Health and Tips:All Protein Is Not Created Equal
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All Protein Is Not Created Equal
Athletes like to talk about how much protein they need for
good performance, muscle-conditioning, and staying power.
But I believe they sometimes overestimate its value. Growing
up in Czechoslovakia, we ate mostly carbohydrates at meals,
with a small amount of protein. To this day, the centerpiece
of my diet is fresh fruit and vegetables (preferably organic).
When I first came to America in 1973 at the age of 16, I think
I might have overdosed on protein. Meals in America were
protein, protein, and more protein. I’d have a huge steak for
dinner, baked potato, a salad, soup—and two scoops of ice
cream every night for dessert.
My metabolism just couldn’t keep up, and I put on 20 pounds
in two weeks. I eventually lost that weight—especially after
I went to a diet of pasta, grains, salads, fruits, and low-fat
protein and laid off the animal fats, sugar, and processed foods.
Protein does have power in the right amounts. I’ve found that
a reasonable serving of low-fat protein should complement the
nutritional force in any meal: plant-based foods like fresh
vegetables, whole grains, and fruit. When I eat the right
balance of protein and carbs, I feel as if I could stay on
the court or work out forever.
If you’re a vegetarian, it’s easy to get enough protein in
your diet. Vegetarian proteins like beans, nuts, lentils, and
soy foods (tofu and tempeh, for example) are a whole lot better
for you than many meats, because they supply a near-complete
set of disease-preventing nutrients, without all the fat.
When opting for protein from meat, choose low-fat animal
proteins, such as fish and white-meat poultry over high-fat
cuts of meat. Dairy foods and dairy substitutes supply protein,
too. It just makes good sense to cut down on fatty meats and to
stick with high-fiber, low-fat foods if you want to stay healthy
as you get older.
Exactly how much protein should you eat daily? Each serving of
poultry or fish should be about the size of the palm of your
hand, and each vegetable protein should be the size of your
fist. Here’s an example of how I work portions of low-fat
proteins into my day:
* Upon rising: A glass of fresh-squeezed fruit or vegetable
juice.
* Breakfast: Eggs or egg whites sautéed with mushrooms or
another vegetable, such as broccoli, or an omelet made
with one egg and two egg whites, along with multigrain
bread with a little butter or jam; pancakes; or oatmeal—
always with a glass of fresh-squeezed juice.
* Lunch: A raw salad, pasta, or rice with vegetarian protein,
such as beans or legumes, or a vegetable sandwich made with
a hearty, multigrain bread.
* Mid-afternoon snack: Slice of multigrain bread with a fresh
fruit, such as a banana.
* Dinner: A lean protein, such as chicken breasts or fish,
lots of lightly steamed vegetables, and usually a salad
made with a light olive oil dressing.
* Evening snack: Fresh vegetable juice.
On days that I work out, I’ll have a little protein with some
carbs after exercising. This combo speeds up the manufacture of
new glycogen (the carbohydrate that is stored in muscle and
supplies energy) and elevates key hormones in the body that are
involved in muscle repair and growth. In addition, the snack
amplifies the fuel I get from carbs. For refueling with protein,
good options include tofu, edamame (steamed soybeans), soy milk,
yogurt, several ounces of lean chicken or fish, or egg whites.
Given that most Americans already consume two to three times the
daily requirement for protein, it’s doubtful that you’re not
getting enough of it. If you follow the guidelines I suggest—
including making low-fat choices—you’ll get all the nutritional
punch that protein delivers.
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Colon bug assailed by fecal transplant
OKLAHOMA CITY - Some Oklahoma City doctors have begun giving
fecal transplants to combat possibly deadly superbugs found
in patients’ colons, hospital officials say. The procedure
is reported well known in other countries but new to the
United States. Integris Baptist Medical Center doctors rec-
ently gave fecal transplants to three patients suffering
from Clostridium difficile, also known as C-diff, the most
common cause of infectious diarrhea in hospitals and nursing
homes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said
the ailment leads to several thousand deaths a year, The
Oklahoman reported. The transplant involves taking human
waste from a healthy person and injecting it via colonoscopy
into a person with C-diff. Many people with C-diff are older
and became ill after they get antibiotics for other infec-
tions. Some countries have had considerable success with
fecal transplants, notably Australia, which said it had al-
most a 90 percent success rate.
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Close relationships may slow Alzheimer’s
BALTIMORE - A close relationship to a caregiver may slow
decline in an Alzheimer’s patient, U.S. researchers say.
A report published in The Journals of Gerontology Series B:
Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences suggests the
patient-caregiver relationship may directly influence pro-
gression of Alzheimer’s disease. The beneficial effect of
emotional intimacy the researchers saw among participants
was on par with some drugs used to treat the disease. The
researchers examined 167 pairs of caregivers and Alzheimer’s
patients — residents of Utah’s Cache County.
