module #2 - lesson 2 - s3. · pdf filewhat science actually says ... the body recycles amino...

Protein Quality and Digestibility

MODULE #2 - Lesson 2

2Super Nutrition Academy – MODULE 2 - Lesson 2

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Module 2 - Lesson 2Protein Quality and

Digestibility

What We Will Cover Today

� How much protein we need

� The truth about complete versus incomplete protein

� Protein usability and digestibility

� Raw versus cooked proteins

� What science actually says

� The six myths about protein

� My conclusions about plant versus animal proteins


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How Much Protein We Actually Need

Our needs for protein decrease as we age as well as in response to regular strength training. Some studies have shown that muscles become a little less sensitive to protein in men over the age of 60. In this case they might need a bit more than 60 grams per day but generally, the body adapts to the cards it’s dealt. Also the more conditioned your muscles are to strength training, the more they’re able to use protein so you don’t have to eat as much protein to get the same benefits.

For your information, the North American diet consists of about 70% protein from animals and 30% from plants. Now, this is in contrast to third-world countries, where only 20% of their protein comes from animals. What’s interesting is, third-world countries do not suffer from the same diseases we see in North America: diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity are almost nonexistent in those countries.

It’s interesting that they almost have the total opposite in terms of protein intake that we do, and their diseases from lifestyle behavior are dramatically different from North Americans. We touched upon this last lesson and I’m going to continue to get this message across, research shows that you can get all the protein you need from a vegetarian diet.

So, How Much Protein Do We Need? As I mentioned, the body can up- and down- regulate amino acid absorption from the small intestine as well as how much is burned as fuel. So, if you have a high amount of protein in your diet, your body will regulate so more of it is burned as fuel. Because your body can’t store protein above and beyond what


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it can, it’s going to convert a tiny amount to fat but the majority will be burned off as fuel. A study in 1990 showed that when you suddenly start eating high amounts of protein, your body starts to burn amino acids as fuel.

In reference to this up-down regulation of amino acids from the gut, we can actually adapt over about a period of one week, whether it’s a very large amount of protein or very minimal amount of protein. The body will adapt very quickly. Again, having a lot of protein isn’t necessarily healthy, especially if it’s coming from animal sources.

How Much Do We Need? We talked about endogenous sources where your body recycles our tissue protein, we also have food sources, and sources from the gut. The gut actually is shown to develop amino acids from various processes, for example, we have this recycle effect between your muscle, your gut, your enzymes and your heart. For instance, amino acids from your biceps will eventually become enzymes for different processes in the body.

The body recycles amino acids every single day to form new ones and we have these extracellular and intercellular amino acid pools in our liver and muscle. Your body will turn to those pools of amino acids on the days you don’t eat enough protein. As I mentioned previously, the gut flora may produce amino acids that we reabsorb from sources other than food.

How Much Protein We NeedThe problem with protein is that we don’t know how to measure it properly in and out of the body other than nitrogen balance, biological value, and bio-availability, but these are not very accurate. Just protein itself is massively influential because of skewed results from a few studies being blown way out of proportion leading people to believe that we need huge amounts of protein in order to look like body builders but that isn’t the reality.


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How Much Protein Do We Need?We need 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. If you’re 175 pounds, that’s about 64 grams. This amount is plenty for 98% of a healthy population. Some may need a little more but for the majority 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight is what we’re after.

60 grams per day for active, trained individuals other than the elderly is enough. So, for example, in my case, I’m about 170 pounds; that gives me 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight, 60 grams per day is what I need. This is also what the research shows for a lot of the active population who work out 3 to 5 times a week. Whether you’re looking to build muscle or not, this is still a good range to be in.

In the next lesson we will learn that 70–120 grams of protein is really the ideal range if you’re looking to build muscle, but this will also attenuate as muscles becomes conditioned to training. As I mentioned in the beginning of this presentation, when the muscles become more efficient they utilize protein more easily so you don’t actually need more protein with more resistance training.

As I mentioned, I don’t count my protein or worry about calories and I’m hovering on average between 60 and 70 grams of protein per day. Again, I’m not in a huge muscle-building phase but I get all the protein that I need. So 70–120 grams is more than enough and again, more does not lead to more muscle mass, but it may actually accelerate muscle gaining.

