it far more complicated for ourselves than it actually is.
Merely because something is believed for a very long time does not make it true. For example, in 1914 Robert Barany won a Nobel prize in phsiology and medicine for his theory that relates to the workings of the inner ear and the body's balance mechanism. In December 1983 a test aboard the Space Shuttle showed his theory to be false. Even though it was being taught in Colleges throughout the world, in one fell swoop it was disproven. The fact that it was taught for nearly three quarters of a century did not make it true. Now the text books must be revised. I have powerful resources to back me up on the issue of protein, but remember, it took only one test to destroy a seventy-year old belief that a simple inner ear test could evaluate a persons equilibrium--a test rioutinely by ear, nose, and throat specialists, for decades. The information i'm going to priovide you with here will make obsolete the present theories governign amino acids and how we get them. Time will prove this to be true.
The human body and it's infinite wisdom knows full well how to insure itslef adequate protein production. how could it be otherwise? The body has a most remarkable mechanism to guarantee that somethign as crucial as protein is manufactured regularly and with great proficiency. That is the amino acid pool.
From the digestion of foods in the diet and from the recycling of proteinaceous wastes, the body has all the different amino acids circulating in the blood and lymph system. When the body needs amino acids, they are appropriated from the blood and lymph systems. This continous circualting available supply of amino acids is known as the amino acid pool. The amino acid pool is like a bank that is open twenty-four hours a day. The liver and cells are continually making deposits and withdrawls of amino acids, depending upon the concentration of amino acids in the blood. Whent eh number of amino acids is high, the liver absorbs and stores them until needed. As the amino acid level in the blood falls due to withdrawls by the cells, the liver deposits some of the stored amino acids back into circulation.
The cells also have the capacity to store amino acids. If the amino acid content of the blood falls, or if some other cells require specific amino acids, the cells are able to release their stored amino acids into circulation. Since most of the body's cells synthesize more protein than is necessary to support the life of the cell, the cells can reconvert their proteins into amino acids and make deposits into the amino acid pool. This pool of amino acids is critical to understanding why complete proteins are not necessary in the diet. I know it sounds a bit involved, but relax, that's about as technical as i'm going to get. The amino acid pool exists, and understanding it will free you from the oneous protein myth.
The existence of the amino acid pool is by no mesna a new discovery. Much of the information about diet today is based on outmoded data that have not been updated. New knowledge has completely reversed the old theory, which was based on studies between 1929 and 1950 that used purified amino acids. We eat foods -- not purified amino acids. Studies since 1950 have shown that it is not necessary to eat complete proteins at every meal or even every day.
A study conducted by E.E Nasset, detailed in world review of nutrition and dietetics, reported that "the body can make up any of the amino acids missing ina particular meal from it's own pool of reserves, as long as a variety of foods are included in the diet"
Presenting strong evidence for the amino acid pool theory are the books on physiology by Arthur C. Guyton. his books are the standard physiological texts in Colleges throughout North America.
T.C Fry, the dean of the American College of Health Science, is another authority on this matter. His life science Health system course teaches the amino acid pool theory.
This information has been available for over twenty years and is now coming to light. The main reason this information is being questioned is because it does not fit into the mold of what has traditionally been taught. It seems that new information is usually rejected before it's excepted. There will always be new information filtering down from the enormous body of knowledge that i refer to as the great unknown. To scrutinize it is fine. To condem it without investigation is folly. In addition to scientific verification, this information can be verified by simply putting it into practice. People who eat this way over long periods of time or even lifetimes have no protein problems. The Hunzas, Vilcabambans, Asians, and half a billion Hindus eat very little protein food in comparison with Western populations, yet have no protein deficiencies. And not surprisingly, no wieght problems!
There are eight amino acids that the body must appropriate from outside sources, and although all fruit and vegetables contain most of the eight, there are many frutis and vegetables that conatin all the amino acids not produced by the body: Carrots, bananas, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, corn, cucumber, eggplant, kale, okra, peas, potatoes, summer squash, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes. Also all nuts, sunflower and sesame seeds, peanuts, and beans contain all eight as well.
You might be interested to know that the utilizable amino acid content found in plant life is far in excess of that to be found in flesh foods. I knwo it must sound like i'm going to try and make a vegetarian out of you. Actually that's not my intent, although, in the words of Albert Einstein, "it is my view that the vegetarian manner of living, by it's purely physical effcets on the human temperment, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind" Remeber Bill Pearl, a proclaimed vegetarian bodybuilder from the 60's and 70's. Most vegetarians learned a long time ago that it's easier to sneak up on plants.
