In this solo episode of the 'Mindful Muscle' podcast, Gio delves into a detailed review of a video by protein expert Bio Lane. Gio discusses the benefits of high-protein diets, balancing views as a 100% plant-based athlete, and examines scientific studies comparing animal, dairy, and plant proteins. Emphasizing the critical role of fiber, Gio advocates for incorporating more plant-based proteins into our diets while acknowledging the benefits of meat and dairy. Tune in for a nuanced perspective on achieving healthy aging through protein intake.
00:00 Introduction and Video Review Overview
00:55 Analyzing Protein Substitution Effects
02:16 Highlighting Plant Protein Benefits
03:02 Importance of Fiber in Diet
03:32 Comparing Different Protein Sources
11:03 The Role of Protein in Healthy Aging
12:29 Personal Anecdotes and Final Thoughts
Hello everybody, this is Geo from the mindful muscle podcast going solo today. I want to review a video. I'm a big fan of this guy right here on the screen. You see on bio lane is what I call him. He is a protein PhD expert. He did his PhD in high protein and he's very balanced. Most of you know that I'm 100% plant based, but I'm not one of those plant based zealots that's things you can eat meat. However, in this video that we're going to look at certain spots, he talks about high protein and how it's beneficial for you. And so I just want to talk about aspects that he perhaps didn't mention, not because of anything nefarious, but that I want to highlight about plant protein, nothing against meat. However, as a plant based athlete and and advocate, I want to highlight some of those things. So let's listen to the first clip of this video. They did an analysis where they substituted various macronutrients with either total protein, animal protein, dairy protein, or plant protein versus total carbohydrate, refined carbohydrate, carbohydrates from whole grains, total fat, saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, and model unsaturated fats, and looked at, you know, did the substitution favor protein or not favor protein? Some of the effects weren't significant, but I got to be honest, when you look at the forest plots, it almost favors protein with every single one. The one nutrient that total protein, animal protein, and dairy protein were either the same as or a little bit worse than was polyunsaturated fats. So sorry, seed oil demonizers, polyunsaturated fats were the only ones that came out looking good in this study, compared to protein at least plant protein had beneficial effects and substitution for all of these things. So, and in fact, it was pretty powerful. I'm going to talk about that here in a second, but basically for any of these nutrients, substituting protein either had a neutral or positive effect, you could argue. That's the first thing he said. If you notice, when it came to the meat protein, polyunsaturated fats were either neutral or a little bit negative, but when it came to plant protein, whether you substitute plant protein for all those nutrients you mentioned, you come out ahead. And like I said, it's not a knock on the meat. Each of us get to choose what we want to eat, but it's just highlighting the benefit of the plant protein. And what I tell my meat eating friends is just make sure you get a lot of veggies, make sure you get a lot of plant power in there because it's good for you. Whether you want to eat meat or not, just make sure you're getting more plants. And he's going to talk about here later in a little bit about the importance of fiber. And that's something that Jodi and I talk about. And she is in line with me that whether you are strictly plant based or you eat meat, you should get plenty of fiber. And that is one of the knock on not meat eaters, but those meat eaters who are not educated on the importance of fiber. So I stress once again that if you're a meat eater, make sure you're getting plenty of fiber. Now he's going to be looking at the benefits of all these different types of protein, he's going to compare animal protein, meat, dairy and plant base. Let's get to the video. Protein, when looking at the effects of total protein, the odds ratios for every 3% increment of protein intake was 1.05, which basically means for every 3% increase in total protein intake, there was a 5% increase in the possibility of healthy aging, meaning that they were free from all these conditions we talked about. If we go back to thinking about the 14% intake of protein versus 23% intake and protein, we're looking at a 15% greater probability that those people eating that higher intake of protein, the highest intake of protein would age healthier than the bottom quartile. Then if we break it into the specific types of protein, every single type of protein had beneficial effects. For each 3% increase in animal protein, there was a 7% beneficial effect, meaning if you increase your energy intake from animal protein by 3%, you get a 7% reduction in the risk of developing these diseases or a 7% increased likelihood that you will fall out of the category of healthy aging. Now, if we look at dairy, the effect was more powerful. It was a 14% benefit for each 3% increase in energy from dairy protein. And if we look at plant protein, very powerful, a 38% relative increase in benefit for every 3% increase in plant protein intake. And again, if we look at these forest plots, plant protein showed a benefit for every single nutrient it got substituted for and pretty powerful to that effect. This will probably lead some people to say, well, focused on just getting a lot of plant protein in. I think eating plant proteins is a great idea, but I'm not convinced it's that the protein itself has something spectacularly beneficial about it. The amino acids from plants, when they're broken down, are still just amino acids that you can argue, well, plant protein has less leucine, leucine activates intor, that's going to cause all these problems. I don't think that's why I plan. Oh, here is something that he said here. And I agree with him. I obviously defer to him in the fact that he is a PhD in protein. However, there is a difference. He said when plant protein are broken down, it's basically the same amino acid. He did say it has a little less leucine and he went on to state that. The only thing I want to state and and and it's to the point that I personally want to do more research in is that the way animal protein is combined and the way plant protein is combined is different. And so that's how the body knows the difference between animal protein and plant protein. Could that be making a difference? Right? Could that be something that makes a difference? I don't have the answer. I'm asking the question. I do know though, the way animal protein is is combined and the way plant protein is combined is different. And so the body breaks them down in a different way. So I'm asking the question and I hope if he