"How much protein should I have?" {Part 1️⃣}

Fourteen (yes, 1️⃣4️⃣) months ago, I saw on a Zoom call with our Graced Health + community and said I wanted to do an episode on protein.

It took me this long to fully research the complexities of this hot topic but also how to present it in a way that isn't diet-culturey or present a hard and fast guideline.

The problem is one episode turned into four. 🙊

But also, sorry not sorry. This is a complicated topic and I didn't feel it was responsible to put numbers and guidance out there without the science and research behind it.

Today I dive into this four-part miniseries and cover:

• The importance of protein as we age and how it relates to intuitive eating
• My approach to discussing protein, focusing on aging with resilience and strength
• The basics of what protein is and its building blocks
• Different sources of complete proteins, both animal and plant-based
• Why we need more protein as we age, including an explanation of sarcopenia
• The vital roles protein plays in our overall health
• A comparison of plant-based and animal-based protein sources
• The quality and quantity of protein in different foods

This episode sets the foundation for understanding protein's role in our diets and health, especially as we age.

You can get your Protein Prep download here (if you get email updates on Tuesdays about these episodes, check your email - it's there.)

Want to check out my primary sources?

​Dr. Stacy Sims​

​Molly Galbraith - Girls Gone Strong​

​NASM Certified Nutrition Coaching Program​

Got a protein question?

Hit the link at the top of your podcast player episode description/show notes (or just hit reply!). If I get enough questions that aren't answered, I'll do a bonus Q&A episode.

Transcript

“How Much Protein Should I Have?” Part 1 of 4

Today is the day that we cover a topic. I have been wanting to talk about and to dive into for over a year. Over a year. You guys, I remember being in our graced health plus community, which is just the subscription arm of this podcast. If you listen to a podcast and you see the little lock that's for subscribers, anyone can join at $6 a month, but that's not what I feel like I'm pitching already. 

I'm not pitching, but that's where we first talked about it. I was going over protein and we had a lot of questions and we had some great discussions about it. And I said, I'm going to do an episode about this. 14 months later here I am. Why did it take so long? I didn't want to rush it. I wanted to approach this topic with care and thoughtfulness and more importantly, or most importantly, from an intuitive eating perspective. If you will recall 14 months ago. I was in the thick of writing my book for teen girls. 

And I was realizing that it is so important to position and to communicate nutritional information without it being diet culturey, without it being. Strict rules or whatever. And so I've been, honestly, I've just been a little fearful, I will say. I think this past series. On intuitive eating really helped solidify where I am and give me the confidence. To be able to record the show. ,Protein is a hot topic. Such a hot topic in the nutrition world. It is surrounded by myths. And marketing. Sometimes misunderstanding. 

So my goal in this four part series, yes, I am taking four episodes to go through this. So I'm sorry. And you're welcome. But my goal is to offer you some insights and some practical tips about protein that align with balanced. Intuitive approach to eating. I'm not here to prescribe any rules. 

In fact, If you recall, my first book was breaking all the rules. These are not rules. I'm not here to push any particular diet, but what I want to do is provide you with information that empowers you. To make choices that feel right for you. And your body and your lifestyle, your God created body that we have to honor individually. 

I have put a lot of thought. Hours of research, a lot of prayer into creating this episode to give you that awareness of protein to give you the why behind a lot of things that you're hearing. And to provide you with the information. That you can then decide how that applies best to you and what makes you tick and how you move. 

And so we'll get into all of that. 

As I mentioned, this is a four-part series. 'cause I feel like it's important to give a lot of the backstory. I was talking with a friend one time and she said, I have found that if I know the why behind something, then it seems to settle in better. And then I'm either more likely to do it or apply it, or you just, you just understand it a little bit better. 

So I'm trying to give you the why without totally getting in the weeds. I do get in the weeds a little bit. So what to expect part one, which is today we're going to talk about just kind of like we're setting some ground rules for this episode. We're going to be talking about

my sources where I go to learn, well, then we're going to get into more of the nitty gritty. 

