Protein: How Much Do We Need, Really?

Today’s almonds have been activated by:

⏰ IN A RUSH?

Today’s 30-Second Summary

If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:

• Protein is very important for our health (most of our body is made of protein + water, and we must constantly replenish both as our body constantly rebuilds itself)

  • We can technically live without consuming protein iff we consume enough of the constituent amino acids, but to do so without eating protein would pretty much require living in a laboratory.

  • There is a correct amount of protein to eat, and it depends on various factors but is generally around 1–2g of protein per kg (2.2lb) of bodyweight per day.

    • It’s easy to accidentally not get enough, but it’s very hard to accidentally eat too much protein (especially because protein is an appetite suppressant)

• The source of the protein does matter

  • Red meat is associated with many health risks (as is processed meat), but that is not necessarily the protein’s fault.

  • Poultry, fish, and/or plants are very healthful sources of protein.

  • Consuming “whole proteins” (that contain all 9 amino acids that we can’t synthesize) are best.

• Testosterone levels in men often decline severely after the age of 45. This commonly results in a dropped libido, low mood, reduced energy, blood sugar problems, loss of bone density and muscle mass, and more.

  • Today’s sponsor, Wellcore, offer at-home kits for checking T-levels, and then provide appropriate testosterone therapy (again, at home) with the goal of restoring youthful vitality.

• Sugar is terrible for the health. That may not be news in and of itself, but it’s implicated in everything from metabolic syndrome to cancer to Alzheimer’s.

  • See today’s featured book for more about this!

Read on to learn about these things and more…

👀 WATCH AND LEARN

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🥩 MAIN FEATURE

Mythbusting Protein!

Yesterday, we asked you for your policy on protein consumption. The distribution of responses was as follows:

• A marginal majority (about 55%) voted for “Protein is very important, but we can eat too much of it”

• A large minority (about 35%) voted for “We need lots of protein; the more, the better!”

• A handful (about 4%) voted for “We should go as light on protein as possible”

• A handful (6%) voted for “If we don’t eat protein, our body will create it from other foods”

So, what does the science say?

If we don’t eat protein, our body will create it from other foods: True or False?

Contingently True on an absurd technicality, but for all practical purposes False.

Our body requires 20 amino acids (the building blocks of protein), 9 of which it can’t synthesize and absolutely must get from food. Normally, we get those amino acids from protein in our diet, and we can also supplement them by buying amino acid supplements.

Specifically, we require (per kg of bodyweight) a daily average of:

1. Histidine: 10 mg

2. Isoleucine: 20 mg

3. Leucine: 39 mg

4. Lysine: 30 mg

5. Methionine: 10.4 mg

6. Phenylalanine*: 25 mg

7. Threonine: 15 mg

8. Tryptophan: 4 mg

9. Valine: 26 mg

*combined with the non-essential amino acid tyrosine

Source: Protein and Amino Acid Requirements In Human Nutrition: WHO Technical Report

However, to get the requisite amino acid amounts, without consuming actual protein, would require gargantuan amounts of supplementation (bearing in mind bioavailability will never be 100%, so you’ll always need to take more than it seems), using supplements that will have been made by breaking down proteins anyway.

So unless you live in a laboratory and have access to endless amounts of all of the required amino acids (you can’t miss even one; you will die), and are willing to do that for the sake of proving a point, then you do really need to eat protein.

Your body cannot, for example, simply break down sugar and use it to make the protein you need.

We can eat too much protein: True or False?

True. First on an easy technicality; anything in excess is toxic. Even water, or oxygen. But also, in practical terms, there is such a thing as too much protein. The bar is quite high, though:

❝Based on short-term nitrogen balance studies, the Recommended Dietary Allowance of protein for a healthy adult with minimal physical activity is currently 0.8 g protein per kg bodyweight per day❞

❝To meet the functional needs such as promoting skeletal-muscle protein accretion and physical strength, dietary intake of 1.0, 1.3, and 1.6 g protein per kg bodyweight per day is recommended for individuals with minimal, moderate, and intense physical activity, respectively❞

❝Long-term consumption of protein at 2 g per kg bodyweight per day is safe for healthy adults, and the tolerable upper limit is 3.5 g per kg bodyweight per day for well-adapted subjects❞

❝Chronic high protein intake (>2 g per kg bodyweight per day for adults) may result in digestive, renal, and vascular abnormalities and should be avoided❞

Source: Dietary protein intake and human health

To put this into perspective, if you weigh about 160lbs (about 72kg), this would mean eating more than 144g protein per day, which grabbing a calculator means about 560g of lean beef, or 20oz, or 1¼lb.

