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How Much Protein Do You Really Need To Eat? | Talking Point | Full Episode – Transcript
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- Protein helps build and maintain muscle mass, which provides strength for daily activities and helps burn body fat more efficiently.
- Protein requirements vary depending on age, gender, pregnancy status, body weight, and physical activity levels.
- Excessive protein intake can place additional strain on the kidneys and other metabolic organs like the liver.
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These are within easy reach these days in supermarkets, vending machines, from chocolate bars to cookies, milk, and even chips.
I have set myself a challenge to see just how protein crazy the supermarket has gotten. So, I'm going to try my very best to get as many protein enriched or high in protein foods as I can all within 5 minutes.
Let's check it out. What do we have here? Nope. No powders. Okay, moving on. Oh, some wellness products. Okay, got cookies. Okay, protein cookie goes in. We've got some chocolate high protein bars as well. I'll grab that.
Some protein powder, protein crisps. For many consumers, when they see the word protein associated with certain food items, they immediately see as a signal for healthy diet. Because of the healthy image, some people see it as guilt-free snack.
Anything here? I see some ice cream. High protein ice cream in the trolley. They're quite functional and very convenient.
Milk. Milk. Milk. Milk. Perfect. Running out of time. Let's see if there's any last minute items. Any other drinks? High in protein.
Time to check out all our items. And we're done. In just a matter of minutes, I managed to get so many high protein and protein enriched foods from supplements like shakes, bars, and even cookies to otherwise ordinary everyday items like flour to
granola and even chips and ice cream. All of this protein enhanced. Amazing. I have in my shopping bag both protein supplements and protein enhanced foods.
In this episode, I break down how much protein we really need and if these protein packed products really pack the punch they promise. Both in World War I and World War II,
there was an attempt um by the US government to ensure that um soldiers at the front had enough food, particularly the kinds of food that were important and would enable men to fight best and that was sources of protein. There is a need to conserve meat for soldiers,
right? So there's a symbolic importance of meat as a kind of food that will give you strength. I think that gets reinforced, I should say, by some of the kind of nutrition science that's emerging in the late 19th century and early 20th century, which seems to confirm this idea.
It's been decades since the war, but our proin perception remains, and our appetite for it continues to grow. Here's why protein's popularity will likely prevail.
Most of us are glutton for dieting advice, gobbling anything that promises smaller waistlines and better health. If I went on a low carb diet, I would have to restrain myself from having carbs.
But a high protein diet lets me eat or drink more of what I already love, protein. and retailers are ever ready to feed our protein obsession. In 2014, for example, milk marketers spent $50 million US on a Milk Life campaign that packed 8 g of protein a glass. That's more than double the
usual amount of protein. And between 2018 and 2020, we saw a 12% rise in new launches of food products promising to have a higher protein content. But what does protein actually do for our body?
To find out for sure, I'm told to simply stand still and let the machine do all the work. Derek, why am I standing here? Yes. So, this machine actually measures your muscle mass and your body fat. And how it does it is it passes a small electric current through you. You pull these handles up. Okay? And then you put
your thumb here. This is Derek. As a sports dietician, he has helped many people meet their recommended protein intake. Today, he's measuring my muscle mass.
So, with muscle mass, you can uh, you know, find out whether you need to be eating more protein or eating protein in a different way. Protein helps build and maintain muscle mass. In other words, it provides us the strength to go about our daily activities.
Okay. So, Derek, how does it look? So, your muscle mass is within the normal range, but your body fat is a bit on the high side. Whoa. This episode is about protein, not fat. So, we'll talk about that another time. Right. Well, actually, Shay, it's actually important to talk about body fat as well because when you build more muscle mass, it actually means that you have a higher basil metabolic rate and
that helps you to burn body fat more efficiently. So, I should be eating more protein and building my muscle mass to lose fat. Yes, that's correct. Yeah. And it doesn't hurt to build more muscle mass when you're younger because as people age, people tend to lose more muscle mass. Every 10 years, most people tend to lose 3 to 5% of their muscle mass.
Okay. But I'm only 27 now, so I have another 20 years to figure it out. Right. Well, muscle mass starts to decline even from the age of 30. So, you actually tend to lose muscle mass at a higher rate in your later years. As we age uh you tend to not only lose muscle mass but also gain body fat. So that's a condition we call sarcopenia.
Excess body fat will actually lead to an increase in the risk of metabolic conditions like heart disease and diabetes. Some people and this more the the elderly they lose so much muscle mass until it affects their ability to chew or swallow foods. And then also um for low muscle mass then you tend to have a lower immunity as well. Yeah. And then you're more susceptible to infections. So Derek, how important is it for me to start right
now? Absolutely important. Yeah. Now is the time to already start building muscle mass, making sure that you're eating enough protein every meal. So how much is enough protein? This amount varies from person to person depending on age, gender, and what stage of life we are at.
Depending on body weight, a child between ages 4 and 9 needs about 20 g of protein a day. That's about three large eggs. As they grow into their teen years, the amount of protein they need more than doubles, with boys needing about 50 g of protein and girls 46 g of protein.
If you're pregnant, you'd need about 70 g of protein a day or 12 large eggs. While older adults aed 50 and above need about 75 g of protein, the equivalent of 13 large eggs a day.
And this is how whit's diet looks like. Why? I'm about to find out that the amount of exercise we do also matters. Wow. Why take what do we have here?
This is what I eat on a day uh on average. Now that I've laid it out, right, it is quite shocking to me. Does look like a lot of food. Let me show you my breakfast. This is 10 egg whites and two egg yolks that I've just fried myself. Lunch, brown rice.
Okay. And then I have beef with capsicums. I love a lot of vegetables. And this is fish. Two types of protein. It's either beef or fish or beef and chicken or pork. What do we have? So, we have some snacks here.
Uh, usually it's a 4:00 before I hit the gym or during the gym workout. So, I have about two to three scoops of uh protein. Let's talk about your dinner. This is chicken breast. So, done very simply. I have tofu. I've got uh beef slices. And I've got vegetables.
That's a lot of protein. Yeah, this is about 200 g protein. Why do you need this much in a day? I will need to take you to my second home. To answer the question, Here