The amount of muscle you gain doesn’t change but it might accelerate how quickly you put that muscle on. The average North American intake is 90 grams per day. As you can tell, the majority of North Americans are not impoverished when it comes to getting enough protein; we’re actually getting more than enough.


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When we’re looking at a high-quality protein food we look at two factors: the amount of protein in grams per serving and the number of essential amino acids provided by that food. If there is an essential amino acid lacking, like lysine for instance it would compromise the quality of that particular food.

Plant proteins are considered lower quality because they don’t contain all the essential amino acids and they’re digestibility is lower than animal protein.

Incomplete vs. Complete ProteinsFoods that contain all 9 essential amino acids are called complete. Animal proteins are complete and some plants are complete. Foods that are missing 1 or more essential amino acids are called incomplete.

In general, grains lack lysine, which is one of the essential amino acids. Some legumes lack sulfur amino acids like cysteine and methionine. Most nuts and seeds lack lysine, and veggies and fruit lack lysine, leucine, and some sulfur-containing amino acids. It was thought that we had to combine proteins to complete things.

Here’s a chart from a study done in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition several years ago that was really at the forefront of this whole topic of complete versus incomplete proteins. As you can see we have foods like buckwheat, which is 13.3% protein. The lysine amino acid score will tell you if a food is a complete protein or not.

Buckwheat has an 87% amino acid score, with the missing amino acid being lysine. This is the same for corn, oats, almonds, walnuts, they’re all missing lysine. Pumpkin seeds have a 100%, amino acid score, 18% protein, a good source of protein and a lot of other minerals too.

Broccoli is only 3% protein, 67% amino acid score, with the missing amino acid being leucine. Oranges, 0.9%, 37% on amino acid score, leucine as the major one that’s lacking. Chia seeds, one of our complete vegetable proteins, 100% on the amino acid scale and 23% protein per serving, which is awesome.

What Makes One Protein Better Than the Next?


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Here’s a chart from that study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that shows which is the major lacking amino acid. In legumes, I’ve circled the sulfur amino acid cysteine and methionine; these are the big ones that are missing in legumes, like lentils. In cereals and grains, lysine is the big one


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that’s missing. In fruits, sulfur amino acids are missing as well but also notice we have tryptophan which is very low in relation to the rest of amino acids throughout the different food groups.

For instance, lysine in legumes is about 64, whereas tryptophan is only 12. Even in animal foods, tryptophan is only 12. If you think about turkey being a high source of tryptophan, a precursor to serotonin, it’s actually lower than a lot of nuts and seeds.

Combining ProteinsIt was believed that vegetarians had to combine proteins to complete any uncompleted proteins. For instance, we were told to eat corn, which doesn’t have lysine, in the same meal as lentils, which do not have sulfur-containing amino acids. Together, lentils contain lysine and corn contains sulfur amino acids, so, when combined, they form a complete protein. We now know that the body is able to complete incomplete proteins inside the body, thanks to its liver and muscular amino acid pools.

Even if you only ate corn, body is stores several grams worth of amino acids, so it’s going to have lysine available, combine in the body. These amino acid pools will eventually break down and lose their concentration so you want to replenish them over time. This just shows you that you don’t have to combine proteins.

All that matters is what’s happening to the broken-down amino acids being stored in the amino acid pools. It does not matter if you’re combining proteins at all or not. As long as you’re getting a good varied source of food, you’ll get all the amino acids you need.

Biological Value (Usability)How are protein quality, usability, and digestibility measured? There are a couple of different measures but we will look at two: biological value and protein digestibility corrected amino acid score (IPDCAAS).

Biological value measures the proportion of absorbed protein from a food that becomes incorporated into the proteins of the body. Basically, what you have coming in versus what the body is able to use is usability. It tells us if the


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protein me eat can be used in in the cells. There are three major properties that affect a protein’s biological value. The first one is amino acid composition and the limiting amino acid.

A little bit later we’ll talk about preparation, how a food is cooked, and vitamin and mineral content, which can actually assist in the absorption of protein. For instance, vitamin C can enhance the absorption of protein, as well as iron, in the stomach so that would obviously increase its biological value, mainly in fruits and vegetables in that case.

True Digestibility of Protein This is a general measure from a report by the World Health Organization in 1995, researchers looked at, on a scale of 0 to 100, the true digestibility of various foods. An egg is kind of the gold standard for protein digestibility and biological value. In terms of biological value, egg is given a 100.