If you’re eating quarter-pounder burgers though, that’s not usually so lean, so you’d need to eat more than nine quarter-pounder burgers per day to get too much protein.

High protein intake damages the kidneys: True or False?

True if you have kidney damage already; False if you are healthy. See for example:

• Effects of dietary protein restriction on the progression of advanced renal disease in the modification of diet in renal disease study

• A high protein diet has no harmful effects: a one-year crossover study in healthy male athletes

High protein intake increases cancer risk: True or False?

True or False depending on the source of the protein, so functionally false:

• Eating protein from red meat sources has been associated with higher risk for many cancers

• Eating protein from other sources has been associated with lower risk for many cancers

Source: Red Meat Consumption and Mortality Results From 2 Prospective Cohort Studies

High protein intake increase risk of heart disease: True or False?

True or False depending on the source of the protein, so, functionally false:

• Eating protein from red meat sources has been associated with higher risk of heart disease

• Eating protein from other sources has been associated with lower risk of heart disease

Source: Major Dietary Protein Sources and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in Women

In summary…

Getting a good amount of good quality protein is important to health.

One can get too much, but one would have to go to extremes to do so.

The source of protein matters:

• Red meat is associated with many health risks, but that’s not necessarily the protein’s fault.

• Getting plenty of protein from (ideally: unprocessed) sources such as poultry, fish, and/or plants, is critical to good health.

• Consuming “whole proteins” (that contain all 9 amino acids that we can’t synthesize) are best.

Learn more: Complete proteins vs. incomplete proteins (explanation and examples)

❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE

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Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free

🌏 AROUND THE WEB

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• Greater enjoyment, not greater tolerance, may motivate heavy drinking among high-risk drinkers

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• Blood test could aid the diagnosis of 52 conditions including cancer

• Drinking, often heavy, is common among cancer survivors

• AHA scientific statement highlights evidence for shared decision-making in cardiovascular care

• Side does matter: why it's better for sequential vaccinations to be given in the same arm

• Study: people with severe alcohol use disorder have impaired ability to learn from others' painful experiences

More to come tomorrow!

📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System: A Tale in Four Lives – by Matt Richtel

In a way, Richtel got the best and worst of the publication date lottery. This book, which he'd obviously been working on for however long, was published in March 2020. Yes, that March 2020. So, it obviously got a huge boost in sales that launced it to bestseller status, and/but it doesn't actually discuss COVID at all.

What it does discuss, is—as one might expect—the immune system. Or really, the immune systems, plural, several systems working alongside each other. How we got to have such, how our immune functions work, where all the various immune cells come from and what part they play. What pathogens can do to fight and/or confuse (or even co-opt) our immune response, and what modern medicine can do to counteract the pathogens' anti-countermeasure countermeasures. And how it can still go wrong.

The "Four Lives" promised in the subtitle are stories, and Richtel explains the immune system through specific people's specific battles. In particular, a friend of his who had quite a remarkable battle against cancer, which was of course terrible for him, but illustrative for us.

The style of the book is very readably journalistic. The author is a Pulitzer-winning NYT journalist, and not normally a science writer. Here at 10almonds, "we like big bibliographies and we cannot lie", and we didn't get to enjoy that in this case. The book contained no bibliography (nor appropriate inline citations, nor equivalent footnotes). Maybe a future addition will include this.

Bottom line: there's a lot of "science for the lay reader" here. While the lack of references is a big oversight, the book does give a very good overview of what both sides (immune response and pathogenic invasion) bring to the battle of your body.

Click here to check out Elegant Defense, and demystify immunology!

May today see you well-prepared for the coming weekend,

The 10almonds Team