Jeremiah Farias (00:00.238)
Do you have diabetes or blood sugar dysregulation issues? And you’ve been told that prioritizing protein is an important piece in improving your condition. However, you’re not sure how much protein you should be consuming. If so, this video is for you. In it, we’ll review how much protein I argue is optimal, not only for overall health, but improving our blood sugar metabolism based on the latest research. Hi, my name is Jeremiah. I’m a registered dietitian and I’ve been studying

health and wellness for over a decade now. I help adults suffering from blood sugar dysregulation issues, things like diabetes, pre -diabetes and low energy levels. I hope you enjoy today’s content. So first and foremost, what is protein? Protein is one of four macronutrients. You have protein, carbohydrates, fats, and then alcohol. But protein is an essential nutrient and it’s necessary for a variety of things that go on in the body. First, structural.

So protein is going to obviously make up our muscles. It’s going to make up a variety of tissues, organs, even our bone and a type of protein called collagen protein is the most abundant protein actually within the bone. We think about calcium, phosphorus and other minerals, but by and large, by volume, it’s made up of protein. And it actually is important enough protein is important for optimizing bone mineral density. then for protein.

The amino acids play a huge role in immune function. So creating antibodies, immune cells, et cetera. You also require amino acids to create enzymes. And so enzymes, these can be digestive enzymes and other enzymes throughout the body that allow the body to function the way it’s supposed to. And lastly, neurotransmitters, various transporters throughout the body, messengers, antioxidants, believe it or not. These things, amino acids are…

responsible for even facilitating detoxification. So all those roles I just mentioned are related to improving blood sugar metabolism and diabetes, but let’s focus on a few. First and foremost, sufficient protein is important for optimizing muscle mass. And without sufficient protein, especially as one ages, you’re more susceptible to a condition and developing a condition called sarcopenia, which is the loss or the wasting of muscle mass as one.

Jeremiah Farias (02:22.23)
ages and this naturally occurs. Unfortunately, sarcopenia is associated with increased rates of disease and mortality. So protein is one of the best ways along with resistance training to avoid that development. And then also by optimizing protein intake, therefore muscle mass, you also can improve your pleasure to metabolism and glucose disposal. The reason for this is the more muscle mass one has,

the greater sink you essentially have for glucose to go into. And it also turns out that the more muscle mass someone has, they tend to be more healthy, active. And so there’s those lifestyle habits that one typically has, but just again, essentially having more muscle, you consume carbohydrate containing foods, the muscles can easily soak up glucose. And so it’s a really great way to,

optimize and improve your blood sugar metabolism. So anytime we consume protein, we’re getting amino acids. And as I briefly mentioned before, these amino acids are crucial for allowing certain metabolic processes to occur. And one of those is facilitating liver detoxification. Certain amino acids are required for the liver to sufficiently detoxify. In previous videos, I’ve covered the importance of liver health as it relates to blood sugar dysregulation.

diabetes. Diabetes is a situation where the liver is insulin resistant. So consuming enough protein is going to provide sufficient amino acids to support optimal liver health and liver detoxification. And the last thing that we can review as it relates to protein and the importance of protein for improving blood sugar issues is protein paired with whole food carbohydrates, things like fruits, tubers, squashes,

et cetera, is going to slow the release of blood sugar into, or rather glucose into the bloodstream. And when you pair carbohydrates with nutrients like protein, also with non -starchy vegetables and fats, it’s going to reduce the likelihood of one experiencing a spike in blood sugar. Spikes in blood sugar are damaging. We want to avoid those and limit those as much as possible.

Jeremiah Farias (04:47.502)
A rise in blood sugar is completely normal and expected physiologically and it serves an important role, but we want to avoid spikes in blood sugar. We want to have good, stable blood sugar in between meals. And so pairing carbohydrate rich foods with other nutrients, mainly protein is going to allow for that slow release of glucose into the bloodstream.

Hey everyone, I wanted to take a quick break from the content and share with you a free guide that I created. It’s titled five steps to improving your blood sugar metabolism. In it, you’re going to find a lot of practical information that you can begin implementing today to start changing the way that your body uses glucose in the cell. And if you’ve checked out any of my previous videos, this is what I believe is the primary culprit that’s driving blood sugar metabolism issues like type two diabetes and pre -diabetes.