When it comes to digestibility, it’s given 97%. Milk, meat, they’re 90 percentiles. You’ll notice the plants, corn, rice, whole wheat, oatmeal, beans, they’re a little bit lower in terms of true digestibility. So, there’s a little bit of a difference between biological value and digestibility, and that’s what we’re going to talk about here.

Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acids Score (Digestibility)Digestibility evaluates protein quality based on both the amino acid requirements and our ability to digest it. So, we look at the amino acids in that food and what our body’s ability to digest that food is.

FDA, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the World Health Organization adopted this measure as the best method to determine protein quality. It measures on a scale of 0 to 1, so it’s a little bit different than the measurement I just showed you but if egg is 97% digestible, on this scale it would be about 1.


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What Makes A Protein Easier/Harder to Digest?

So why are plant foods are harder to digest? What makes a protein easier or harder to digest? In general, the digestibility of vegetable proteins in their raw form is lower than that of animal proteins. Animal foods are more easily digested than plants for structural reasons. Plants and plant foods are encased in cellulose or fiber.

These are the cell walls that are very tough, rigid and hard to digest which makes it tough to access some of the protein. Imagine trying to penetrate tree bark to get inside to the protein. Animal meats are a lot more accessible in terms of the protein they give off. Does cooking protein make it easier or harder to digest?


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The literature is a little bit mixed but there is a trend showing that cooking and heating decreases protein digestibility. However heat might also increase the digestibility of some foods but in general, heating denatures protein, making it tougher to digest.

A 1991 study showed that heating above 100 degrees Celsius decreases meat protein digestibility and frying chickpeas or roasting cereals between 200 and 280 degrees Celsius also reduces digestibility. Another study in 1997 showed that fish heated for 10 minutes at 130 degrees Celsius showed a 1.5% decrease in protein digestibility.

Sometimes the preparation with other foods can have an effect on the digestibility of that particular food. In general, heating proteins changes their digestibility in some way.

A more recent study showed an almost 50% drop in lentil protein digestibility after heating. Even in the presence of pepsin and pancreatin, 2 protein-digesting enzymes, the digestibility of lentil proteins dropped about 50% after being heated.


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What Happens to Protein When it is Cooked?

If you compare a fried egg to an egg right out of the shell, the uncooked egg is a lot more viscous. As soon as we start to heat it, it becomes denatured and the proteins become a lot tougher. The fried eggs in the picture are an example of protein coagulation.

This is an area of controversy among raw foodists and people who cook their foods. I wanted to try to uncover what is happening here and essentially when you cook protein, there’s a folding of protein that occurs due to the heating.

If you remember the 3-D molecule that I showed you in the first lesson of this module, it folds and changes shape reducing the ability of enzymes to access break down the peptide bonds. If you have a piece of paper in front of you pretend it is a protein in its natural state.

There’s a lot of surface area, there’re a lot of access points that the enzymes can access those peptide bonds and break it down. Now crunch it up into a little ball and the first thing you’ll notice is that the surface area has greatly decreased. It’s now tougher for the enzymes to access the bonds so it cannot break them down as readily. That is what happens when protein is heated.

Heating also leads to aggregated proteins, which not only reduce digestibility but could also increase your risk for various diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. Heating also causes chemical and molecular changes which reduce the potency of peptidases, the protein enzymes. The enzymes aren’t able to access the peptide bonds because the molecular structure is changed.

This is one of the reasons why a lot of studies show lower digestibility in many foods when they’re cooked. Not only is the protein itself affected by the individual amino acids, but some of them are very sensitive to heat, especially lysine, tryptophan, methionine, cysteine, histidine, and arginine. Lysine, tryptophan, methionine, and cysteine are very important amino acids and if they are heated they are destroyed. If you eat foods that are low in lysine and then you cook them you reduce their ability to provide benefit in your body.


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Heating also causes the Maillard or browning reaction, which decreases the biological value of proteins so we’re not able to use them. On the left side we have a piece of bread; the toast on the right side shows the Maillard reaction. This reaction is the browning of a protein that occurs with heat. This is something that has been linked to many diseases. When you barbeque meat you get all that brown/black, tough skin; that is, essentially, the Maillard reaction or the browning reaction in effect, and it is linked to cancer-causing properties in the body yet another reason you don’t want to overcook foods.

