You probably need way more Protein

if you're hungry all the time you  probably need more protein why well what  drove an 11 month old boy to eat salt  straight out of this salt shaker and why  did an infant in the 1920s choose to  drink straight cod liver oil something  that kids notoriously hate well here's a  1928 study on newly weaned infants who  completely decided their own diets they  were presented with a wide variety of  meats milk eggs fruits vegetables juice  and cereals and they either pointed at  or just grabbed what they wanted if the  babies could pick the right Foods they  could get all the proteins vitamins and  minerals that they needed the infants  ate in weird patterns they ate a bit of  everything but depending on the week  they would eat astonishingly large  amounts of beef then the next week they  might be eating tons of eggs and then  would switch to cereal the next week  they ate a wide variety of foods even  choosing to eat bone marrow liver  kidneys and raw beef  in the end the babies grew to be very  healthy five babies entered the study  with Ricketts but by the end they all  had beautifully strong Bones the  researchers analyzed the content of all  36 000 meals the babies ate and they  found that they were indeed choosing a  variety of foods that made for a  nourishing and nutritionally complete  diet one child who was vitamin D  deficient when first introduced to the  study chose to drink straight cod liver  oil which is rich in vitamin D in a  different 1940 study an 11 month old boy  who had a disease that prevented him  from retaining sodium chose every day to  eat an abnormal amount of salt all by  himself he ate the salt straight out of  the salt shaker and while he didn't eat  crackers he would lick the salt off of  them these old studies support this idea  that our bodies can to some degree make  us crave foods that we need the most  this is where something called the  protein leverage hypothesis comes in it  basically says that because the body  knows it requires a lot of protein it  will compel you to keep eating to get  more protein eating the same number of  calories you will be hungry on a low  protein diet than you would be on a high  protein diet so for example you might be  full for a while after a 400 gram rib  eye steak but might be craving some  snacks not too long after eating too Big  Macs even though both of these meals got  you about 1 140 calories the difference  is the rib eye steak is giving you 96  grams of protein but the Big Max only  gave you 52 grams of protein there's  actually a lot of evidence for this  protein leverage idea every single human  obesity study you will ever look at in  the history of medical literature the  more protein people ate the better a  study from just this year found that on  average each one percent increase in  protein lowers total calorie intake by  about one percent a 2005 study found  that people eating a 30 protein diet  lost more weight and had lower hunger  scores than people eating a 15 protein  diet a 2011 study found that people ate  more calories if they ate a 10 protein  diet instead of a 15 protein diet in  that study the people on the low protein  diet were craving more Savory Foods  their body was craving things that taste  like they should have protein in them  people think it's crazy that I've eaten  200 grams of protein for almost 20  straight years every single day I like  eating protein it fills me up I feel  good on it that's why I do it I think we  all understand to some degree that  protein is very filling I bet you could  imagine yourself polishing off 1500  calories of pizza and ice cream pretty  easily but 1500 calories of just lean  beef will leave you sweating and  struggling to swallow in between deep  breaths  oh here come the meat sweats there's a  couple whey protein blunch your appetite  one idea is What's called the  aminostatic hypothesis that says  essentially the body is always trying to  maintain a certain level of amino acids  when it senses that there is not enough  amino acids present it will make you  hungry and of course amino acids come  from the protein that we eat here's a  really cool graph from a quite old study  that shows that appetite and amino acid  concentrations in the body are tightly  linked when amino acid concentrations go  up appetite goes down when amino acids  go down appetite goes up  other research has found that eating  protein simply increases the secretion  of anorexogenic hormones hormones  associated with a reduction of appetite  for example in one study where an amino  acid mix reduced the appetite of obese  adolescence this reminds that this was  due to an increase in the appetite  suppressing peptide glp-1 and then glp1  is likely secreted in response to the  intestines sensing the presence of  certain amino acids look at pictures or  footage of a 1960s Beach and it's pretty  obvious that the Obesity epidemic of  today is a recent issue our food  environment has definitely changed in  many ways but could the issue be that we  just eat too much cheap food reporting  on USDA data Vox claims that Americans  devote just 11 percent of their  household spending to food a smaller  share than nearly every other country  spends on food consumed at home alone  now part of this is because America is a  wealthy Nation so people don't have to  spend so much on food but considering  America spends a lot less than say  France or Norway part of it is simply  due to the fact that America can simply  buy food that is cheaper to produce I  don't think you'd be surprised to hear  that cheaper food makes you fat cheap  processed food is loaded with additives  sugar processed carbohydrates and Seed  oils but what it doesn't have much of is  protein protein is not cheap protein is  actually the most expensive  macronutrient this study on 106  Supermarket Foods found that the cost of  food increases with food protein density  the more protein a food had the more  expensive it was fat and carbohydrates  however are really cheap NLS y79 data  suggests that as income goes down  obesity goes up so of course cheap foods  have all kinds of negative attributes  but maybe cheap low protein foods are  driving people to be fat by keeping them  hungry because they're not getting  enough protein what are you eating I  don't even know I just know I'm hungry  all the time Dr Ted Naaman has a  philosophy on maintaining a healthy  weight