The question should be: Are human beings designed and intended to eat meat? What all the available evidence points to is that there is no nutritional, physiological, or psychological justification for meat-eating by humans. Whoa! Okay, pick yourself up off the floor and i'll explain. First, lets look at the nutritional aspects of flesh food. As indicated earlier, the number one prerequisite of a food is most certainly it's fuel value, fuel as it relates to energy for the body's use. Flesh foods supply no fuel, no energy. Fuel is built from carbohydrates. In other words, NO FUEL VALUE. Fats may supply energy, but they must undergo a longer and less efficient digestive process, and fats may be converted into fuel only when the body's carbohydrate reserves are depleted. It should be understood that fat in the body does not all come from the fat that is eaten in the diet. When an excess of carbs are eaten it is converted by the body into fat and stored. In this way the body can store and use fat without having a large amount of fat in the diet. The fat deposits could be viewed as a type of carbohydrate bank, where deposits and withdrawls are made as necessary. So utilizable fat is ultimately dependant upon carbohydrate intake.
Another consideration is fiber, every area of health care is stressing the importance of fiber in the diet. Among other things, fiber helps to avoid constipation and hemorhoids. Meat has virtually no fiber content. Now lets look at the availability of amino acids in flesh food. An amino acid chain can contain anywhere from fifty-one to two hundred thousand amino acids. When flesh protein is in gested, the chain has to be broken down and reassembled into 'human' protein. Amino acids are somewhat delicate. The heat of cooking coagulates or destroys many of the amino acids so they are not available for body use. These unusable amino acids become toxic, adding to one's weight, increasing the chores of the body, and depleting energy. Meta would have to be eaten raw, the way carnivorous and omnivorous animals eat it, for any potential useage of amino acids. Meta is also very high in saturated fat. Not the kind to be used for energy--the kind that causes heart attacks! So nutritionally, not withstanding all the propaganda to the contrary, meat has very little, if anyhting, going for it.
Now let's look at the physiological aspects of meat eating. A carnivore's teeth are long, sharp, and pointed--all of them! We have molars for crushing and grinding. A carnivore's jaw moves up and down only, for tearing and biting. Ours moves from side to side for grinding. A carnivore's saliva is acid and geared to the digestion of animal proteins; it lacks ptyalin, a chemical that digests starches. Our saliva is alkaline and contains ptyalin for the digestion of starch. A carnivore's stomach is a simple round sack that secretes ten times more hydrochloric acid than that of a non-carnivore. Our stomachs are oblong in shape, complicated in structure, and convoluted with a duodenum. A carnivore's intestines are three times the length of it's trunk, designed for rapid expulsion of food stuff, which quickly rots. Our intestines are twelve times the length of our trunks and designed to keep food in them until all nutrients are extracted. The liver of a carnivore is capable of eliminating ten to fifteen times more uric acid than the liver of a non-carnivore. Our livers have the capacity to eliminate only small amounts of uric acid. Uric acid is an extremely dangerous toxic substance that can wreak havoc in your body. All meat consumption releases large quantities of uric acid into the system. Unlike carnivores and most omnivores, humans do not have the enzyme uricase to break down uric acid. A carnivore does not sweat through the skin and has no pores. We do sweat through the skin and have pores. A carnivores urine is acid. Ours alkaline. A carnivore's tongue is rough, ours smooth. Our hands are perfectly designed fro pl;ucking fruit from a tree, not for tearing the guts out of the carcas of a dead animal as are a carnivores claws. There is not one anatomical faculty the human being has that would indicate that it is equiped for tearing, ripping, and rending flesh for consumption.
Lastly, we as humans are not even psychologically equipped to eat meat. Have toy ever strolled through a lush wooded area, filling your lungs with good air while listening to the birds sing? Perhaps it was after a rain, and everything was fresh and clean. The sun was filtering through the trees and glistening off the moisture on the flowers and grass. Just then perhaps a chipmunk scurried across your path. What was your very first instinctive inclination upon the sight of the chipmunk, before you even had time to think? To pounce on it, grab it with your teeth, rip it apart, adn swallow it, blood, guts, skin, bone, flesh and all? Then lick your lips with delight and thank the powers that be you choose this particular path through the woods so you had the oportunity to devour this delectable little tidbit? Or would you instantly, upon sight of the furry little creature, say, "shhh, did you see that cute little chipmunk?" I wonder how many more vegetarians there would be if when people wanted a piece of steak, they had to go out, beat a defenseless steer to death, cut it open, and wade through the blood and guts to slice out the particular parts they desired. Kids are the real test. Place a small child in a crib with a rabbit and an apple. If the child eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, i'll buy you a new car.
So, why do people eat flesh? Two very simple reasons: number one, habit and conditioning--if hundreds of billions of dollars were spent regularly to convince people that if they cut off their feet they would never stub their toes, probably some would see the virute of that way of thinking: number two, some poeple happen to like meat. I'm one of them. And that's it. Which is alright as long as people aren't convinced that they eat meat for health reasons, because the only effect meat-eating has on health is that it deteriorates it. It demands a tremendous amount of energy to digest it, and it makes the task of losing weight more of a chore than it should be. If you do wish to continue to eat meat, I would like to offer three simple hints on how to minimize its negative effects.