Heat can also encourage other dangerous reactions some of which result in new linkages both within and beyond between peptide chains. This means new peptide bonds are formed in strange ways. This makes them more resistant to enzymes and further impairs digestion of protein. If you’re not digesting proteins properly it becomes a risk factor for developing allergies and autoimmune conditions.

Should We Cook Our Food?So, should we cook our food? If you’re eating animal products, I believe you should. There are some people who eat raw meat, but I would never endorse it. I don’t think there’s any value to doing it especially considering some of the sources it comes from.

If you’re having eggs or meat cook them just not until they are charbroiled and crispy. If you do, you will be taking in those cancer-causing carcinogens into your body. If you‘re eating animal products, limit their consumption and don’t overcook them.

Should you cook plant foods? Essentially, whatever’s going to help you eat healthier is the key. Again, I’m not fanatical about being raw but I believe if you add raw foods into your diet, it will make a huge difference to your health, but if you don’t enjoy raw broccoli go ahead and cook it. You might lose minerals and vitamins and some protein, but at least you’re eating the broccoli.

The more raw foods you eat and the more plants you eat, the better off your health will be. If you’re eating a lot of raw foods, breaking the plants cell walls, that fiber is critical to digesting protein as well as other nutrients more effectively, and that’s why slight heating, blending, and sprouting can be very beneficial.


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99% of the time I will eat sweet potatoes and starchy root vegetables cooked. I just sweet potatoes roasted. I also understand that a roasted sweet potato is going to be much easier for my digestive system to digest. Cauliflower and broccoli are a little bit easier to digest if we steam them slightly. Celery is the classical example of a cell wall. If you want to talk about thick, impenetrable fiber, just take out a piece of celery. We need to get inside those cell walls to be able to digest those nutrients as efficiency as well.

There are a couple of methods to do that. This is a chart from the USDA table of nutrient retention factors. I’ve highlighted vitamin C and potassium because those are the two that are most effected by all levels of food preparation or storage.


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So if you freeze berries you’ll lose about 30% of the vitamin C. If you dry them out you’ll lose about 80%. Cook the foods and you’ll lose about 50% of the vitamin C. If you reheat it you’ll lose about 50%. So, minerals are generally a little bit more stable than vitamins when heated, but there’s a little bit of disparity.

If you freeze fruits and vegetables you’ll lose about 10% of the potassium. If you cook them, you’ll lose about 30%. If you cook and drain them you lose 70%. In module 1 you had an assignment to steam spinach and note the color of the water from the lost magnesium. That just goes to show that when you cook and drain, you lose a lot of minerals.

When you make soup, you retain more minerals than if you discard that water. That’s an example of how different types of preparation cause different losses in nutrients. Again, it’s not the end of the world as long as you’re eating enough plant foods.

Soaking and SproutingThis is an area that I am excited about and I think you should be too. More and more research shows the power of soaking. I’ve written about this extensively in Eating for Energy, but I wanted to bring up some new stuff. What it comes down to is, soaking and sprouting are tremendous alternatives to cooking legumes, nuts, seeds, and pseudo grains.

Pseudo grains are nonglutenous grains, like quinoa, amaranth, millet, and buckwheat. So, why is this important? Well, first let’s consider what happens when and why these different foods sprout or germinate. If we take the picture here, these would be lentils, for instance.

When you have legumes, nuts, seeds, and grains, they do things to protect themselves just like we do. One of the things they do is store their nutrients in a very compact way, which is not activated unless it’s presented in the right environment. In this case, the nutrients are brought to life by water, in some cases its light or dark, oxygen or different pHs.


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A lot of these foods also contain things to protect their nutrients. For example, they’ll have enzyme inhibitors or phytic acid which can cause bad effects on the body. Soaking and sprouting is a great way to get rid of all that stuff, as well as enhance the nutrient quality of the food.

Soaking and sprouting enhances protein digestibility significantly. As I mentioned, nuts, seeds, grains, and legumes contain enzyme inhibitors and lectins that are detrimental to your health. Soaking and sprouting reduces them to an even greater extent than cooking.

Think about a squirrel. A squirrel takes a nut and it will bury it in the soil. Amazingly, it knows where it’s buried, and when it takes it out a few days later, it will have germinated. Animals do this because they know that the nutrient quality is that much greater when seeds and nuts sprout.

