Everything You Thought You Knew About Protein Is Wrong | Stanford's Professor Christopher Gardner

Proteins, carbs, and fats … most people understand what the last two are. Carbs are sugars, and fat is, well, fat. It's protein that’s so important to our diets, but so often misunderstood — by the general public, that is.

Since the 1950s and 1960s, scientists have been measuring how protein affects our performance, how it supports and maintains the body’s structure, and how best to incorporate it into our diets.

From big steaks to protein shakes, tofu to seitan, protein is more available now than ever before. With so many options, surely we’re getting enough protein?

In today’s episode, Jonathan speaks with a leading nutritional researcher to find out.

Christopher Gardner is a professor at Stanford University and a member of ZOE’s scientific advisory board. He’s pioneering the movement to redefine how we understand the quality of our protein intake.

Studies mentioned in this episode.

Books:

00:00 - Introduction
01:20 - Quickfire questions
03:13 - What is protein?
07:29 - Can our bodies make the proteins we need?
08:00 - The mechanism for our bodies creating amino acids.
09:00 - What is an essential amino acid?
10:35 - Crazy study Stanford scientists did to find the Estimated Average Requirement of protein.
15:28 - How much protein should we consume?
18:29 - How much protein do we already consume?
23:39 - Can our bodies store protein?
24:41 - What happens to excess protein in our bodies?
25:39 - Protein Scam Alert!
26:16 - Stanford Study: Does the type of protein we consume affect physical performance?
29:21 - Protein requirements for kids and pregnant women.
32:21 - What is Amino Acid Distribution?
34:27 - Are plants missing certain amino acids?
35:12 - How is AAD like the game of Scrabble?
39:35 - What is the healthiest source of protein?
39:46 - Dr. Gardner’s case for changing the way we define “protein quality” in the US
42:52 - Jonathan’s summary
45:25 - Goodbye’s
46:13 - Outro

[stevelanghorn]

I’m sure it’s more very well-intended dietary information. The trouble is the masses are bombarded with such totally opposing advice and information from equally eloquent, articulate, convincing, apparently highly intelligent individuals. It’s so utterly confusing.

[inlandwatchreviews]

I am 65 years old, 157 days ago I started eating meat. I lost 50 pounds in 100 days. Carbs gave me heartburn for years, in two weeks it went away. My friend had lost about the same weight eating a vegan diet, great for him. People are different, do what works for you. We can all agree that the average American diet is terrible.

[rachaelrb]

What a stress reliever! I just lost a kidney and I have been worried about fitness and kidney health. Thank you, thank you!

[psychalogy]

That Master’s student study he referenced had six people per test condition and ran for four weeks. It’s not surprising at all that the results didn’t reach statistical significance. It sounds like one of the most underpowered studies ever devised.

[lam]

After all the wonderful talks and explanations given by your guest speaker and by zillion other scientists and nutritionists out there, I decided to just NOT STRESS about these matters. Just eat healthy and a variety of foods to the extent possible and within my means, and forget the rest.

[ritasicari]

He said it all comes down to calories, yet other "experts" on this podcast have said calories are meaningless. No wonder people have eating disorders.

[dperl]

Just came across this channel for this topic. I have to say this host has an incredible ability to take something the professor says and makes it so easy to understand. His analogies are brilliant! I mean him taking the topic of aminos and how they break down and are utilized and says "basically it is like eating Shakespear and a comic book and by the time the body uses it it is simply letters so it has no idea where those letters came from". Amazing ability. I will definitely be checking this channel out more often

[yakovduque]

My mother is a vegan (shes been a vegan for many years and knows the ins and outs) and I have subscribed to the mixing of grains and veggies for a complete amino acid profile to find out for myself. This are the results I got after a few months: I found myself hungry all the time, eating large quantities of food many times a day, raging from 4 to 7 times, and still not feeling satiated even though my stomach was stretched out from all the food, to finally after a over a month or two I stated experiencing connecting tissue injuries on my knees and elbows, excessive muscle soreness, and a few muscle partial tears ( I play volleyball, mountain bike, and work out) never had that happening on a balanced omnivore diet. once I went back to a balanced diet eating a combination of all sorts of things including veggies, dairy, meats, poultry, eggs some grains, etc.. those ailments went away slowly almost at the same rate it took them to manifest while on a vegan/vegetarian diet. Just sharing my experience (now I started consuming whey protein daily as well)

[VesSul]

Whoever hosts a discussion between Christopher Gardner and Peter Attia will become a legend!

[lucillasallabank]

There are plenty of peer-reviewed studies that prove that the RDA for protein are just a minimum requirements, not ideal amounts. Older people, very active people, people on a calorie deficit, people who want to build muscle, all benefit from higher protein amounts than 0.8g per kilo of bodyweight.
I am 60k and I aim for 100g of protein per day.

[carmenmichaelian]

I always knew this but now I know for sure. I'm a vegetarian that eats fish once in a while. I've been working out at the gym for 25 years and I have no problem with protein. I am 70 years old. Thank you for this video.

