Road2HardCoreIron
Bodybuilding Discussion => Training, Cycles & Diets => Topic started by: Big Chicken on September 26, 2022, 03:22:39 pm
-
The #1 Reason Your Body is Breaking Apart as You Age
Why does your body start breaking down as you get older? There are several reasons, but the #1 reason is lack of protein. That’s right, lack of protein.
Protein
You see, your body is made up of over 50,000 different proteins. These proteins form your muscles, skin, nails, and hair. They also form your bones, joint cartilage, tendons, and ligaments.
Plus, proteins are the building blocks for the “messengers” in your body. These include your hormones, enzymes, immune cells, and neurotransmitters in the brain.
So what happens when you don’t have enough proteins? You age at an accelerated rate. You lose muscle mass and strength. You feel weak, tired, and frail. You become more prone to injuries. And you’re more likely to fall and break a bone.
But that’s not all. Your immune system becomes sluggish. Your skin gets crépey. Your hair thins out. Your nails break easily. Your memory is not as sharp. And even your sex drive takes a hit.
That’s why it’s so critical that you have enough proteins to keep your body strong and healthy.
So where do proteins come from? They are combinations of amino acids. Some of these amino acids can be made by your body. But there are 8 amino acids that cannot be made by the body. These are called the “essential amino acids.” And you can only get them from your diet.
But…
Why Are You Not Getting Enough – Even If You Eat a Healthy Diet?
The problem is that the older we get, the harder it is for us to get enough protein from our diet.
Why? First of all, you need a lot of stomach acid to break down the protein you eat. But many people over 50 don’t make as much stomach acid as they used to when they were younger.
Second, even if you have a strong digestive system, most of the protein you eat just goes to waste! Here’s why…
When you eat a protein food like steak, your body first has to break down the protein into amino acids. It then uses the amino acids to make whatever proteins it needs.
However, only some of the amino acids are made into proteins. The rest are turned into glucose that can be burned for energy.
This is a remnant from our hunter-gatherer days. Back then, food was scarce. So our bodies had to be able to turn protein into glucose to make energy from whatever food we ate. But today, food is abundant, and most of us don’t need the extra glucose.
Since we are less active than our ancestors… and since we live longer than they did… we need less glucose and more protein.
How much protein do we get from our food? Well, the amount varies from food to food. Some foods give us more protein than others. We know this because scientists have figured out how to measure it.
Scientists know that amino acids contain nitrogen. When amino acids are made into proteins, the nitrogen becomes part of the proteins, and remains in your body. But when amino acids are turned into sugar, the nitrogen is released and excreted in your urine.
So if you want to know how much amino acids in a food are made into proteins, simply measure the amount of nitrogen in your urine.
This test is called Amino Acid Utilization, or AAU. Let me show you how it works:
If a protein food has an AAU of 100%, that means there is no nitrogen in your urine; 100% of the amino acids in the food are turned into proteins to rebuild your body. That’s great!
On the other hand, if a protein food has an AAU of 10%, that means only 10% of the amino acids are turned into proteins. 90% are turned into sugar! That’s not good.
Using the AAU test, scientists now know which foods are truly good sources of protein. And they found that the best one is breast milk, which has an AAU of 49%. Well, that makes sense, since babies need an efficient protein source.
But we’re not babies, so what’s the next best protein source? It’s whole eggs, which have an AAU of 48%. But it has to be the whole egg. If you take out the yolks, you reduce the AAU to only 17%. Why? Because egg yolks are loaded with an essential amino acid called methionine. So next time you have eggs, make sure you eat them whole, not just the whites.
Third are meats, poultry, and fish. They all have an AAU of 32%. But it falls off a cliff after that…
You know all those expensive protein powders many people take to build muscle? They have an AAU of only 18%! This includes protein powders made from soy, dairy, and eggs. That means, if you’re taking protein powder, only 18% goes to building your body. 82% is wasted!
How about spirulina, a popular plant-based protein source? Depending on the brand, spirulina has an AAU from 0% to 6%!
What about branched-chain amino acids (BCAA)? Well, the urine tests show that BCAA supplements have an AAU of less than 1%. They’re practically worthless as a protein source.
And finally, there’s collagen protein and bone broth. These protein sources are not a complete protein because they do not contain all 8 essential amino acids. Specifically, they lack the essential amino acid l-tryptophan. So if you don’t accompany them with an additional protein source that contains tryptophan, their AAU is zero!
Now you can see why it’s so hard to get enough protein from your diet. No wonder many people see both their physical and mental performance go downhill after age 50.
So if you can’t get enough protein from your diet and protein powders, what can you do? The answer: take amino acids, but you need to…
Take The Right Kinds in The Right Balance
There are 20 different amino acids your body needs. Your body can produce 12 of them on its own. The other 8 you have to get from outside sources. As I mentioned, these 8 are called the essential amino acids.
But it’s not enough to take all those 8 essential amino acids. You also have to take them in the right balance.
Why having the right balance is so critical? Well, imagine you owned a bicycle factory. The factory had in stock dozens of handlebars, dozens of seats, dozens of chains… but only one pair of wheels. How many bikes could you make? Yes, just one bike. All the other parts would just go to waste!
It’s the same with amino acids. When you take them in the wrong balance, you end up with too much of some amino acids and not enough of the others.
Remember earlier when I mentioned that branched-chain amino acids have an AAU of less than 1%? The reason is, they have the wrong balance. As a result, 99% of the amino acids are wasted!