How to Soak and SproutSometimes you don’t need to sprout a particular nut. I’m going to show you how to do this all because it’s simple and very powerful. There’s a chart in a few pages that will show you exactly how to soak and sprout the various legumes, nuts, seeds, and grains so that you can enjoy them without the detrimental effects.

On the next page, you’ll get everything you need to know about soaking and sprouting . Sprouted lentils have 16 grams of protein versus 9 grams when they’re cooked. That’s a significant difference and the taste is unbelievable when you sprout lentils. People ask me: What are some good raw foods that I can take as a snack other than just nuts and seeds or fruit?

Sprouts are amazing because you can get a ton of great protein as well as other vital nutrients from sprouts that you’d just take in a ziplock bag or container. It might take you 24 hours to sprouts them they just sit on the counter and do their thing. They’re so water rich because we haven’t drained the water out of them. Soaking and sprouting is a great alternative to cooking for a lot of different things. Almonds don’t necessarily need to be sprouted; they just need to be soaked overnight to improve protein utilization.


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Generally, the higher the fat content in the particular nut, seed, or legume, the less soaking you need. Like walnuts, I generally don’t soak just because they get mushy. If you follow the chart you’ll know what to do.

Soaking 101Soaking is as simple as it sounds. All you need is good quality water and the seed, nut, grain or legume you wish to soak. Remember that when you soak dried foods they will absorb water, swell and expand, so make sure there is plenty of water to cover them. It is best to soak them in a bowl or glass jar. For simplicity, it is easiest to soak the seed, nut, grain, or legume overnight in water at room temperature. After you have soaked your seeds, nuts, grains, or legumes they should be rinsed off before consuming or sprouting them. Soaked nuts and sunflower seeds don’t need to be sprouted. They can be enjoyed in their living state after their overnight soaking period. If you have soaked a larger quantity of nuts (or sunflower seeds), then leftovers may be kept soaking in water in the fridge for up to 48 hours.

Sprouting 101Now that you have your grains, legumes, and seeds soaked they are ready to sprout. First, ensure that you’ve thoroughly rinsed them after the soaking process. Next, using a sprouting jar, sprouting tray, or even a common strainer, place your soaked grain/legume/seed inside and make sure that there is enough ventilation and the temperature is below 80º F. You can make your own sprout jar by taking a wide-mouth glass jar and covering it with cheesecloth secured by an elastic band. Tilt the jar at a 45º angle and place it in your dish rack so that water from your seeds can drain properly. I just throw my soaked seeds into a strainer over the sink and cover it with a kitchen towel or paper towel. As the seed goes through the sprouting process, you need to rinse it once or twice a day to maintain its moisture. Depending on the seed/grain/legume you are sprouting different harvesting times will apply. To test whether the sprouts are ready, chew one. It should be firm, yet soft and not too crunchy.


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Refer to the following chart for some guidance.

Sprouting/Harvesting Time Chart

Nut, Seed, Legume, or Grain Sprouting Time

Adzuki beans 3-5 days

Alfalfa 4-6 days

Buckwheat, hulled 1-3 days

Clover sprouts 4-6 days

Green lentils 1-3 days

Red lentils 1 day

Mung beans 1-3 days

Peas 2-4 days

Oat Groats 2-3 days

Quinoa 1-2 days

Chic Peas 3-4 days

Amaranth 1-2 days

Millet 1-2 days


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Once the seed/grain/legume has finished sprouting you may store it in covered bowl or Tupperware container in the refrigerator. Most sprouts will keep for several days but it’s best to quickly smell them before eating to ensure they haven’t gone bad.

The Power of BlendingNow, I had a very traumatic experience about a year ago, and that was the day our Vitamix died. Amy put a spoon instead of that black stuff that pushes everything down. If you have a Vitamix, you know what I’m talking about. So, the blade and then the motor got affected and it eventually died. I think I cried that day. We used a KitchenAid blender for several months but it was just not the same. .

So, Amy got in touch with Vitamix customer service, and they sent us the part that we needed and we got the Vitamix up and running again. That was one of the best days of my life. The Vitamix is by far, the best blender it’s just in a class of its own. A study done at the University of Toronto, my alma mater, showed the power of the Vitamix versus a conventional blender and chewing in regards to breaking down the cell wall in plant foods.