What makes up a protein? What does protein do? Why do we need more? As we get older? If you are in my age group in this perimenopause menopausal post-menopausal and beyond. Then you have probably heard. Yeah. You need more protein as you get older. I'm going to tell you why. And then we'll talk about plant versus animal protein. In part two, which will come out on Thursday. 

So this is dropping on a Tuesday. Typically we have weekly episodes, but we're doing twice a week during this four part series. I'm going to be talking about protein powder about collagen and about protein timing or nutrient timing. Part three is going to be more of the practical application guidelines for how much protein do you actually need? We'll talk about how much is too much. 

 Then we'll talk about how we can incorporate this into an intuitive eating perspective. Finally we will end with just my strategy and recommendations for getting enough protein. And then in four part for our final one, I am giving you the goods. We're going to talk about very practical application of like, how can we do this without it totally taking over our life without spending tons of time in the kitchen and without having to open up the refrigerator and go, like, what am I going to have for lunch? 

What am I going to have for breakfast? What am I going to have for dinner? And so I'm going to kind of give you my, my secret, my secret to how I make this happen for me with the recipes. 

So those recipes I am providing and what I am calling the protein prep, playbook. And what this is, is your guide to nourishing. Protein rich meals. And really it's not a meal. These are like, here's some proteins that you can do. Just to fit into your busy life. 

And rather than making you wait until part four, if you are super anxious to get going on this and to explore it, I'm going to give you the download link now, but I really encourage you to listen to all four parts so you can understand why we are trying to do this. And make sure that we are doing it in a way that works for us. And when I say us, I'm actually not talking about us collectively. I'm talking about me. And you and your friend who hopefully you'll share these episodes with and your mom, because you're trying to get her to have a bit more protein. 

So, if you want to grab that, you can go to grace health.com/protein-playbook, and you can download that, but be sure to hit subscribe on your podcast player or follow if you are an apple that's that little plus button. And that way these episodes will be automatically downloaded into your feet and you will hit all four of these episodes. 

Okay, before we get going, I want to just kind of make some ground rules. These are what I'm calling my guidelines for this episode. This is not like how much you need to be having. We will get to that. 

I promise. But these are my guidelines for creating this episode. Number one, I assume. That we are similar in that you want to age with resilience and strength. And functionality. These are important to you. 

You care about what your body is going to be able to do and how it's going to be able to move. 10 years from now, 20 years from now, maybe more than that, I'm going to call these grandma goals. So I am not a grandma. My kids are not married. I don't think I'm going to be a grandma anytime soon. But I know what I want when I am to that age and I know how I want to be able to move. 

And so I am going to assume that we are similar in that. Number two. This is aligned with intuitive eating. This is not a weight loss episode. I don't educate. I don't coach I don't train for weight loss if you are listening. And you were wanting to know how to use protein to lose weight. I'm very sorry to disappoint you, but we will not be covering that. 

So I'm going to save you a lot of time if you're like, but I want to know how to lose weight. This is not the episode for you. If you want to know how to use protein. For your grandma goals. This is the podcast for you.

Number three, I'm going to assume you're active in some capacity. That means you are walking. 

You're playing tennis. You're strength training. You are on your indoor cycle or outdoor cycle. You are moving in some way 

because protein is nuanced on all of these things on how much we move. So I will make that assumption about you. 

Number four, please be aware. These are general guidelines. 

This is what I am able to provide as a certified nutrition coach. If you need specific guidance, if you have specific health issues. If you are a serious athlete. And you need some individualized guidance. I am not the person for this. Please go see a registered dietician. If you need a registered dietician, I have a lot of resources. 

So reach out and I can get you connected with someone who is more appropriate to help you with that. 

Okay, now let's talk about. Sources. So I want you to visualize something with me. I want you to visualize walking into a ballroom full of people and you know, a lot of people, some of them you don't know, and everybody is enjoying themselves. They're having a good time. And 

there's that high level chatter. That we hear whenever we walk into a room. 

And maybe you hear like various people saying various words, but it's not like you can put all of those together. It's not like you can even really tell what they're talking about, but you can just hear different words and phrases from people as things get louder or more quiet or something like that. 