watches this video, that he would do some research on that as to could that be something that makes the difference? What he's going to say next, though, is what I opened up with is the importance of fiber. Make sure you get fiber in your diet, whether you if you are a meat eater, or especially if you're a carnivore diet enthusiast, he's not a carnivore diet enthusiast. He eats meat, but he's not into the extreme meat eating. Let's see what he has to say here about the fiber. Protein has this association. One thing they didn't control for was dietary fiber. Plant protein is going to have by far more dietary fiber than other sources of protein, which are basically devoid of fiber. So if you're eating more plant protein, you're eating more fiber by default. And what do we know about fiber? For every 10 gram increase in fiber, there is a 10% decrease in the risk of cardiovascular disease, the risk of cancer, and the risk of more talent. I think that this is likely explained by the fact that people eating more plant protein are eating more fiber. With that being said, there's no downsides to eating some plant protein. Now, do I think everybody needs to go out and buy like soy protein and pea protein and rice protein compared to whey protein or something like that? I don't think that's going to make a difference. Really, I just don't. I think that what you're seeing is an effect of the overall source of the food animal protein going to be higher in fat, higher in saturated fat, whereas plant protein is going to be higher in, if it has any fat, it's going to be polyunsaturated in fat. It's going to be higher in dietary fiber, insoluble and soluble. And there's going to be micronutrients associated with those plant proteins that may have beneficial effects on inflammation and oxidation and those sorts of things, but this is the only thing I'm going to say about that, right? No, you don't have to go out of your way, but I would encourage people to do get more plant protein in your diet. If you're going to have steak, instead of having wheat pasta, put some edamame pasta, if you don't know about edamame pasta, edamame is a complete protein. And for four ounces of edamame pasta, you get about 42 grams of protein. So imagine if you are meat eater combining that with steak, you get more protein and you get the benefits of fiber in there. So yes, you know, you want to continue to eat meat, but I'm advocating, get more plant protein. That's what I'm advocating here, because we can't deny what the study says that for a more plant protein you get, you get a 38 increase in longevity. And this is why I mentioned in one of the videos that I made, earlier, is that I belong to the longest lived people in the world, the seventh day Adventist Church. And for the most part, we are 100% plant based for the most part. Even though among us, there are people who eat meat and live long, but it's because we have a holistic approach to it, which is emphasizing making sure we get more plant protein, more plant food, more fiber and and eat the rainbow, right? Make sure we're getting greens and we're getting fruit and we're getting all that which includes fiber. There isn't any plant food you eat that doesn't include fiber. That's natural, right? Tofu, when it's processed and made, it's good for you, but it does have less fiber than actually eating the soybean. So I don't like there that he kind of seemed to poo poo the study. No, you get 38 more percent chance of longevity with plant protein. That not saying that I'm advocating you stop eating the meat, just get more fiber, get more plant protein. Let's continue here with the video. Overall take home from this is that one protein is not this evil nutrient that people have made it out to be to it may be important for healthy aging. And in fact, one of the biggest detrimental effects during aging is sarcopenia. In fact, after age 65, you can tie many, many, many deaths back to a lack of muscle mass and especially in ability to live a healthy end of your life. People don't want to think about this kind of stuff because they just, I guess they think when they get to be 70, all of a sudden they just won't care about how they feel. Ask 70 year olds if they care about how they feel, I promise you they do care, trying to build and maintain more lean mass and strength is going to be beneficial for not just your longevity, but also your quality of life. My take home is protein good for healthy aging animal protein appears to have a neutral slightly positive effect on that dairy protein neutral or positive effect and plant protein positive effect get a wide variety of protein sources. And look, and this is where I appreciate him because he's balanced. He did tell you that the study points out that mean neutral to positive effect, dairy neutral to positive, but plant protein is definitely positive. And so I think that my grandmother, for example, let me give you an example of my grandmother, she ate meat or her life. And she died at the age of 93, fully healthy. And I always used to say to myself, when I die, I'd love to die in my sleep, until my grandmother passed away. When my grandmother passed away, I want to die like she died. The night she died, she woke up, my aunt who was sleeping in the same bedroom with her because she was her caretaker. She told my aunt, hey, I'm going to die. We grew up in New Jersey. So the houses go up. So she walked down the flight stairs, basically unassisted went to her favorite room, said her goodbyes to my parents to my siblings, then laid down, and went to sleep, the sleep of death. She ate meat or her life, but she ate it to a smaller percentage. And Dr. Norton is fond of saying that you have to if you're going to eat meat, you should be eating quality meat. None of this processed stuff like, you know, weapons of mass destruction are fast food restaurants, McDonald's, Wendy's, five guys, water burger, all of that, right, he advocates eating good quality meat. And so what I'm advocating is, no, you don't have to give up your meat, however, get more plant protein, find things like. Edamame pasta, brown rice lentil pasta, which has more protein than wheat pasta. Wheat pasta has about four ounces, about seven grams, where or 14 grams, whereas brown lentil pasta has 28 grams for four ounces. And Edamame pasta or black bean pasta have over 40 grams for four ounces. So what I'm advocating and what he's advocating, I'm going to put a link to the entire video of his in the description of this video. What I'm advocating, though, is get more plant protein. You don't have to give up your meat. Just get more plant protein and all the benefits the study itself said it is the highest correlation with longevity. It's getting your plant protein. Until next time on the mindful muscle podcast as I keep doing some of these study videos reviews and things. I hope you join us. Be blessed. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