[stuartgray]

Absolutely fabulous podcast. I think it has helped me solve a problem. My heath and fitness journey started back in November of 2014. I was 270+ Pounds. I'm 6'1½ the program I set up for myself (based on losing 2 pounds a month) when according to schedule. I ended up dropping around 100 pounds. Over approximately 4 years. At about 58 months I committed to the gym to get back the the muscle mass I lost along the way. I was lean had 6 pack abs. I have gain back muscle mass. Now- in the past 1½ due to listening to many podcast about gaining muscle and protein. We are told about 1 gram of protein for every pound of muscle. I wanted to get to 180 pounds so I increased my protein from around 70 to 80 grams a day to 180 to 200 grams a day. What I've noticed (and note I had gain back muscle mass) is my abs are starting to dissappear. And I have a bit of a fat build up along a line at my belly button. Couldnt figure out the problem without probably going on a calorie restriction diet. I had a calorie intake at the time I was goingbto increase my protien between 2800 cals to 3200 cals per day. I replaced certain foods to compensate for my protein increases staying around the the same amount of calories 2800 to 3200. Side note: through my weight loss I was consuming I figure around 80 grams of protein. From this podcast I learned that excess protein is broken down into carbs and stored fat. Bingo! My fat gains around my abdominal are probably from the excess protein. Now I'm an going to go back to the 80 grams of protien and see what happens over time. Changing nothing but reduced protein from were I'm currently at. This makes sence to me since sine the only real change was increased protein levels. Thanks great info. I was 58 when I started my health and fitness journey and now I'm 67.
Thank- Stuart Gray.

[atleyflenner]

My personal experience does not align with this guy's talk. Just working out without adding extra protien for a few months did not build muscle. I had to add extra to see results. Diet is crazy important at least in my experience.

[rmoore]

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:

00:00 🤖 Introduction to Protein
03:03 🧬 Protein's Role and Complexity
07:34 🍽️ Protein Requirements: EAR and RDA
17:12 🏋️‍♂️ Controversy over Protein Intake
22:05 🥖 Carbohydrates vs. Fat Storage
23:50 🍗 Protein Storage in the Body
25:08 🍖 Protein and Kidney Health
26:36 🏋️ Protein Requirements for Athletes
28:51 🧒 Protein Needs at Different Ages - Children
30:10 🧓 Protein Needs at Different Ages - Elderly
35:14 🌱 Plant-Based Protein vs. Animal Protein
39:21 🍲 Healthiest and Tastiest Protein Sources
42:31 🍔 Protein and Diet
43:00 🥩 Plant-Based Protein
44:50 🍫 Protein Bars vs. Chocolate Bars

Made with HARPA AI

[barbaramartinez]

I've found one common thread in the YouTube influencers who are advocating large quantities of animal protein and that is most of them are heavy lifting in the gym. That's not my goal. I just want to be healthy and most studies show vegetarians, vegans and those following a Mediterranean diet seem to do the best. That's good enough for me.

[claes]

Several comments in this thread rightly critique Christopher Gardner's statement in an interview: "the standard approaches to take two standard deviations above the average, and in mathematical terms, that means you've picked a number that should be adequate for 97 and a half percent of the population, and there might be a couple people in the tail that need even higher than that, but it would be so few that you're pretty safe recommending that amount."

This standard recommendation is a problem for active people like me. It assumes people are sedentary, which isn't true for someone who burns an extra 1800 kcal playing Padel five days a week. My height and weight also suggest I probably need more protein than most people (199 cm, 88kg).

Gardner mentions protein quality, but the interview didn't offer practical advice on getting enough high-quality protein with a higher intake goal. Reaching 140-190 grams of protein daily seems reasonable for many scientist (2.2 g/kg), but it's challenging. Focusing on high-quality protein sources and potentially consulting a dietitian seems like the best approach.

[orbifold]

The problem is that others like Don Layman are claiming the opposite, that iis we are not consuming enough protein. The idea that we should be consuming at least 2-3 protein-rich meals daily isn't discussed here. By "protein-rich", I mean enough protein to stimulate protein synthesis (muscle growth and repair), which is equivalently to consuming at least 2-5g of leucine in a single meal. According to Layman, most Americans only eat one protein-rich meal a day (usually dinner) and spend up to 22 hours per day wasting precious muscle mass in a catabolic state. To stop this catabolic state after an overnight fast, one could eat 4-5 eggs, or 100g of chicken breast. But as much as I like hummus, half a kilo of the stuff right after waking up is way too much for my poor lazy gut.

[Danielle-zqkb]

At 14:00 — the subjects of the study to determine protein RDA were young men, so the protein requirements of children, women, older adults, pregnant women and the elderly were not taken into account for protein requirements.Also, some people can’t properly synthesize all the amino acids that they should.

[joquerol]

I think this is a very first world centric view.

As a lean man from a third world country, I can tell you I never used to get enough protein by "just eating". Most people's diets here revolve around bread, rice, pasta, cookies, chips, and soda. We only ever eat any type of meat during lunch, and that's not every day, and it's a very low quality source like processed meats or fatty ground beef.

It might be hard to imagine for some, but there are places where having eggs and ham in the morning, or having a bit of any high quality protein source for lunch or dinner is a bit of a luxury. And sure, we have a lot of people who overeat enough of everything to get a lot of protein in their diets, but as soon as you restrict your calories you risk being very low on protein and on many important vitamins, minerals, etc.

When I started working out and tracking calories and macros, I had to put a lot of effort into making sure I hit the 0.8-1.6 grams/kilo they talk about. So all in all, there definitely are good reasons to supplement protein or to pay attention to how much protein you're getting. Especially when you're trying to lose weight and don't have constant affordable access to high quality protein sources.

[ferrinheight]

10 years of plant based diet and have not worried about protein since I started. it is a blessing to hear this talk.