Now in this scenario, we're imagining we walked into this ballroom because we had something really important

we wanted to tell someone, maybe it was something fantastic that happened at work. That that day, maybe it is a relationship issue that you need to unpack with someone, whatever that is, you have something important. 

Now let's just say that you needed to talk with someone about your marriage, like something going on. You're not going to go to the first person who you hear, who says the word marriage, or husband, or wife or whatever that is like, we're not going to go straight to that person who is saying a word that is somewhat familiar instead, what we're going to do more than likely I'm willing to bet a lot of money is you're going to look for someone, you know, 

you're going to look for someone who knows you. 

Well, Who knows your backstory, who is empathetic. Who will listen and respond with care and gentleness and kindness. 

And then you see a friend and you walk over to that friend and you start talking with that friend about whatever it is. 

Well, in this case, we're talking about our marriage, but it can be anything else. And you start talking with that friend and what's going to happen is all of the high level chatter that we heard. When we came in, we'll die down a bit because we are focusing on that one voice. We're focusing on that one person. 

What does this have to do with protein? 

Well, in my opinion, when we pull up Instagram or Facebook or tic talk, That is the high level chatter of the ballroom. It is a lot of voices. It is a lot of pink poles saying a lot of different things and you need to choose the people you trust to listen to. So first I do have to say, if you are listening to this and you trust my voice and you trust me, I'm. Beyond humbled and appreciative. And grateful for that. 

What I've tried to do in this episode. Is tune into the voices that I respect in this space. 

Those two voices are the ones I listened to. And I learned too, as I was putting this episode together and doing The enormous amount of research. So who are those two voices? One of them is Dr. Stacy Sims. 

Dr. Sims is an exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist, specializing in sex differences in training nutrition and health. She has her PhD. And she really works on female physiology. Not all research is the same. And so Dr. Sims is the one who is able to go in and say, okay, this is, was done on 25 year old men, not appropriate for 50 year old women. 

And therefore. I have taken her menopause 2.0 coaching program. So that way I can learn pass it along to you, and then use that in my own programming and training and coaching, and quite honestly, for my own personal life. The other voice I listened to is Molly. Galbrath 

and her company girls gone strong. 

Molly is a wonderful advocate for women's health and strength. Both of these women provide sound nutritional advice without it being diet culturey I will say if you really get into their stuff they will provide information on body comp changes, but it's more of like, we get that. This is something that you want to know. 

It's not something that we are advocating or promoting, but here's the information if you want it. So. You know, for whatever it's worth. Those are the two main voices that I listened to. And of course I pulled out my nutrition coaching certification manual. The, I don't remember how many pages are in that book, 500 or something like that. 

So I did use that as a source, a lot. 

The final groundwork I want to remind you of is everything I'm going to provide in the next four episodes, including this one is I am hoping to provide awareness, not obsession. We are over that. We have done that. We have played that game. How did that work out? 

Not great. And so. Please don't get obsessed about this 

you will not nail all of this immediately or every day. That's okay. The other thing I want to remind you of is protein is, but one of three macro nutrients do not negate your carbs and fat in the name of getting enough protein in. And let this wisdom guide you. Not govern you. You know, your body best. 

Listen to it. Nourish it. Enjoy your food. .

I know I took a long time to get through all of that, but it's very important to me that I am not coming along as one other voice, yelling out protein and numbers and all of that. I want to set that stage. So with all of that said, I hope we are on the same page. Let's jump in. Okay, protein. What is it? 

Like I said, it's one of the three macro nutrients, protein, carbs, and fat. All food is some combination of protein, carbs and fats. 

It might be. All of one micronutrient or it might be a combination of 

But it is one of the nutrients that all of our food provides.

Protein is actually comprised of 20 standard amino acids. These are the building blocks of protein. So I want you to think about like, I'm a boy, mom. So I want you to think about like Legos. Did your kids play Legos? Did you see them putting all of these things together? Like all of the different Legos, did you step on them in the middle of the night? 

Probably. So that's how you know, you're ready to be a parent, by the way, is take Legos. Throw them out and then step on them in the middle of the night. I digress.