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This is awesome stuff and I was so happy I came across the study. Here are three images: carrots, strawberries, and tomatoes. The top images here are electron microscope images, which is as deep as we can go in terms of microscopes. Look at the difference between the these fruits and veggies in the chewed state versus the Vitamix. Let the power of this sink in.

They specifically looked at the 5200, one of the more common brands of the Vitamix. It significantly breaks down plant cell walls, making nutrients more bioavailable. This is very important because we talked about how proteins and other nutrients have a tougher time being digested and assimilated unless those cell walls are broken down. This is also why digestive enzymes are helpful; however, if you can blend this is the result. You’ll get much more nutrition by blending your foods and easier digestion.

The 6 Myths about ProteinThese 6 myths about protein will sum up everything we’ve learned so far about the subject.

Myth number one: Plant proteins are incomplete. The reality is it doesn’t matter what the protein source is as long as you average dietary protein intake is complete. It doesn’t matter if you only had corn today; what matters is that our average intake of proteins came from different sources over the course of several days.

Myth number two: Plant proteins are not as good as animal proteins. This is not necessarily true. Quality depends on the source and the amino acid makeup of the food whether it is from a plant or animal. Some plants are better than others, and some animal sources are better than others. Again, it’s the aggregate sum of all of your consumption that is important thing.

Myth number three: Protein combining is necessary if eating plants. Well, thanks to our amino acid pool, complementary proteins do not need to be consumed at the same time and at the same meal.

Myth number four: Plant proteins are not well digested. To some degree, yes, but it depends on the source. Digestion can be improved by soaking, sprouting, lightly cooking, and by the use of digestive enzymes and hydrochloric acid.


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Myth number five: Plant proteins alone are not enough to get adequate protein intake. This is not true as long as you get all your amino acids and nitrogen from suitable plant foods, and we’ve seen on numerous occasions now that you can do that fairly easily.

Number six: Plant proteins are imbalanced and thus compromise their nutritional value. Again, as long as you eat enough calories from different plant foods, you’re fine. Imbalances happen when you supplement with individual amino acids. In the previous lesson we discussed that if you’re going to supplement with certain amino acids, you should only do it for 6 to 8 weeks then off for 3 to 4 weeks. Any longer cause your body be out of balance. You’re much better off just going through whole foods than you are supplementing with individual amino acids.

Don’t Be FooledI talked about this topic in a webinar on veganism. This is an important concept that I really need you to understand, especially if you’re vegan. I was at a local health food store where I saw this tofurkey and I just had to take a picture of it.


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I have the box of tofurkey here, which is tofu turkey. Tofu comes from soy. A big problem we’re seeing is this is what people think is a vegan or vegetarian diet is.

This issue was actually discussed on the Oprah Winfrey show where she did a vegan challenge. She and her nutritionist went to Whole Foods and when they showed the shopping cart it did not have a single fruit or vegetable in it. t was completely filled with boxes and boxes of all sorts of soy-processed garbage.

Processed vegan foods are absolute garbage. It’s a disgrace; you need to steer clear of this stuff.

First of all, overconsumption of soy is not a good thing and the fact that it’s processed is a huge, huge red flag. Eat natural foods only. There is a huge difference between eating pastas and breads and tofurkey versus fruits and vegetables.

There’s a whole spectrum of health just within the vegan lifestyle. It all depends on the foods you eat, so if your diet consists of tofurkey and soy-processed nonsense, you are better off eating animals. What is better, naturally raised animal products versus processed soy garbage?

Now, I understand that if you’re not eating meat for ethical issues and moral issues, that’s totally fine. I’m in the same boat, but at the same time there is no reason you should be compromise your own health by eating garbage that has been produced in a chemical plant and put into blocks. Foods aren’t’ better for you just because they don’t have animal ingredients.

Again, I’m not fanatical about being raw vegan. I believe that the more raw vegan you can be, the healthier you’re going to be; however, if the choice came down to tofurkey or naturally raised, grass-fed steak, I’d choose steak. It’s about eating naturally. That’s a very important thing to understand: Eating naturally is the way to heal yourself.

