The Best Sources Of Protein To Eat For Longevity (Build Muscle & Fight Disease) | Dr. William Li
9-AwTUU6nyk • 2024-08-20
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Kind: captions Language: en today we're going to talk about the best sources of protein to eat for longevity proteins are the building blocks of life they're critical if you want you want to live long and if you want to prosper Thrive because as we age we lose protein and muscle mass now losing muscle mass is actually a setup for becoming frail and less mobile which cuts into your lifespan so you need to actually keep your protein in uh and build it up with exercise and that's the same as being a bodybuilder now think about maintaining strength during aging as bodybuilding over the course of a lifetime so up to the age of 40 you should be eating about 50 to 60 grams of protein per day for the average sized person and between the ages of 40 and 50 that's above the age of 40 you start losing muscle mass an example you might see is think about the older person that you might have seen uh in your life somebody with really really thin arms or really really thin legs their body might actually be looking okay but you can tell they're actually losing muscle mass this is called sarcopenia and it increases the risk of Falls which where you can break a hip or worse and falling is actually the precipitating event for older adults who are living independently or after a fall especially if they break uh their hips they can't manage anymore by themselves they've lost their independence and they need assisted living or a caregiver to be able to get around safely so you don't want to become frail you don't want want actually fall if you're going to live long you want to be able to live as independently as possible and developing that strength keeping up that muscle mass is absolutely critical so adding protein to your diet after the age of 40 somewhere between the 75 to 90 grams of protein a day is kind of where you want to aim at now every person is different which is why it's called personalized nutrition so there's no one hard number that you want to actually stick to and if you're physically active you might even need more protein and as I was saying before you need protein and the use of your muscles exercise in order to be able to actually benefit from that added protein intake so if you want to do this right I suggest Consulting a trained nutritionist and explaining that you're trying to optimize your protein goals and this will be useful because they'll help you calculate the right amount of protein that's tailored to you tailored to your body size to your physical activity to your other health conditions you might have and other fact and that's why I'm not giving you a black and white single number that you need to hit because everybody's different when it comes to the amount of protein that they need so what are some of the best sources of protein to help you towards longevity well meat is a good source of protein you know beef pork chicken duck fish shellfish all good sources of protein for example a 3 oz serving of beef has about 20 g of protein a 3 oz serving of chicken breast has about 25 to 26 gram of protein even a little bit more than beef ground pork has about 22 gam of protein per 3 o serving about the same amount as ground turkey well we know that in the end that eating large amounts of breed meat not healthy in the long run so we're talking about beef here and Longevity is all about the long game so I encourage you to think about other sources of protein besides red meat as I mentioned Seafood is another source of protein for for example salmon is a good source of protein uh as well as a good source of omega-3 fatty acids which are good for longevity a 3 o serving the salmon has about 22 gram of protein about the same amount as turkey and cod which is a mild white flesh fish has about 19 gram per 3 o serving and it's actually got a good healthy amount of Omega-3s as well now clinical studies of both salmon and cod show that these types of seafood are good for your metabolism through their Omega-3s they can help you burn harmful body fat which reduces visceral fat the kind of fat in the tube of your body and actually lowers inflammation as well so that's meat and that's Seafood but what about plant-based sources of protein because we know that people who eat more plant-based uh foods have better longevity so we're talking about legumes like white beans black beans Pinto beans lentils chickpeas soybeans all these are all plant plant-based sources of protein as well as good mineral content the other benefit of these types of plant-based proteins these legumes is that they actually make you feel full that's what we call satiety and so if you feel full you're also less likely to overeat in your next meal now over eating actually overloads your metabolism which actually can set you up for metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes which cuts down on your longevity so beans legum actually a great way to actually get that source of protein now I enjoy beans in a soup bean soup or or stew great way to actually have beans and when you make one pot of beans you're likely to actually have enough as leftover so you're actually saving time cooking as well now another source of plant-based protein are tree nuts you know uh pecans walnuts macadamias past pistachios cashews even pine nuts and seeds are also a good source pumpkin seeds sesame seeds sunflower seeds all good sources of protein now for tree nuts or seeds I suggest you just take a handful with you uh as a snack during the day something you bring to the office something you have a bowl to snack on uh throughout the day if you actually want to get some protein in those are good snacks and that's and eating it them actually a great way to actually get some extra protein and they're a good source