In this episode, you'll discover:

• Whole Food Power: Animal proteins like beef, chicken, fish, eggs, and dairy form a robust foundation for optimal nutrition, boasting essential amino acids and vital nutrients.
• Convenient Solutions: Protein powders offer busy individuals a quick and efficient way to meet their daily protein needs, with plant-based options catering to diverse dietary preferences and restrictions.
• Prioritizing Protein: Whether through whole foods or powders, ensuring adequate protein intake is crucial for supporting muscle repair, weight management, and overall health, making it a cornerstone of any balanced diet.

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Transcription

Dr. Latt Mansor:

What are the best protein sources that you would recommend? 

Dr. Valter Longo:

I'm an advocate for eating, whole sources of food from animal protein, beef, chicken, fish, eggs, milk, whatever. I, I. Do that myself, and I strongly believe it that those are some of the best sources of protein. I'll give you for myself. For example, I do steak very often. I do ground beef very often.

I do chicken very often. Those are probably meat wise. Those are probably my main go twos. But I also do. I personally, just because of how crammed my schedule is, it's very convenient for me to do protein shakes quite often. And so I'll do a few different kinds. I have a plant based Protein.

So going off topic, and I'll come back on the topic. I years ago, I did a food sensitivity test in this. I think everybody should do a food sensitivity test because if you eat a lot of the same stuff over time, your body becomes. sensitive to things and then won't quite respond to it, right? So when we're talking about how much protein can one person absorb if that person has an intolerance to chicken or a sensitivity to chicken and they don't to beef, then beef would be a better option for them because their body's sensitive to chicken and is actually not going to digest and absorb what it could.

So going back to my, I had a sensitivity to whey protein and it was really strange. I actually had, I had a lot of inflammation in my knees when this was going on. And I tried a number of different things. I did acupuncture, cupping, massage therapy, all this kind of stuff, rehab to, to see what was going on with my knees.

And then I did the food sensitivity test. Whey was one of my highest markers as far as highest sensitivities go. And so I took out whey protein and not even five days later, the knee pain was just gone. It was wild. And so At that point in time, I had switched to a plant based protein powder, and that worked really great for me, and I retested that since then, and and I have, my sensitivity to whey has gone down, so I've now thrown in, I do 100 percent grass fed whey protein powder, but those are super just convenient for me during the day, like I'm not gonna, I don't plug away six Thanks.

Solid meals a day like I did back when I was bodybuilding. I'm a I'm also a man of convenience I like things that are just you know, what whatever makes my day more efficient so if I don't have to actually sit down and eat a meal while I have all this other stuff to do if I can Make a protein shake and drink that I will just do it.

So So going back so main protein sources. I would always recommend that people do you know animal protein sources Protein powders, if you can't get all the, sit down and do meals, all that kind of stuff, protein powders, super, super efficient, easy way to just get that protein number.

And, I think a lot of people struggle to get a high amount of protein, right? When most people, when I deal with people and I'm like, I just want you to track your food. Just, I just want to see what you're doing on a daily basis. Don't change anything. Don't do anything different. Just track what you normally do.

And they, and then when I show them, okay, you actually need to be eating double this amount of protein. Then people are like, I don't know how to do that. So protein shakes, they're just so easy. They don't make you feel super full or anything like that. But if you can, get 40 grams of protein in a quick drink that's a game changer.

It's a no brainer. Yeah. No, that's the thing. Because protein is feeling like whole foods that meat are going to be filling. And a lot of people. just struggle to have that much food in during the day. And they don't realize how little protein they are consuming versus, their goal. And when myself included, I've made that mistake myself when I tried to, I'm like, okay, I want to lose weight, but I still want to build muscle.

But I ended up having too much of a calorie deficit and certainly under eating protein. And as a result, I wasn't getting anywhere. I was losing both muscle and fat at the same time. And then I go to the gym, I build it, and then I lose it back. It's just a very bad cycle of not getting progress.

Yeah. And that's tough. And that's where the exploration of all that comes in, right? Okay where do I actually need to be, and a lot of times people do a lot of stuff to lose weight, lose fat, and they under eat on protein. We bump up their protein, boom, suddenly they're losing fat, right?

Of course the opposite, right? With people are trying to put on muscle and they're under eating on protein, they're just not going to build muscle. You increase that, boom, they start building muscle. So I think protein is just solely the most important thing that people need to focus on.

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