But there are 20, amino acids that are used to make up protein. These are divided into essential and non-essential. I will not go over the non-essential and just know that there are nine essential amino acids that make up your protein. Protein to be complete 

has all nine of these. I am not going to list all nine of those mostly because I can't pronounce all of them. Very well, but I am going to point out too, that we will be talking about more. One of them is leucine. And another one is tryptophan. So take tryptophan tech it in your pocket. 

We'll be talking about that in part two. And leucine, I'm going to talk about here in just a minute. So what's this like complete versus not complete.

With a complete protein. It's going to do all of the things that we think of when we when we think of protein and I will get into that in a minute, but here's a couple sources of or some examples of complete proteins. 

From an animal perspective, your complete proteins are going to be like anything with the muscle. So that's like beef fish, poultry. Eggs are a complete protein milk is a complete protein. Cheeses, some other dairy products like yogurt. Those are all complete. There are complete proteins that are plant-based. 

I've gotten questions of like, what are the best proteins for vegetarians or for plant-based? 

So here are some So these are complete, and these are great plants to start with. If you're looking for a complete protein. quinoa buckwheat hemp seeds, chia seeds soy. So that comes in a lot of different forms. Tofu, Tempe at a mommy. 

Now let's talk about leucine for a minute.

Leucine triggers what's called muscle protein synthesis. I will use these words throughout this series, muscle protein synthesis is basically when your body generates new muscle. So you exercise, you lift some weights, you get sore, that's creating little micro tears in your muscle, and then what we want and why we strength train is so our muscles will regrow. And generate new muscle. So that the muscle gets stronger. 

Again, leucine is just one of the nine essential amino acids, but that is its role. 

That is one of its functions. High leucine products include dairy eggs, beans, legumes, chicken salmon. Brown rice chia seeds 

and one thing that I think is worth noting, just so you know, is animal protein will provide more leucine than plant-based. 

We'll talk about plant versus animal protein here and a little bit, but just know that animal protein does provide more leucine than. Plant-based. So, what does protein do? I just gave that example of like, you know, you're sore, you've had little micro tears in your muscles and it builds and repairs, those tissues. It also helps to regulate your hormones. 

It helps support your immune system. 

And it does support all of our tissues. So that's not only our muscles. Those are also our ligaments and our tendons and our connective tissue. So protein helps.

With all of those areas. 

One thing you've probably heard is that we need more protein as we get older. 

I don't know how long that research has been out, but I just feel like I'm hearing it a lot more. Maybe that's just because of the age and the stage that I'm in, but we do need more protein as we get older. Here's an example. I came up with. You know, when you get. A cell phone. 

You go to the store, you get the box. 

If you get the apple, like it goes. You know that when you pull it out, that's supposed to be a super special thing for apple products and you get this phone and the battery lasts forever. It's glorious. Like you can go. A couple days without charging it if necessary. And it just seems like the battery. Last forever. 

As the cell phone gets older, then you need to charge that battery more often. 

I have an iPhone 12. And what I'm noticing is by about four or 5:00 PM, I'm needing to plug my phone in. Even though it charges all night long. 

It drains faster and it needs charging more often. When we get older. We produce less estrogen. And reduced estrogen causes a reduced signaling to what's called the satellite cell to build muscle.

Those satellite cells are responsible for muscle regeneration throughout the lifespan. 

That muscle regeneration is muscle protein synthesis. And so that's why we need to have more protein because we need to have more charging, more protein in order to

signal that we've got to build muscle.

Therefore, as we females age, we tend to lose muscle mass and strength because we're not getting that signaling to Build more muscle to create more muscle. This is called sarcopenia. 

Sarcopenia happens to everyone. You can't. We all die. Well, I mean, I'm sorry to be so morbid. I hope that that was not a surprise. Like we all die and we will all suffer from sarcopenia 

unless like you're using anabolic steroids or something like that, which. No, no, but anyway, sarcopenia is something that's going to happen. However you can mitigate it. And reduce the rate at which you're losing muscle by consuming enough protein and strength training. So just to be very clear, eating more protein will not increase. Your muscle mass, it will help reduce the loss of muscle. 