of dietary fiber dietary fiber feeds your gut microbiome and when that's a good healthy gut bacteria and when your gut microbiome is fed guess what lowers inflammation and that sets you up to actually have more longevity as well now a team of researchers from Harvard and Tron University actually looked at just how powerful uh plant-based proteins are they looked at 32 clinical studies that involve a total of 715,000 people over periods of time ranging from 3 years to 30 years that's three decades and found that those people who ate more protein from Plants even 3% more protein in Plants resulted in a lower risk of premature death by about 5% all right so you lower the risk of death premature death by 5% by just having uh more proteins and another study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association a very credible Journal looked at 416,000 people over 16 years and compared to what they were eating over the time over that time uh for their health and found that just shifting 3% of protein from animals to plants shifting just 3% of the protein intake from animals like beef to plants like beans led to a 10% decrease in Death from any cause 10% decrease in Death from any cause and this is true for both men as well as women now the reasons for better longevity by taking in plant protein compared to animal protein is thought to be due to the fact that animal protein has higher levels of methionine and Branch chain amino acids this is found in meat and not in Plants especially in red meat and this is considered to be one of the triggers for chronic diseases now more research needs to be done on this but again having more shift in protein from uh Meats red meats to plant-based Foods actually lowers overall mortality plant-based Foods also have beneficial bioactives like poly phenols that can activate your health defenses like your circulation and your Genesis uh help activate your stem cells which help to regenerate and heal from the inside out activate uh gut health uh these are prebiotics uh these polyphenols and plants um help to protect your DNA which can slow cellular aging help repair DNA and prevent DNA from being damaged from oxidative stress and they can actually activate your immune system so you got better immune protectiveness as well as lower inflammation so plant-based proteins have actually a lot of other accompanying reasons why they may be beneficial for um uh longevity as well so you get other benefits in addition to the proteins you want more good and less bad choose plant-based proteins so here are my top choices five top choices of plant-based protein sources food number one are beans I mentioned this already white beans black beans fava beans chickpeas lentil great source of protein help you maintain muscle mass also a good source of dietary fiber good for your gut microbiome as I said before and also beans help to reduce blood lipids decrease blood glucose levels all right so all metabolically healthy as well now how much protein is uh are some beans legumes let's talk about this one cup of chickpeas has 14 g of protein and 12 G of dietary fiber the dietary fiber is is really really important as well so you're getting twofer protein and dietary fiber you can try uh again making a bean stew uh bean soup chickpeas you can actually do all kinds of things with them just look up a recipe chickpeas recipe and hit video on Google and you'll actually show get shown from people who are really passionate about what they do how to make something really tasty using chickpeas for example and clinical Studies have shown that eating beans can help to lower your blood pressure as well which lowers the risk of heart attack and stroke so again we're talking about longevity we're talking about protein and now we're talking about foods that contain protein but also have other benefits and clinically uh shown connections to longevity as well food number two tofu and soy Foods these are foods made from soybeans tofu is made from soybeans and let's talk about Tofu for example now you can go to the grocery store and very easily in the refrigeration section you can actually find soft tofu versus firm tofu but that's not all there is there are lots of different types of tofu if you go to an Asian grocery store all right there are these big Mega stores uh with Asian groceries you'll find not only the soft tofu and firm tofu uh but you'll also find tofu skin you'll find different types of fermented tofu you'll find fermented soybeans there's a kind of soybean that's fermented called nat it's a Japanese delicacy it's a pretty potent fermented soybean um but it's got the highest level of genestin which is a phytoestrogen that's good for cutting off the blood supply to cancer it's very beneficial for our health defense system so fermented foods as you know is a probiotic food like Nat now you get all the other benefits of the protein from the soy Foods as well now edamame which you can actually find in the frozen section you can steam them up it's the same kind of edamame you would get you know if you go to a Japanese restaurant you know at the sushi bar you actually order some steamed D Amame add a little bit of sea salt to it that's also a delicious uh way of getting plant-based proteins uh into you as well now an analysis by researchers at sichang University in China looked again at 21 different clinical studies that all showed that eating large amounts of soybean proteins was associated with benefits to lower the risk of cancer in fact a 15% reduction in stomach cancer and other gastrointestinal cancer by eating soy soybeans this gentin is anti-angiogenic that means it cuts off the blood supply to tumors uh beneficial and by the way another soy product is uh soy milk soy milk is the choice that I would actually have put to put to cut in to cut the strength of your coffee if you really wanted some milk in your coffee