1) Seek a good source. Some of the chemicals given to animals destined for slaughter are dangerous. This can include penicillin, tetracyline, sewage sludge pellets decontaminated with cesium-137, radioactive nuclear waste, fattening agents, and a host of other chemicals and antibiotics to "prime" the animal for sale. Not to mention the chemical treatment some meat recieves when it is routinely dipped in sodium sulphite to decrease the stench of decay and turn it red rather than the gray of dead flesh. Even cement dust! That's right! Nutrition health reported in 1981 that some cattle farmers in the mid-west of the USA were feeding their steers hundreds of pounds of cement dust to get their weight up for sale. A consumer group, hearing of this ploy, complained to the FDA to halt it, and the FDA's statement after investigation was that since there has been no indication of harm to humans by ingesting some cement dust, the practice can continue until some harm is proved. Can you imakgine trying to lose wieght while you're eating cement dust? I don't like it. There are places that guarantee that their beef and chicken are naturally grazed and raised with absolutely no chemical additivesa at all. Seek out these sources. You're worth it. If your butcher doesn't carry it, ask for it.
2) Try to eat flesh no more than once a day. If meat is eaten more than once a day, they enormous amount of energy necessary to digest it would not leave sufficient energy for other important body functions, such as elimination. The one meat meal should be late in the day. And some days don't have any meat at all if possible. Don't worry, you'll wake up the next day, probably with more spunk than the day before.
3) Properly combine. There are times when you will eat foods that are not properly combined. But try not to let it be a time when you are having flesh food. Flesh food combined properly places enough of a burden on the body, don't complicate it.
Some of you who are athlete's might be saying, " But i need more protein, because i'm active." The following interesting comment appeared in the journal of the American Medical Association. The Associations department commented: "the ingestion of protein supplements by athletes who eat an other-wise well-balanced diet is of no use in bodybuilding programs. Athletes need the same amount of protein foods as nonathletes. Protein does not increase strength. Indeed, it often takes greater energy to digest and metabolize the excess of protein. In addition, excess protein in the athlete can induce dehydration, loss of appetite, and diarhea."
If more physical activity is anticipated, it is necessary only to increase your carbohydrate intake to insure more fuel. Proteins are disastrous in fuel effeciency and do not aid directly or efficiently in muscular activity. Protein does not produce energy, it uses it! A lion, which eats exclusively flesh, sleeps twenty hours a day. An organism, which eats exclusively plants, sleeps six. Also in the journal of the American Medical Association reported " A vegetarian diet can prevent 90 to 97 percent of heart diease." that's quite a statistic.
One last issue must be addressed: vitamin B12 supposedly, if you don't eat meat, you'll develop a vitamin B12 deficiency. Poppycock! Where do the animals whose meat we eat get theirs? Vitamin B12 is found in plants in very small amounts. But the way vitamin B12 is secured is primarily from that produced in the body. the stomach secretes a substance called "intrinsic factor," which transports the vitamin B12 created by the bacterial flora in our intestines. The vitamin B12 issue is part and parcel of the entir protein myth. WHERE DO THE CATTLE THAT SUPPLY US THE MEAT AND MILK GET THEIR B12? Supposedly we will perish without meat or dairy products. Without any source to show this false except our common sense, we could discount it. Howevere, there are numerous sources. Our actual need for vitamin B12 is so minute that it is measured in micrograms (millionth of a gram) or nanograms (billionth of a gram). One milligram of B12 will last you over two years, and healthy individuals usually carry around a fiver year supply. But here's the rub: putrefacation hampers the secretion of "intrinsic factor" in the stomach and retards the production of vitamin B12. So flesh-eaters are more apt to develop a vitmain B12 deficiency than vegetarians! This has been known for some time. there's a book you could read called "vitamins of the B complex" which would describe this in greater detail, but back to protein.
You may be wondering if eggs fare any better than flesh foods as a source for protein. Actually high quality protein is not what we should search for. high quality amino acids are waht we need to produce the protein we must have. Unless eggs are eaten raw, the amino acids are coagulated by heat and therby lost. Even if they are eaten raw, eggs are laid by hens that are fed arsenic to kill parasites and stimulate egg production, and you ingest some of that virulent poison. Also eggs contain much sulfur, which puts a heavy starin on the liver and kidneys. The beautiful human body does not require anything that stinks for it's survival/ Eggs stink. just drop one on your driveway ona hot day and let it sit there for about eight hours, then take a big whiff of the effluvium. There's no difference between that and putting eggs in your body at 98.6 degrees for eight hours. The next bowel movement after the consumption of eggs will certainly bear this out.
One last fact, Dr. Carl Lumholtz, a Norwegian scientist, conducted extensive studies ofanthropophagy (cannibalism). he indicated that some aborigine tribes in Australia would not eat the flesh of caucasians because it was salty and occasioned nausea. But asians and other native tribesmen were considered good eating because their food was chiefly vegetables.
To maintain your life and add life to your life, it is best to predominate your diet with those foods that are full of life! Incidentally, the word vegetable comes from the word 'vegetus', which means FULL OF LIFE!
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THE INFORMATION ABOVE IS NOT TO BE CUT AND PASTED PLEASE! THANK YOU!
