Alternative Protein Choices

[Scotty D.]

Here are a couple of protein choices I have been making lately that are other than the usual. I would love to hear of other folks experience with them, or questions and comments.

Bee pollen. Some folks react adversly to it I have read, so best to start out small, like a 1/4 teaspoon, and work it up comfortably. I quite enjoy having it in fairly large quantities myself, say a dozen table spoons with other food, and at that point it can become a fairly good protein option. It contains a complete protein. I believe the protein content is around 22%.

Hemp seed and protein powder. In Canada at least, I have found it in a good deal of health food stores. Also for sale is hemp flour, which is the same product as the protein powder I believe, though ground to a much finer consistency, and so probably exposed to higher processing heats. Another complete protein, with a protein percentage of 22%-33% for the seed (varieties differ), and anywheres from 37%-46% for the powders/flour.

Lately I have also been eating lots of sea vegetables. Dulse contains 21.5 grams of protein per 100 gram serving. Other sea vegetables I've been eating are sea lettuce and bladderwack, the latter fresh from the ocean and free! The high protein content is because sea veggies are acutally colonies of algae, and not plants after all.

[Coach Tran]

Scott:

Bee pollen. I have 1/4 teaspoon with young conconut water a day. A great super food and mind foods.

I have not try Hemp seed protein powder. Because it very quite expensive, but I have tried hemp seed butter which is cheaper and you get a more fats in the diet as well. I usually put Hemp seed butter on Flax seed crackers or celery for lunch.

I also like raw organic GoJi berries from Tibet. I have one table teaspoon a day. It has plenty of protein.

I love sea vegetables too. I usually wrap these sea vegetable sheets around spicy almonds. It taste great a good source of green, protein, and fats.

[James Boelter]

As far as I know, bee pollen isn't really a protein source; at least not a significant one. You'd have to consume a whole lot of it to come even close to meeting your protein needs, and you'd spend so much money doing so that you might just as well go ahead and order the New York strip.

Sardines are ideal for anyone seeking an affordable high quality source of protein and essential fatty acids (ie Omega 3s - DHA and EPA). They are much cheaper than salmon or swordfish, etc, and because sardines are low on the food chain, they don't have the problem with pollutants and accumulated toxins that some fish will give consumers. Plus they are available in almost any major grocery store, unlike some of the exotic choices discussed in other thread.

NB: Ideally, choose sardine packed in olive oil or their own oil (called SILD) or water. Avoid sardines that are packed in vegetable oil/soybean oil. Also, I find that sardines packed in tomato sauce are simply too disgusting to eat, but sardines packed in mustard sauce are acceptable - the vinegar in a typical mustard sauce cuts and modifies the taste and odor which some people don't care for. Implied: dousing sardines with a good vinegar will alter the taste and perhaps be more enjoyable. Also, putting them on a Triscuit increases the palatabilty significantly.

[Pattimeow]

Well,
Not to high jack this thread :wink: , but ---
If we are relating this topic to the Radiant Recovery program, then salmon, swordfish, and sardines are good sources of dense protein. Regular and consistent protein is vital to recovery from sugar addiction. In Kathleen's SARP ("The Sugar Addict's Total Recovery Program) book she writes on pg. 73-75:

Having protein consistently throughout the day does two key things. It helps to stablize your blood sugar because protein is a very "slow" food, and it creates a steady state of amino acids in your body.
Do not count anything but protein foods as your protein. For example, don't count the amount of protein in bread or breakfast cereal as part of your daily protein. Even though they contain some protein, bread and breakfast cereal are carbohydrates, not proteins. Don't think of milk as protein either. Yes, I know it has protein in it. But it is pretty light on the protein scale and won't really hold you for very long.

Kathleen goes on to suggest good sources of protein:
eggs, dairy products, cottage cheese, peanut butter, lentils, tofu, beef, lamb, chicken, and fish.

I have a George's protein shake each morning (awesome by the way! ) and most of my other protein sources are cottage cheese, eggs, meats, chicken and fish. I ate the most awesome swordfish at our local fishouse restaurant the other night. MMmmmmmm. 8)

Warmly, Patti

[Scotty D.]

I agree that a tablespoon a day of bee pollen would be an insignificant source of protein. Still an amazing B vitamin supplement at that quantity though.

Bee pollen itself is about 22% protein, which is right up there with the highest protein contents of any animal product (shrimp at 26% is the highest, I believe). When I use it as a 'source' of protien, I do so when I can get local pollen rather cheap, and consume up to a cup of it at a meal. Obviously, with other food that is. Ground up in a pesto sort of manner works well.

The initiative in creating an 'Alternative' protein thread was for a couple of reasons. First, with things like goji berries, they're pretty much unheard of, and it is good to get the word out (Although goji is only 13% protein, it is only 8% carb, and has 19 amino acids, so to some extent it is 'protein dense'. And it's fruit, so you can eat lots of it!). Secondly was that for various reasons, many folks want to avoid the conventional protein choices, i.e. animal products and legumes. My personal desire to do so is predominantly because of the high-pathogen content of modern animal products, and the enzyme inhibitors found within legumes. Though I think fish is a perfectly natural thing for us to be eating, present-day fish is far too pathogenic for my desires. So, I choose to adapt to a vegan diet, and it seems to be treating me well.