 Continuing on this cell phone battery analogy, if your phone is losing its charge really quickly. It may be the age. It may be that it is an iPhone 12, but it also may be that you have a lot of apps open and you have your location services turned on and your notifications on for everything. So closing the apps will, and turning off your notifications will help your battery life. That's where the protein comes in. 

And that's also in particular where the strength training comes in. And if you want to know more about strength training, stay tuned over the next few months, I've got some information for you.

The other reason we need more protein as we get older is for our bone health. So menopausal women are at increased risk for osteoporosis because our estrogens are declining particularly our Ester dial. 

And that is what is responsible for tissue and bone health. Protein will help that bone health by supporting your bone remodeling process. And helping to maintain your bone mineral density, but also. Do you need to strength train says the personal trainer. This is not a strength training episode. I will have more information for you in the next, in the next few months. 

If you don't know how to strength, train. 

It can also help in terms of hormone production and transportation in the body. 

Keeping in mind that insulin is a hormone. 

Your protein can help with the production of your insulin, and it will help regulate your blood sugar levels because protein takes longer to digest. And so it's not hitting your bloodstream, which is causing your insulin to kick in. 

And so it just kind of provides overall hormone balance. 

And then the final thing about why we need more protein as we get older is for our physical performance. I don't know about you, but I definitely notice my performance just declining. It's just, it's just a slight decline. Research has shown that adequate protein intake is associated with better performance. Among post-mortem menopausal women. Women consuming protein at or above the recommended daily allowance, which we'll talk about later, demonstrated both better upper and lower extremity, strength. Compared to those who consume less than the RDA. 

So consuming enough protein will help your physical performance. And we're not talking about your hundred meter sprint times. We're talking about your functionality. And how you are moving and what your strength is. To do all of the things that you love to do. There are absolutely nuances that go into your protein needs. 

And so that is how much you work out, what kind of workout you do. And Durance athletes need a different amount than strength athletes. If you've had surgery or illness you definitely need to have more protein. And so just realize that throughout your, just say monthly, yearly rhythms, you are going to need more or less, depending on what's going on in your life. 

Now let's talk about plant versus animal based. 

I think it's appropriate to say here that. You should consume the protein that makes you feel the best. And when I say field, there's a lot of different ways in there. Like what feels good in your belly? What sits well, what gives you energy? Is something keeping you up at night because you've had one type of protein or over the other? 

I mean, like for example, I don't, I can't do soy protein. I get like the worst. Just deepest, painful gas. That I can imagine. So I stay away from soy protein, but way baby, you feel great on it? So I will not say that there is one right or wrong way to consume your, your protein. I will say this. 

If you have chosen to be plant-based. Or vegetarian or vegan. However you define that for you and what you like to do. Whatever those reasons are, maybe it is environmental. Maybe it is animal cruelty. Maybe it is for heart health. I encourage you to be just as intentional about choosing plants that support your protein needs as you are about why you are plant based. 

I remember way back when the Oprah show was on and they were experimenting with being vegan. And I remember. Her saying to her producer. Yeah. Last time we tried to go vegan, we just ate potato chips all day long. 

If you have chosen to be plant-based, you probably have a really good reason for it. And I just encourage you to have that same intentionality with the protein that you are choosing. 

That being said, let's talk some more about animal and plant-based animal protein. I just want you to think of as like, what's a, what's a muscle. 

What carries a muscle? Are you eating that muscle? I know that's not a great visual, but that's just what it is then. Maybe that's your beef. That's your chicken, your pork, your fish. Eggs and dairy are also animal based proteins because they come from animal. Plant-based we'll more than likely have at least one other macro nutrient with it. 

For example, you may have heard that beans. Our great source of protein. Yes. And they also have carbohydrates and they have a lot of great fiber in them. You may have heard that nuts and seeds are a good protein source. Yes. And they also have healthy fats. You may have heard that soy products are a good source of protein. 

Yes. And they have some fats. So if it is plant-based more than likely it has another macronutrient with it. What does that mean? Nothing really just be aware about that. 

