The Most Important Macro Nutrient
(And you have to work harder to get it)
Protein is the most important macro nutrient and most of the world is making it harder for you to get it.
Let’s start with some economics.
You’ve probably already seen the image below showing how many food brands are owned by only a handful of corporations.
(The few control the many.)
And since these corporations are focused on profits they are all doing similar things to maximise their profits across all their products!
What are these things?
One of the major ways to improve profits is to minimise the protein content of their foods.
I’ll explain.
Protein makes you feel full. Lower protein equals greater consumption of their products.
Protein storage is typically* more expensive and more difficult to store. Think how long your low protein foods (cereals, boxed and packaged goods, etc.) last compared to meat and eggs. This is a huge factor in every commercial food place. *Whey protein is the obvious exception.
Protein has a low(er) profit margin. In a restaurant the gross profit margin (GPM) of a steak could be approximately 50% while the GPM on the side of chips/french fries could be over 94%.
Corn, wheat, sugar, trans fats, etc. are all cheap to produce and easy to store. So if they can replace the protein with anything from this list, profits go up.
The knock-on effect of all of this is everyone and every thing outside of your home is trying to minimise your protein intake.
(You need to internalise this so you can push back.)
Thought Experiment: What’s more common - all-you-can-eat pasta and pizza or all-you-can-eat protein? Why?
The school canteen would rather sell your kids more chips, fruit and soda drinks than meat.
Your local sports club will provide you sandwiches (with maximum bread and minimal ham).
Your favourite restaurant is going to give you just enough steak (so you don’t complain) and hope you fill up on bread, veggies and alcohol.
Next time you’re at Subway, watch how the ‘Artist’ fills your bread (cheap and great GPM) with lettuce (cheap and great GPM) before they put their ‘meat’ (highly processed!) on.
Thought Experiment: Next time you’re at the supermarket take a few seconds to estimate the proportion of their products which are low protein (almost every aisle) and the proportion which are high protein (the butcher section).
So what can you do about this doomsday assessment of the nutritional situation?
Easy, this is what I help my personal clients with:
Eat home-cooked foods as much as possible. This way you take control of what you and your family eat.
Develop a ‘Protein Lens’. When you look at your plate, the majority should be protein (mainly meat and/or eggs). You might not have to make wholesale changes, just proportional changes (e.g. less pasta and more meat).
Leave home full. Schedule your eating so you can leave home fed.
Pack high protein foods. Whether it’s for school or travel, make the extra effort to pack in something that will keep your protein cold.
Biltong and Whey Protain are ‘go-to’s. Either learn to make biltong or buy it. Also, stock up on Whey Protein Isolate.
Thought Experiment: What’s more likely: veganism is good for the environment? Or good for profits?
One more last thing, how do you know if you’re getting enough protein?
A simple heuristic as an non-athlete adult:
If you need to eat more than twice a day you’re not getting enough protein.
So how’s your protein intake?
(If you need to increase your protein content, you can always use this.)