If I ever get the craving, I'll remember your advice on the sardines James. I did grow up around fishing, and the change in the fish from when I was young, like 5 years old, to when I was about 12 was very dramatic. This is in regards to noticeable worms, and the majority of parasites and pathogens are unnoticable. I do take a DHA supplement, and try to maximize my DHA conversion from plant Omega 3.

[Pattimeow]

Scotty,
I just wanted to state a few points. These of course relate to those of us who are sugar sensitive and working Dr. Kathleen DesMaison's food recovery program.

The initiative in creating an 'Alternative' protein thread was for a couple of reasons. First, with things like goji berries, they're pretty much unheard of, and it is good to get the word out (Although goji is only 13% protein, it is only 8% carb, and has 19 amino acids, so to some extent it is 'protein dense'. And it's fruit, so you can eat lots of it!).

Actually as sugar sensitive people, if you are, we need to be careful with fruit. Certain fruits work for some and not for others, and eating "lots" of fruit usually doesn't work for many of us. I eat fruit only with meals and have found that berries and apples work the best for my ss body. And fruit is never counted as a protein source for me.

We find that counting grams and protein percentages actually distracts from healing. Especially at first. What helps is a much higher-level view of meals and how the energy goes for the period following a meal. That's why the RR guidelines just say, get enough protein per meal and use the simple, hard-core sources that you can hold in your hand.

Secondly was that for various reasons, many folks want to avoid the conventional protein choices, i.e. animal products and legumes. My personal desire to do so is predominantly because of the high-pathogen content of modern animal products, and the enzyme inhibitors found within legumes. Though I think fish is a perfectly natural thing for us to be eating, present-day fish is far too pathogenic for my desires. So, I choose to adapt to a vegan diet, and it seems to be treating me well.

It is challenging for vegans to get enough protein. Not just with RR either BTW. We simply recommend protein powder. The kind from peas is popular with vegetarians IMHO. And there are other vegan sources of protein of course. Since I am not a vegan I don't follow that, but we do have a RR vegetarian list where one can find out more choices if interested.

Warmly, Patti

[Scott Sonnon]

Patti,

Right on with the fruit for we SS athletes. I can't drink juice or chew on an apple without a crash; which significantly hinders my optimal performance.

[Scotty D.]

Actually as sugar sensitive people, if you are, we need to be careful with fruit. Certain fruits work for some and not for others, and eating "lots" of fruit usually doesn't work for many of us. I eat fruit only with meals and have found that berries and apples work the best for my ss body. And fruit is never counted as a protein source for me.

I mentioned the goji berry for the reasons that it is a non-sweet fruit and more protein dominant than most. And so, in eating lots of it, there is the mucus-dissolving benefits found with fruit, and the easily assimilated minerals and nutrients as found in fruit acids and biological water; yet, without the sugar stimulation. As well, a great majority of the sugar complexes in goji are proteoglycans (protein attatched to carbohydrate), and so this is digested similar to a complex carbohydrate (and with potent immunological benefits).

We find that counting grams and protein percentages actually distracts from healing. Especially at first. What helps is a much higher-level view of meals and how the energy goes for the period following a meal. That's why the RR guidelines just say, get enough protein per meal and use the simple, hard-core sources that you can hold in your hand.

Though I agree counting grams and protein percentages could be less than positive for many folks, it does allow us to recognize foods that are protein dense yet would not be commonly known as such, and that can be replaced for those foods farther from the sun in the food chain. For example, hemp seeds are 33% protein, more 'dense' than any animal product.

I mention the sun's place in the food chain in regards to a great Bio-Physics article on the 'Low-Entropy Diet', or applying Information Theory in making our food choices.
http://www.digital-recordings.com/publ/publifef.html
The basic premise is that life on earth should be entropic, as the Law of Thermodynamics shows to us, yet sunlight is negentropic, and so to eat food closer to the state of sunlight on the food chain, we feed our bodies with negentropy.

Hmmm, it's interesting that wild fruit, for example, is much lower in simple sugars, is generally higher in protein, and exhibits much stronger immunological characterisitics. I would assume that, as in animals, more simple sugars allows higher levels of pathogens to survive internally, which then proceed to consume cellular structures, including DNA and rDNA. Perhaps sugar sensitivity is a lesson being thrown to the world to protect our genetic integrity from entropy?

[Scott Sonnon]

Scott,

Rather than think of SS as a pathological "lesson" from Nature, I suspect that it's probably more appropriate to say that SS individuals possess unique characteristics in different directions. :wink:

[Joseph David]

I have had some experience with spiralina as a protein source.

In the early nineties, I had a friend that participated in a research study at UCSF. He ate nothing but spiralina and fruit smoothies for 81 days. Every three days the put him on a tread mill for VOC testing. He was a proffesional dancer, and he got stronger and stronger. (not a good choice for the SS body type)

In 1994 I fasted and cleansed for thirty days. I went then went on a climbing trip. My main food source was a spirlina and almond butter blend. I climbed strait for seven days. I climbed hard and never got sore. I guess that because my body was clean, it had the ability to process lactic acid very quickly.

I have been thinking about going on a spiralina cleansing diet again. It would include lots of vegatables, nuts, brown rice, miso and good fats and lots of spiralina.

Anybody else have experience with this food?