So if you are eating a lot of say almond butter or peanut butter, because you feel like, okay, well this has some protein in it. 

Yes. It also does have some dietary fat in it. Dietary fat is good for you. Just be aware that that's also something that you are having. 

There is a difference between high protein and moderate protein. 

High protein is going to have a high amount of protein in it. So that is basically your animal protein, your animal meats, your eggs, your dairy, like Greek yogurt and cottage cheese, not all. Dairy is high protein. Some of it is moderate protein. In terms of your dairy, moderate protein, that's going to be more like your cheese or shredded cheese, your milk, your plain yogurt.

And your plant-based will mostly have moderate protein. 

Because they also have another macronutrient in it. It's hard to have a high protein item when it also share space with carbohydrates or fats. 

Again, Those are great things to have. Just be aware that again, your peanut butter 

may not have the density of protein that you think it is. How do you know this? Well, you can turn it around and look at the labels. If that is something that is comfortable for you. 

Now, do you remember how we talked about losing a second ago and how leucine triggers muscle protein synthesis.

Plant-based proteins have less losing meaning you will need to have more plant-based foods with protein in them in order to get the kind of leucine that we are needing to trigger the muscle protein synthesis. 

So it may be that you just need to eat more of these plants in order to get the Lucene that you need. I will talk about this in our third episode on here, 

But ideally you want to get between two and a half to three grams of leucine per meal, and we want to be having about three to four meals a day. 

. And I will say when I throw out these numbers, I really want you to. Hold them loosely. I want you to toss that away. If numbers are triggering for you, if you're like, whoa, this feels, this feels like this is going to set me down on the wrong path. 

If that feels overwhelming to you, then just don't worry about it. Just know that if you were eating a lot of plant-based items for your protein, 

then you'll just want to make sure that you are consuming a decent amount of it. So let's talk about some plant based. Good quality protein items. And so I'm just going to spew this off and by the way, these are in shownotes. So if you want to go get all of this, you can get it. I will also include it in the protein playbook, so you can have a quick and easy. Look at all of this, but in terms of plant-based good you know, moderate protein items. 

So those are going to be legumes. Those are lentils, chickpeas, black beans, kidney beans. Kidney beans, excuse me. Peas 

Other good protein sources are in your soy products. So that's your tofu, your Tempe, your ETA, mommy. Your nuts and seeds, almonds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, and hemp seeds, both chia seeds and hemp seeds are a complete protein. 

So those are wonderful things that you can throw in when possible to increase that complete protein with all nine essential amino acids. Your higher protein grains will include, quinoa and buckwheat. Both of those are complete protein. Amaranth oats, wild oats, and then you've got vegetables. 

So that's spinach. Broccoli cauliflower. Brussel sprouts, asparagus, portabella mushrooms, both the big ones and the smaller ones. Those are all larger sources of protein in your vegetables. Nutritional yeast is another one that is also another food that gives them. That makes me really gassy. 

So if you love it, I'm super happy, super happy for you, but I've tried it before and it just doesn't work for me. Say tan. Not for all. You might. Jesus, he friends. I'm not saying Satan. Okay. Two different things. Say 10 it's S E I T a N, which is a wheat gluten. That is a good source of protein in a plant. And then finally you can find plant. based protein powders, which is a wonderful place to stop. And we will talk about protein powders and collagen next . So be sure to come back for that and don't forget to get your protein playbook over at grace health.com/protein-playbook for some of the recipes. Bees and strategies I use to ensure that I have. Easy protein on hand. 

So I'm not opening up the refrigerator and going. What am I going. to have? What can I eat? I want to have some protein. But I don't know what to have. And I will talk more about those in the fourth episode in this season. Hey, thanks for tuning in today. I hope this has given you a nice foundation, not only of protein, but also where we are in our Headspace for this. I'm so glad that you have joined me for this. Thank you for trusting me with this. For being a voice that you. listened to and come back next week, or next time as we talk about protein powders and collagen and timing. Okay. That's all for today. Go out there and have a Grace Day.