Runner's World has put together an article trying to quantify the portion of one's diet that should consist of highly processed foods--not just the classic white flour, refined sugar, and the like, but also packaged snacks, energy gels, and even protein bars.
Now wait? Protein bars? Yes, and here's why. When protein is extracted from other sources--whether from whey/dairy, peas, beans, or other sources--what is done is to take the protein with as little of the "other stuff" as possible. Now those who like protein bars would say it's a good thing that they're reducing the amount of carbohydrates in their food (advocates of the Mediterranean diet might disagree), but the kicker here is what else is disposed of with the carbohydrates.
You see, bran is just a long chain carbohydrate, so it stands to reason that as you get rid of carbs, you get rid of fiber and all the cool nutrients that are in that fiber--vitamins and minerals especially, as the bran and such is where the precursors to chlorophyll are stored for when the seed sprouts into a plant. And so even when the "end result" in terms of "macros" seems right, many of these refined protein sources are in fact fairly depleted foods.
Why is this significant? It goes back to something I remember thinking when talking with friends who were excellent womens' distance runners; they were going to skinless chicken and turkey breast for protein, and then wondered why their red blood cells were in effect turning pink. Poultry breast is an excellent source of protein, but does not have the iron of beef, pork, or even beans or poultry legs.
And so I wonder if a lot of our "healthy diet advice" is really leading people to adopt a fairly "depleted" diet, and is thus actually making things worse for a lot of otherwise healthy-eating people. It's one thing to ease off the SAD, but if we simply exchange high carbohydrate refined foods for high protein refined foods, we aren't doing ourselves many favors.
3 comments:
I've been thinking that we're overdue for a major nutritional/scientific discovery on the order of "Hey look, these good-for-you things are vitamins".
IMO I think we're going to have the world of micronutrients opened up to us as well as microbiota and get our minds blown. I mean, those of us who don't eat whole foods.
When I was trying to eat my goal weight in grams of protein every day I found it very challenging w/o protein supplements, which I loathe. Ended up eating a really silly amount of eggs and beef. (Beef is higher in protein than chicken). The extra protein really helped with recovery after lifting days - it was discernable.
But the best results I had was x2 my veg - got up to around 10 servings/day. Felt better than I ever have in my life. I want to get back there, just because I felt so healthy. Fiber FTW.
Well said. BTW, if beef seems a bit too heavy for you, mix it with beans, which are about 30% protein by weight, and have tons of fiber, etc., for you. Even the white ones have a lot of iron, which surprised me at first, but it's the precursor to chlorophyll. OK, got it.
Being of the male persuasion, and being of the "need more frequent colonoscopy" persuasion, beans are my friend. Thankfully they do not create too great of gastric distress for me.
If our way back in the day ancestors made an effort (burning calories) to pick/cook/deal with low-calorie foods like leafy greens, mayyybe there's a reason? They weren't doing it for funzies.
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