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Possible embryonic stem cell option
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Sperm cell precursors can be converted
into other cell types, providing a possible alternative to
the medical use of embryonic stem cells, U.S. researchers
say. The University of Illinois research, described in the
journal Stem Cells, improves on earlier research that showed
that a kind of germ cell that leads to the production of
sperm could eventually give rise to a few cells that looked
and acted like embryonic stem cells. But the earlier process
with the spermatagonial stem cells took months, and only a
small portion of the cells evolved into “embryonic stemlike”
cells, veterinary biosciences Professor Paul Cooke and post-
doctoral researcher Liz Simon said. In their new research,
Simon placed spermatagonial stem cells from inbred mice on
the connective tissue in embryos and grafted the combination
into living mice. They found that the spermatagonial stem
cells, under the right conditions, formed new tissues that
had all the physical characteristics of prostate, skin or
uterus and produced the telltale markers of those tissue
types, they said. The original cells stopped looking and
behaving like spermatagonial stem cells, Cooke said. Cooke
said he hopes a more streamlined approach can be developed
to produce new skin cells or other tissues when needed –
for example, to replace skin damaged in a burn. His team is
also investigating the use of ovarian stem cells instead of
spermatagonial stem cells to see if they can get the same
results with ovarian tissue.
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Drugs may help protect against dementia
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - A class of medication used to treat
high blood pressure may protect older adults against memory
decline, U.S. researchers said. “High blood pressure is an
important risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and vascular
dementia,” lead author Dr. Kaycee Sink of Wake Forest Uni-
versity School of Medicine said in a statement. “Our study
found that all blood-pressure medications may not be equal
when it comes to reducing the risk of dementia in patients
with hypertension.” The researchers analyzed data from the
Cardiovascular Health Study, a long-term study of cardio-
vascular risk factors that involved 5,888 people age 65 and
older.
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Study links metabolic and immune diseases
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Researchers in Cambridge, Mass., found a
link between metabolic and immunologic conditions, they said
in papers published Sunday in the journal Nature Medicine.
They used two over-the-counter allergy medications to reduce
both obesity and type 2 diabetes in mice. The papers ex-
plained the medications stabilize a population of inflam-
matory immune cells called mast cells. The researchers also
found a white blood cell called a regulatory T cell controls
inflammation in fat tissues. Obese people and people with
type 2 diabetes have too few of these cells, the papers said.
“It seems that we’re seeing the emergence of a new biomedical
discipline: immunometabolism,” said Harvard Medical School
Professor of pathology Diane Mathis, senior author on one of
the papers. Scientists know type 1 diabetes is an immunolog-
ical disease but didn’t consider type 2 to be immunological
until this study, the Harvard scientists said.
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Juices - the good, the bad, and the ugly.
I confess. I love juice. As someone who really can’t be
bothered with peeling oranges, slicing up mangos, or
grating carrots, I find having a jug of juice in the fridge
a matter of necessity.
But, as usual, it turns out that what I think is good for
me might not necessarily be so.
According to this WebMD slideshow, there are three diverse
sides to juice - the good, the bad, and the ugly - and how
to spot the differences.
The Good - Vegetable Juices which have far less sugar and
fewer calories than fruit juices
The Bad - Fruit juices might be the real deal full of
vitamins and anti-oxidants but they are also naturally
full of calories and sugars.
The Ugly - anything labeled juice cocktail, juice-flavoured
beverage or juice drink. Odds are they will only contain
minor amounts of the real stuff, with water and sugar making
up most of the ingredients. They might not look filling but
these sugary fruit drinks put kids (and adults) at risk of
obesity and other related health problems.
WebMD, by the way, is not telling you not to drink juices.
They are just wanting to make people aware of some of the
pit falls of drinking them.
As to what juices they recommend, you’ll have to head over
to the WebMD and check out their slideshow. A word of
warning though - it might make you thirsty.
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Chocolate for the brain
Last month, over 350 medical professionals, computer experts
and entrepreneurs gathered for the fifth annual Games for
Health Conference in Boston and discussed out topics such
as how computer games could boost patients’ health.
There were even sessions that specifically focused on the
relationship between gaming and cognitive health and whether
games can help change behavior and/or improve balance for
people with neurodegenerative diseases.
Me - I’m all for the idea that games can help maintain
cognitive health as well as possibly improve memory.
And with that in mind, I’d like to introduce you to my
latest find - Chocolatier: Decadence by Design.
Seriously, what could be more fun than spending an hour or
two pretending that you are a chocolatier building up a
chocolate empire from scratch. There’s travel, there’s
intrigue, and there’s recipes. And not a single ounce of
chocolate will get near your waist line.
Decadence by Design is the third in a series of Chocolatier
games available. You can play them free online, download
free and play for an hour, or purchase and be a chocolatier
for the rest of your life. The choice is yours.