Food Freedom Friday Edition 353 - Protein Powder On A Carnivore Diet

Protein powder is a very popular supplement in health and fitness spheres. When following a carnivore diet, you probably wonder whether there is still a need to include protein powders in your nutrition plan.

What Is Protein Powder?

The main ingredient in protein powder is processed protein which can come from animal sources or plant sources. Animal-based protein powder most commonly comes from milk (whey or casein protein) but can also be made from eggs and meat.

Plant-based protein powder are made from a variety of plants including soybeans, rice, peas, hemp, chia, lentils, and beans. Thanks to the loud voice of the vegan movement, plant-based protein powder has become increasingly popular.

If you have used plain protein powder before, you will understand why most protein powders contain added flavorings, sugar, artificial sweeteners, and thickeners. Plain protein shakes taste terrible and are barely edible. You will need to blend pure protein powder with fruits, honey, yogurt, milk, or ice cream to make it palatable.

As a result, protein powder manufacturers usually have to add sugar, natural sweeteners (e.g. stevia, erythritol), artificial sweeteners (e.g. acesulfame potassium, sucralose), natural flavors, artificial flavors, salt, vegetable oils, thickeners (e.g. corn starch, tapioca starch, rice flour, gum) to improve the taste.

Some manufacturers add probiotics, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes to make their protein powder appear healthier. If you have never inspected what’s in your protein powder, you might be in for a shock.

Protein Powder & The Carnivore Diet

Protein supplementation is absolutely unnecessary on the carnivore diet primarily because there is already an ample amount of high-quality protein accompanied along with all the essential nutrients and health-promoting bioactive compounds in animal-sourced food.

Reasons protein powder is unnecessary on a carnivore diet include:

Contains Sufficient Protein

Animal-sourced foods are a great source of high-quality, complete proteins which highly bio-available.

For example, a 100-gram serving of lean beef, lamb, pork, or chicken will provide 21g, 20g, 17g, and 23g respectively. This is roughly equivalent to one serving of protein powder which typically delivers around 20 to 25 grams of protein.

Eating a small steak, however, is a lot more delicious and nutritious than drinking a protein shake filled with additives that may impact your health.

A carnivore diet, easily meets your body’s protein needs. Your concern, if any, should be whether you are getting enough fat because much of the meat butchered today tends to be on the leaner side - its fat is trimmed off to meet the demands of the general population who fears fat.

If you eat too much lean meat and not enough fat, you will feel unwell. Excessive protein intake can lead to protein poisoning or “the rabbit starvation syndrome”. This is because your liver has a limited capacity to deaminate proteins and produce urea for the excretion of excess nitrogen. Protein intake is usually best around 20% - 40% of total calories.

On the third day of this lean meat diet, he developed nausea and diarrhea. When the protein intake was reduced to around 20% and fat intake was increased to around 80% (in terms of calories), nausea and diarrhea disappeared.

High Quality Protein

In addition to providing easily available and digestible protein, animal-source food is also the best source for other essential nutrients and beneficial bioactive compounds.

For example, a serving of beef (100g) delivers not protein along with a good amount of many essential vitamins and minerals:

·       Protein: 21g (43% of DV)

·       Selenium: 37% of DV

·       Niacin (B3): 33% of DV

·       Vitamin B6: 30% of DV

·       Zinc: 26% of DV

·       Phosphorous: 20% of DV

·       Vitamin B12: 17% of DV

·       Potassium: 10% of DV

·       Iron: 9% of DV

·       Riboflavin (B2): 6% of DV

·       Pantothenic acid (B5): 6% of DV

·       Magnesium: 5% of DV

·       Copper: 4% of DV

·       Thiamin (B1): 4% of DV

·       Folate: 3% of DV.

In addition, real food is also a great source of many beneficial bioactive compounds such as L-carnitine, coenzyme Q10, taurine, creatine, conjugated linoleic acid, and glutathione.

While these nutrients are not considered essential because we can survive without them, they have many health benefits.

L-carnitine plays a critical role in fat metabolism.

CoQ10 is important for energy production and has the potential to prevent or treat many health conditions.

Taurine plays an important role in bile acid conjugation and the functioning of the nervous system, the eyes, and the immune system.  

Animal-based food is the best source of those beneficial bioactive compounds. They are also free of plant-antinutrients or natural pesticides that can be found in abundance in plant food.

Protein Powder May Contain Additives

Most protein powders on the market contain substances other than protein powder including artificial flavors, artificial sweeteners, sugar, vegetable oils, and thickeners to make them palatable.

In addition, protein powders can be contaminated by toxins.

A study on toxins in protein powders found an alarming level of contamination in both organic and non-organic powders.

