Healthy Protein
Protein is an essential nutrient. Your body can’t live without it. Protein is broken down by digestion into amino acids that provide the building blocks for the structure and repair for the body. Most of your protein should come from fish and skinless poultry, and to a lesser extent from foods that contain saturated fat, such as eggs, beef and lamb. Non-fat or low-fat dairy products are acceptable in limited quantities. Nuts also contribute protein to your diet.
We need some protein, but in excess it is harmful. When you eat more than your body needs for structure and repair, the excess is converted largely into glucose and burned for fuel. It turns your body into a sugar-burner! This is not desirable or healthy. (Read Fat-Burner or Sugar-Burner for more information about the undesirable effects of being a sugar-burner.) Furthermore, excess protein creates a toxic load on your kidneys.
Most people should eat 50-75 grams of protein daily depending on their size, height, frame and activity level. Spread the protein out among your meals and do not have more than 15-20 grams per meal. Twenty grams of animal protein is about the size of a deck of cards.
Many popular weight-loss diets allow you to eat all the protein you want as long as you avoid most carbohydrates. These high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets are not a good long-term solution.
Fish
Fish is a healthy source of protein and fat. Eat wild fish and avoid farmed fish when possible. Wild fish contain high levels of the omega-3 fatty acids. Farmed fish that have been fed grains have high levels of saturated fats and low levels of omega-3 fatty acids. In addition, farmed fish are frequently fed antibiotics that are passed on to us when we consume them.
Many fish are high in mercury, a toxic metal. The benefits of the healthy fat in fish outweigh the problems with toxic metals if you take steps to eliminate mercury from your body. Read Eliminate Toxins to learn more about how to pull mercury and other toxins out of your body.
Beef, Lamb and Pork
Limit the beef, lamb, and pork in your diet unless they are grass-fed. Grain-fed animals are higher in saturated fat. All animals, including cows, farmed salmon, and humans take grain and turn it into saturated fat. That is why cattle go to the feed lots before they are sold. It makes them as fat as possible. It is healthier to eat meat from grass-fed instead of corn-fed animals. You can find grass-fed meat in some health food stores.
Eggs
Like beef, most egg-laying chickens are raised in confinement, fed grains, and loaded with antibiotics and growth hormones. These chickens produce eggs that are higher in saturated fats and lower in omega-3 fatty acids as well as many other chemical residues. The best eggs are omega-3 enriched eggs from free-range chickens that have been fed a diet that promotes more omega-3 fatty acids in the eggs.
Poultry
Eat organic, free-range poultry whenever possible. It is sold in many health-food stores.
Dairy
Most dairy products are loaded with saturated fats. Eat only limited amounts of low fat cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, cream cheese and Jarlsberg Lite Swiss cheese. If you have a choice, purchase organic products that come from cows raised without hormones and other chemicals. All types of goat cheese are fine.
Do not drink milk. Milk contains lactose, an unhealthy sugar, and casein, a protein to which many people are allergic and that can lead to an autoimmune process that can cause type 1 diabetes. Infants that are fed cow milk are more likely to develop diabetes than those that are breast-fed. Milk is promoted as being a good source of calcium to insure healthy bones and teeth. We do need calcium in our diet, but the truth is that we can usually get all of the calcium that we need from nuts and green leafy vegetables.
Vitamin D and proper leptin and insulin function are much more important for bone health than calcium. Vitamin D helps us absorb calcium from our diets (Read the article Vitamin D) and leptin directs protein and calcium to the bones. If you are leptin-resistant, calcium is likely to end up in your arteries where it contributes to heart disease and away from your bones where it plays a useful role. For more information about insulin and leptin read Fat-Burner or Sugar-Burner and Manage Your Blood Sugar.
Legumes and Nuts
Beans and other legumes (including peanuts) are not a good source of protein. Nuts are a good snack food. They contain high amounts of fiber, monounsaturated fat, and some protein. They satisfy your hunger and help your body to burn fat.