Final Words on Animal vs. Plant ProteinsHere are my final words on animal versus plant protein: If eating meat, reduce your consumption to three to four times a week. This includes eggs and pretty much dairy and stuff like that. Balance it out with plenty of veggies for alkalinity because we know that vegetables are very alkaline-forming and meats are


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acid-producing. Also ensure the following: The meats or the whatever it is that you’re eating from that animal needs to be organic, because we don’t want to be taking in pesticides, antibiotics, and hormones; all of that stuff cannot be going into your body.

If you’re eating meats, it must organic and grass-fed. I limited flexibility on this. I understand there’s a cost issue but they are coming down. We have a local butcher that supplies grass-fed organically grown animal products and the price is even lower than regular supermarket meat.

It’s not as expensive as you think. For instance, if you have steak, grass-fed cows naturally graze fields. They’re not meant to be stationed and buckled into barnyards and fed corn and injected with hormones. If you’re eating meat, make sure it is grass-fed. If a supplier hasn’t gone the route of getting certified USDA organic but they don’t inject hormones and antibiotics, that’s okay. A lot of farmers can’t afford that certification, but they still raise their animals naturally.

If you’re eating fish, go with wild. Farmed fish are fed the same things as chickens and cows, it’s literally chicken feed. For instance, salmon from the Pacific is about 99% wild. I don’t believe there are any fisheries on the West Coast. If it’s from the East Coast, it will be farmed almost exclusively. You’ll notice a difference in color between the two. Farmed salmon will be like a light pink; wild salmon will be almost a dark red, so very different in terms of the quality of that fish. You don’t want to overdo it with the fish because of the PCBs and the mercury.

If you’re eating chicken or eggs, make sure they’re free-run, organic, with nothing added to them. No omega-3s, no antibiotics, none of that. Here are the 4 criteria you want: organic, grass-fed, wild, and free-run. This is as natural as possible when it comes to eating animal products. In general, eat foods that are raised as natural as possible, and avoid processed garbage. Remember, you can have tofurkey or organic frozen pizza but that doesn’t mean it’s good for you.


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Let’s recap We only need about 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram per day; any more will mostly be burned as fuel.

Our liver and muscles have amino acid pools, which can fill in the missing gaps in incomplete proteins.

Protein quality is determined by how many grams of protein per serving and the limiting essential amino acid in that particular food. It is measured by biological value or PDCAAS.

Overall, animal proteins are more digestible but heating reduces that.

Plant proteins can be better digested if slightly heated, blended or sprouted.


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Your Assignment

Day one: Now, this is where we’re going to kind of turn back to our food journal for a second and do some introspecting. On day one prepare a salad with the following ingredients: half a head of kale, half a head of lettuce, one apple, one pear, and juice of one lime. Note any digestive symptoms. Did you have any kind of gassiness, bloatiness, anything at all? Write it down.

The next day I want you to prepare a smoothie using the same recipe, and if you have a Vitamix, you’ll get more benefit. You can actually add a banana, because I add a banana to this smoothie recipe, and about three cups of water. And, again, note any digestive symptoms. Some people might not notice any difference, and some might notice that there’s a little bit more gas and bloating after the salad versus a smoothie.

Now, why do you think that is? I want you to do these two things and note if there are any digestive symptoms. Let me know in the comments what your experience was with this assignment.

Your second assignment is to eat a steak and notice how you feel afterwards. You’ll see. You’ll have to cook it. If you’re a vegan and you don’t want to eat the steak, that’s totally fine, but if you’re willing to try, have a steak and notice what’s happening. How do you feel afterward? What are the symptoms? Those are your two assignments.


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Coming in Lesson 3

There is some awesome stuff coming in the next lesson. We’re going to look at protein, exercise, and building muscle. To forewarn you, I’ll be throwing a lot of studies at you to really ingrain what I’m going to be teaching. It’s against the grain but it’s the reality of what’s being shown in literature.

We’re also going to look at our protein supplements required and if there is a difference between plant- and animal-based supplements, and we’ll look at the differences there as well as some of my favorites. Lesson three is going to be awesome.

Again, a lot of you have asked me about how much protein you have to take after a workout, during the day, if you want to build muscle, etc. All of those answers are coming your way in Lesson 3. It’s going to be incredible, and I look forward to taking you through that. In the meantime, get started with your assignment for today.

module #2 - lesson 2 - s3. · pdf filewhat science actually says ... the body recycles amino...

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