that is really simple you just  need to improve your protein to energy  ratio in this framework you can think  about macronutrients like this we need  protein to build our muscles maintain  our cellular machinery and so on it  builds us up and maintains our bodies  fat and carbs we'll consider as just an  energy source so you want to get plenty  of grams of protein per calorie of fat  and carbs you want a high protein to  energy ratio for example a ribeye steak  has plenty of protein and plenty of fat  but no carbs so it's protein to energy  ratio is 0.7 lean beef has no carbs and  even less fat so it's protein to energy  ratio is higher at 1.0 then of course  things with tons of calories relative to  protein are going to have really low  protein to energy ratios potatoes and  peanuts have a protein to energy ratio  of just 0.2  another way to think about this is if  you want a healthy lean body with a high  protein to energy ratio you should eat  foods that have a high protein to energy  ratio the more overweight and unhealthy  you become the lower the protein to  energy ratio of your body will become so  here's the next question too little  protein is definitely a thing but what  is too much protein the RDA for protein  is set at 0.8 grams of protein per  kilogram of body weight that would mean  that if you're a 70 kilogram or 154  pound man you only need 56 grams of  protein two Big Macs and a handful of  almonds should do the trick how however  what some people don't realize is that  the RDA is the minimum protein required  to prevent deficiencies it is not the  optimal protein intake Recent research  has found that at least double the RDA  of 0.8 grams per kilogram is likely  where you want to be this paper argues  that at least 1.2 grams per kilogram to  1.6 grams per kilogram of protein is  better for health there's something  called the acceptable macronutrient  distribution range which is set based on  epidemiological evidences that suggests  consumption Within These ranges play a  role in reducing risk of chronic  diseases as you can see in the chart  while the average American is at least  above the lower end of the amdr they are  very far from the upper end so it seems  like we really could stand to get more  protein but what amount of protein is  too much well that hasn't even been  established in human randomized control  trials optimizing for protein those  people always do better it improves  satiation better body composition  healthier lean muscle mass us better  insulin and glucose control Dr Gabriel  Lyon states that we haven't seen any  negative effects from upper limits  approaching 3.3 grams per kilogram which  is four times the RDA there has not been  to my knowledge any evidence to support  higher levels of dietary protein having  any kind of negative effect  ever one study having women eating over  four times the RDA as much as 3.4 grams  per kilogram per day didn't experience  any negative health effects the U.S and  Canadian Dietary Reference intake review  concluded there was not sufficient  evidence by 2005 to establish an upper  limit for how much protein can be safely  consumed but maybe you've heard of this  idea that protein is bad for the kidneys  and liver Dr Stewart Phillips a  professor on tier 1 Canada Research  chair and skeletal muscle Health said  that this idea is totally bogus there's  no data  there's no data that linked the two none  not a scrap he explains that the idea  that protein is bad for the kidneys came  from the fact that people who already  have kidney disease do better on Lower  protein diets though it's the disease  that made the kidneys unable to properly  handle protein not the other way around  that would be kind of like saying  because people with prostate cancer have  trouble peeing water causes prostate  cancer at the end of the day it should  be totally expected that protein  increases satiety of course your body  makes you eat because it is urging you  to get a certain amount of minerals  nutrition and amino acids so if you  haven't gotten the protein your body  needs why would it signal you to stop  eating protein is obviously a very vital  nutrient it's much more than just the  brick and mortar used to build muscle of  course our bodies don't require protein  but the amino acids that protein is  composed of this review article amino  acids metabolism functions and nutrition  lays out that amino acids act as cell  signaling molecules regulate gene  expression act as key precursors for  producing hormones and important  biological substances like dope dopamine  serotonin epinephrine norepinephrine and  thyroid hormones just to name a few and  further evidence shows that dietary  supplementation with amino acids is  beneficial in ameliorating obesity  diabetes cardiovascular disease  metabolic syndrome and infertility and  amino acids are beneficial not just for  optimizing muscle growth but also for  preventing excess fat accumulation on  the body amino acids have all kinds of  important functions there's a whole  academic Journal dedicated to them one  other thing about Hunger it's well known  that we all have a hunger for salt when  anything from a rabbit or pigeon to a  kangaroo monkey or human doesn't get  enough sodium from Salt it will develop  a marked craving for salty things so  what people might not realize is that  when they're craving salty calorie Rich  snacks they might be able to extinguish  that hunger by just getting some salt  that's why this video sponsor element  comes in I often have one of their tasty  no sugar electrolyte salt packs when I  find them craving a snack or something  and it often reduces and sometimes  totally eliminates my Cravings since  electrolytes and sodium are a big part  of hydration and maintaining energy  levels in general it can really help to  replace the electrolytes you lose when  you're fasting doing a low carb diet or  if you're just sweating a lot at the gym  I often feel a lot better if I hydrate  myself with an element while drinking my  coffee because this reverses the  dehydrating effect of the caffeine  element tastes great and there's no junk  in it it's just a good balance of  electrolytes sodium potassium and  magnesium a bit of flavoring and some  Stevia if you don't want any flavoring  you can just get the raw and flavored  type if you go to drink LM t.com what  I've learned you can get a free sampler  pack with a new purchase