use soy milk instead of dairy milk and why would you do that is because dairy milk contains dairy fat and those dairy fat form little soap bubbles that trap the good polyphenols in coffee like chlorogenic acids so when you drink coffee with cream or coffee with milk dairy milk what's actually happening is that those little soap bubbles trap the good polyphenols and don't tumble down into your stomach most of it won't get absorbed some of it will but most of it tumbles right through to your lower gut and you've missed the opportunity to benefit from most of the polyphenols soy milk and nut-based milks plant-based milks don't have that so soy milk oat milk uh nut milk almond milk no problem all right food number three good source of plant-based proteins quinoa kinoa great source of protein it also has the benefit of having all essential amino acids needed for health now protein in your body is built from amino acids and you can't make all the amino acids that that you need in your body there's none of them you need that are essential meaning you need to get it from your diet and quinoa is the solution it's got the protein it's got all nine amino acids IDs one cup of quinoa has 8 gr of protein and the quinoa is also source of dietary fiber good for gut health lowering inflammation all supports longevity food number four lentils lentils are a staple food in Middle Eastern uh Cuisine and in Mediterranean uh Cuisines healthy Mediterranean Cuisines where longevity actually is is really optimized and lentils are great actually they come in different colors if you haven't seen different colored lentils they come in brown they come in green they come in yellow they come in red and black lentils really really dramatic this is a really inexpensive way to get protein you can buy lentils dried in the middle aisle of the grocery store lentil is packed with protein you can make a lentil stew in fact one tablespoon of lentils has one gram of protein and one cup then gives you 18 gam of protein lentils are high in dietary fiber again good for gut health and by the way not only is gut health good gut health lowering inflammation good gut health is good for brain health as well look you want to live long you want to also have a good nogin you want to have Clarity good cognition good memory good executive skills you want to be able to enjoy your life and so this is another reason why you want to actually not only get good protein you want to actually eat foods that protect your gut health uh as well and um lentils also been shown to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease disas look that's the number one killer in developed countries so if you want to live long you want to avoid having fatal cardiovascular events uh lentils are a good choice to get those proteins and to actually lower the risk of cardiovascular disease now lentils also have polyphenols like procyanidins and flavanol and the reason these are important is that they've got antioxidant property so as we age you know we get oxidative stress that contributes to wrinkly skin other forms of Aging uh so antioxidant protection protects our DNA and some of these polyphenols and lentils also have neuroprotective properties brain health gut health brain health good protein good muscle lentils are one of my favorites food number five Seafood now Seafood is something that if you live by the ocean you probably grow up eating Seafood all right uh that's if you come from a place uh on the shore so if you live in a place in the country where you actually can't get fresh fish no problem just go to the grocery store go into the freezer section and you can buy frozen fish and frozen fish actually in many ways is just as good as a fresh fish you know why because most of the frozen fish you get in a grocery store is caught on a boat and it's flash frozen all right whereas even fresh fish is is kept on Ice of course and then it's transported all the way to the fishmonger or the grocery store whereas that the flash frozen fish is packed up and then shipped right over to uh the grocery store uh already Frozen from the the boat more or less how good is seafood for longevity and uh and for protein well we talked about salmon and cod uh as being good sources of protein but shellfish are also good sources of protein muscles clams uh all great oysters good sources of protein squated shrimp also good resources of protein so this has been studied by the way in terms of its health benefits a 16-year study that involved almost a half a million men in women this is a study called the NIH which stands for the National Institute of Health AARP that is the American Association of retired persons diet and health study that's called the NIH AARP diet and health study followed people for 16 years and they found that men who ate the most Fish seafood had a 10% reduction in mortal ity due to cardiovascular disease probably because of the um Omega-3s uh that are found in there but also protein counts as well lowered the risk of heart attack and stroke okay reduction of mortality from heart attack and stroke that's by 10% had a 6% reduction in cancer mortality that's probably due to the Omega-3s as well Omega-3s also cut off the blood supply feeding cancers 20% reduction in mortality from lung disease now I don't have a mechanism for that um but maybe due to reduction in um inflammation maybe Improvement in immune defense and it had a 37% reduction in Death from liver disease in those men who actually ate more Seafood more fish now for women Fish Eaters Seafood eaters also had a 10% reduction in cardiovascular mortality same as men but they also had a 38% reduction in mortality from Alzheimer's disease all right that's brain health all right so fish good source of protein great source of omega-3 fatty acids Omega-3s not only cut off the blood supply to cancer lower inflammation help your lipids but they also