You’re going to get specific information going over the importance of protein, the types of protein to consume and how to even calculate how much protein should you be having on a regular basis? The quality of carbohydrates you should be including in your diet. Again, previous videos I’ve gone over highlight carbohydrates aren’t the problem. It’s your body’s ability to utilize them. However, quality of carbohydrates, quality of food do matter. So in this guy, you’ll find information on the carbohydrates.

certain fats that we want to avoid or limit, and the others that we want to include and prioritize, along with a lot more information. You’ll be able to find the link to download this guide in the description below. So let’s get on to protein needs and the amounts that we should be having. So currently the recommended daily allowance or the RDA from the Food and Nutrition Board for protein is 0 .8 grams per kilogram.

of body weight per day. However, many nutrition and aging researchers and experts argue this amount is much too low and it’s not conducive to maintaining muscle mass as one ages, nor is it ideal for optimal health, essentially just the bare minimum to avoid malnutrition or protein malnutrition. So as I previously mentioned, one of the benefits of sufficient protein is for muscle health.

Jeremiah Farias (07:10.158)
We want to not only be able to build muscle, but maintain it as we age versus losing it or experiencing suffering from sarcopenia. Having this in mind helps us establish a minimum amount of protein to facilitate that muscle hypertrophy, which is muscle building and stimulate muscle protein synthesis. So the paper that we’ll look at today is a systematic review, meta analysis and meta regression from 2020.

And the authors found that protein intakes past 0 .72 grams per pound of body weight per day did not contribute to any further muscle gains or increases in fat free mass coupled or when it was paired with resistance training. So if you did consume more protein than that, you weren’t gaining more muscle as a result. So the bare minimum,

that, or rather the maximum that one needed to optimize muscle hypertrophy and muscle mass gains was 0 .72 grams per pound of body weight. There was no benefit of going higher. You may think because this study is looking at healthy individuals who are resistance training, that it’s not relevant to most of us. However, I disagree and believe it actually is relevant to everyone. I want all individuals that I work with,

to be as healthy as possible, to age and move well, which means participating in some form of exercise, mainly resistance training, even if it’s one time per week, is going to be essential for optimizing their health. Therefore, the minimum amount of 0 .72 grams per pound of body weight for protein intake is my recommendation for everyone that doesn’t have kidney disease or another condition that Lawrence

protein restriction. So this means if someone is eating three meals per day, you would aim for around 0 .24 grams of protein per pound of body weight per meal. And if you weigh 160 pounds, this comes out to around 38 grams of protein per meal. There may be circumstances where slightly higher protein intakes might be warranted, but this is likely

Jeremiah Farias (09:30.68)
not necessary for an extended period of time as it can negatively impact acid -base balance. We want a protein in our diet that it can be utilized for essential functions such as building and maintaining lean tissue muscle mass, but we don’t want it to unnecessarily be oxidized for energy or cause acid -base balance issues. Based on the literature, this is why I’ve landed on .

72 grams per pound of body weight for protein. Another way that it’s communicated in the literature and the paper is 1 .6 grams per kilogram of body weight, but I went ahead and converted it for us since we use pounds in the States. but I want to know what have you heard when it comes to optimal protein intakes or recommended protein intakes? How much are you specifically aiming for? Let me know down in the comments.

If you enjoyed this video, you won’t want to miss next week’s video where I’ll review whether one should prioritize animal -based proteins or plant -based proteins for diabetes or blood sugar dysregulation issues. You might be surprised by my answer. See you next week. I hope you enjoyed today’s video. If you have any questions about the content that I reviewed in today’s video, let me know down in the comments. You can also request topics that you’d like me to cover in the future. If you’re interested in working one -on -one with me,

The best place to start is scheduling a free 30 minute discovery call that I offer. I am credentials with a couple of insurance companies. So there will be a link in the description that allows you to check if I accept your insurance. Don’t forget to download my free guide, five steps to improving your blood sugar metabolism. That link will also be in the description. If you enjoyed this video, please don’t forget to give it a thumbs up, share it with someone that you think would benefit and enjoy it. And also don’t forget to subscribe. I’ll be releasing new videos every week.

and I don’t want you to miss those. Thanks again for taking the time to watch this video. Take care. Have a wonderful day.