They found that “protein powders tested … had an array of positive results for detectable levels of arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, BPA, mycotoxins, pesticides, and residual solvents “.

In particular:

·       75% of protein powders had measurable levels of lead and 33% of products exceeded at least one federal or state regulation set for safety

·       55% of protein powders had BPA, an endocrine disruptor

·       53 of the top-selling products contained elevated levels of BPA, lead, mercury, cadmium, and arsenic

·       One protein powder product contained 25 times the allowed regulatory limit of BPA in just one serving

·       Certified organic products had over 2x the level of heavy metals (e.g. lead, arsenic, and cadmium) as non-organic products

·       Plant-based protein powders containing the highest levels of contamination

·       75% of plant-based samples tested positive for lead

Plant-based protein powders were the most contaminated while egg and whey-based protein powders were the cleanest.

A1 Casein Can Be Problematic

The two main types of milk proteins commonly used in making protein powders are casein and whey. Casein has been linked to a number of health problems.

Casein protein has two variants, A1 and A2 - a difference in the 67th amino acid in the chain. Most modern farmed cows produce A1 casein while certain cow breeds (Charolais, Guernsey, Jersey, and Limousin), buffalo, goats, and sheep produce A2 casein.

In humans, digestion of A1 casein, as opposed to A2 casein, releases beta-casomorphin-7, which activates μ-opioid receptors expressed throughout the gastrointestinal tract and body. A1 casein has been linked to a number of health problems including type 1 diabetes, celiac disease, and some other autoimmune conditions in some observational studies. There also evidence that A1 casein is not a factor causing type 1 diabetes or heart disease, so the findings are clearly mixed.

A1 casein is thought to be the reason why some people find cows’ milk problematic but are okay with goat and sheep milk which contain mostly A2 casein.

In light of this controversy, even if you don’t have a dairy sensitivity, it is probably wise to consume casein protein powder very sparingly. Whole and fresh meat is still the best source of protein and other nutrients.

Protein Powder Is Highly Processed

Protein powder is an ultra-processed food.

Whey is a by-product of the cheese-making process. Liquid whey is the leftover after the curd is formed. It goes through a purification and drying process to remove fats, carbohydrates and water. Whey protein isolate is made with further filtration to achieve a higher concentration of protein.

Casein is made from milk similar to the way cheese is made. Enzymes or chemicals are used to make milk coagulate and form casein curds. The curds are then filtered and dried to produce casein protein powder.

Plant-based protein powders are extracted from soy, rice, peas, hemp, chia, quinoa, pumpkin seeds, potatoes, maize and more. A number of methods can be used to remove carbohydrates, fats, fiber, and water and extract proteins from plant-based foods. These may involve the use of solvents (e.g. hexane), ultrafiltration using a combination of mechanical processes and chemicals, or an enzyme-assisted process using commercial proteases.

There is time and place for when ultra-processed food is needed, but if you have access to real and fresh food, that is always the optimal choice.

Protein Intake & Muscle Hypertrophy

With a huge and swiftly expanding market, protein powder is undoubtedly very popular amongst fitness enthusiasts because they believe that protein supplementation is necessary to support muscle growth.

Research has found no significant difference between those who do and do not use protein supplements in terms of muscle strength or hypertrophy improvements.  It was concluded that “total protein intake was the strongest predictor” of muscle hypertrophy and that their findings “refute the commonly held belief that the timing of protein intake in and around a training session is critical to muscular adaptations and indicate that consuming adequate protein in combination with resistance exercise is the key factor for maximizing muscle protein accretion “.

As long as protein intake is adequate during muscle overload, the adaptations in muscle growth and function will not be influenced by protein supplementation.

Using Protein Powder On A Carnivore Diet

If you still want to use protein powders whilst following a carnivore diet, the best ones to use are animal-sourced like whey, casein, egg, and beef.

Animal-based proteins are less processed and less contaminated and safer than their plant-derived counterparts.

Animal-based proteins also have higher digestibility scores (which measures protein quality based on human essential amino acid requirements and our ability to digest it) compared to plant-based proteins.

Some common PDAS scores are:

·       Beef – 0.92

·       Eggs – 1.00

·       Milk – 1.00

·       Casein – 1.00

·       Whey – 1.00

·       Soy Protein – 1.00

·       Peanuts – 0.52

·       Black Beans – 0.75

·       Rice – 0.5

·       Wheat Gluten – 0.25

·       Pea – 0.59

Conclusion

It is clear that protein supplement is not necessary on a carnivore diet. Animal-based food can provide you with an abundance of protein as well as all essential nutrients that your body needs.

Protein supplement is generally perceived as beneficial in supporting muscle growth. However, this is likely to be a result of an increase in total protein intake rather than the timing effect. Overall total protein intake is the main determinant of muscle hypertrophy.