protect your stem cells these are the stem cells in your body that actually help to heal us from the inside out they regenerate our body you don't feel them they're actually doing their job invisibly helping to repair organs blood vessels very important for longevity all right and seafood can actually contribute to that and some SE SE food some fish have now been discovered to have peptides these are proteins in the flesh proteins within the proteins that actually can help wound healing as well so they actually help our body heal our flesh heal all right hey there I want to share another resource with you it's my free guide on your body's five Health defense systems these five systems androgenesis regeneration your gut microbiome DNA protection and Immunity are your Shields against disease and they're respons responsible for maintaining your health every single day of your life by knowing about how these systems work to defend your body you can tap into their healing powers to live a longer better and much healthier life I explain each of these defense systems to you in my free guide and as a bonus I've included some of the best foods you can eat to activate each defense system get my guide for free right now in the caption below now back to the video so the key to fish is really how you're going to prepare them Seafood avoid frying your fish all right look I like crispy food as much as anyone else if you ever had fish and chips delicious but frying actually has been shown to increase mortality or decrease longevity all right and the reason is frying Foods especially the the crust you know the batter creates something called a kromes these are kind of a plastic a chemical in a batter that that Sparks inflammation and the byproducts of frying can create carcinogens these are cancer causing chemicals so listen if you eat you know some fried seafood once in a while uh that's going to be fine you know knock yourself out really enjoy it but if you do it all the time and there are places where people eat fried fish all the time not good for you all right so save it for a rare treat or better yet don't eat fried food as all all right now when I think about protein I think about these uh types of uh foods that we've talked about uh Seafood we talk about lentils we talk about um quinoa we talked about soy uh products like tofu and other types of soy Foods uh we talked about beans these are just five examples of U some of my favorite sources of proteins but there's many many many more point is you can get proteins by eating meat all right but a better choice is actually to get plant-based proteins and even if you are an omn I'm an omnivore like you know I eat everything but I eat mostly plant-based Foods uh and I eat a only a modest amount from uh Meats and Seafood and if you if you can switch your protein intake towards plant-based uh foods and within the animal protein or fish protein move from red meat to Seafood because Seafood has got all these other benefits as well but plant-based Foods by far not only have great sources of protein but they've got dietary fiber you're not going to find this in seafood and you're not going to find it in me that dietary fiber does something really important when it comes to longevity and that is that it actually it's good for gut health which lowers inflammation it's good for brain health helps your body streamline lipid metabolism which lowers your cholesterol which lowers your risk for cardiovascular disease as I mentioned there clinical studies that show all of these things make a difference when it comes to real longevity so the key all right I'm somebody who actually enjoys uh I eny enjoy my food I look forward to eating and so the thing to do is actually to find plants with good sources of protein and fiber and these polyphenols that tastes great um and if you go to the produce section your grocery store you're sure to find something seasonal and fresh all right if you go to a farmers's market you're going to find uh that as well beans you know in the summertime there's all these different kindes of beans you can do all kinds of cook all kinds of food with beans and by the way there are um ways that you can look for recipes so if you see a plant Source protein that you don't know what to do with all right I don't know what to do with quinoa I'm not really sure what to do with lentils again go to Google hit the food name like lentils hit uh recipe and then hit video and look at all the all all the search results pick one of somebody who's really passionate about cooking that can teach you how to make something delicious using that ingredient like lentil say you might not have known and again I like I like beans and lentils because not only do they help me feel full so I'm less likely to overeat the next day which is very important for longevity overall but it saves me time because if I'm making a batch of beans all right or lentils for example I'll have enough for the next day that saves me cooking time the next day so uh and also it's very inexpensive so not expensive way to actually good get protein remember if if you're over the age of 40 you want to start paying attention to the fact that you're losing muscle mass every single day you can't help it so you want to do is you want to actually keep up with your protein add more to your protein and stay Physically Active that's important to eat proteins especially plant-based proteins and stay Physically Active exercise you know exercise is great but if you don't you don't need to join a gym you just need to stay active as active as you possibly can all right I hope you learned something uh from watching this episode thanks for watching and I'll see you again Dr Lee out hi there if you enjoyed watching this video I know you'll love the next one stay here and check it out and I'll see you there
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