Protein helps build muscle and aids in recovery after a high-intensity workout. It also helps keep you fuller and longer to prevent cravings later on. Here are the top sources of protein for your diet.
Learn about the best supplements and great protein sources for men’s diet in this second part of my interview with Chad Howse.
CLICK HERE to watch the YouTube video.
In the interview above, you will discover:
- Top two supplements for men
- The different sources of proteins that are important in men’s diets
- How to increase testosterone levels
Take care, and have a great day!
Rick Kaselj, MS
Check out the transcript below if you cannot watch the video interview.
Rick:
Great rules. I thought it was interesting. It has come up in the interview we’ve done so far and in your book, The Man’s Diet, where you talked about supplements. So, just like you shared the example with yourself where sometimes you don’t get all the fruits and vegetables you want, you supplement it with athletic greens. The first choice is high-quality beef, fruits, and vegetables, but sometimes we don’t get everything we need. What would be the number one supplement that you would recommend for men?
Chad:
There are two. Number one might be Vitamin D. So, they’ve done a lot of studies lately. We supplement with Vitamin D. Still, the recommendation is between 500 to 1,000 IUs a day, but what they’re seeing is you might need 8,000 to 10,000 IUs daily or 6,000 to 8,000 depending on where you live and how much sun you get. And the sun’s the best way to get Vitamin D, but a liquid supplement you put under your tongue is the second best way to absorb it, or that’s what they think.
Vitamin D Helps Free Testosterone
Vitamin D not only helps with mental health, but it’s been shown to increase the free testosterone in your body. So all testosterone’s bound to a protein. Many researchers think that the only form of testosterone that matters is free testosterone. So it’s not bound to a protein, i. It’s to flow throughout the body, repair tissue, and do what testosterone does. So, Vitamin D helps free testosterone, which is a very important thing. The other thing I would say is maybe athletic greens because it’s got a lot of those nutrients in them. It’s got probiotics, which are good for your health and gut health, but it’s also got zinc. And zinc blocks aromatase.
Aromatase Is The Precursor to Estrogen
Aromatase is the precursor to estrogen. So you do not want high estrogen levels if you’re a man. That’s not a good thing. Your testosterone levels are going to go down. And we get estrogen from all sorts of things. As you see, I’m drinking from a glass container, and many people drink from plastic containers containing chemical estrogens. And so you’re drinking out of a plastic container and you’re absorbing these chemical estrogens that combat your testosterone levels that are not good. We do not want high estrogen levels. We got them naturally. You don’t need to increase your estrogen levels. So those two things. Maybe vitamin D but that athletic greens thing is pretty good too.
Rick:
Awesome. So before we wrap up, one more question I wanted to ask you was, when a guy asks you, “I need to add more protein to my diet. What are your suggestions on different types of proteins that a guy can add to his diet? “
Chad:
Yes. I think protein is important. Like those studies, high protein diets equate to lower body fat. For several reasons, body fat is estrogenic, so you want lower body fat as a man. Protein sources look for various animals, but the key word is variety. Eating the same foods every day will mess with your body’s ability to absorb that food and its nutrients.
So you go to your grocery store if you’ve got a good one or find an awesome butcher and get as wide different varieties of meat as possible, but things like eggs and eggs are wonderful. I’m big on fat. The egg yoke is very important, but I add egg whites to my food to get a bit more protein in there; otherwise,m not getting the 1:1.2 grams per body weight that I like to have. So I have egg whites. I do use a good quality, high-protein powder.
Protein Powder
I think protein powder is good, but you have to watch who you get it from because many of these companies are not the greatest. Rick, I’m sure you’ve got a protein powder you like to use. Take information from guys like Rick, who maybe know the owner of the protein company. Fish is also great, a lot of different kinds of fish. Animals, meats, they’re great, eggs, protein powder, dairy, yogurt, cottage cheese. I think you should have protein with every meal and try to vary it as much as possible, but sometimes with guys it’s tough. I wouldn’t say I like preparing meals always, so I have a shake here and there. Sometimes protein powder.
Rick:
Well, we talked about beef, and you can’t just eat beef as your number one source of protein. There are other things. A variety ends up being good, and different protein sources are good.
Chad:
Lean pork is good. There are lots of different things, obviously chicken.
Rick:
Yes. The thought in the workout world is that you have chicken breasts with no skin on them. It’s a little boring after a while.
Chad:
Yes. I keep the skin on them. The fat is good for you. Come on.
Rick:
We’re kind of at the end of the interview. Is there anything that you want to leave people with? Is there a question I didn’t ask you or ask you about or something you wanted to expand on for our viewers and listeners?
Chad:
Yes. I guess we touched on testosterone a bit. A study done in Massachusetts piqued my interest in the late 90s or early 2000s. They found was across all ages- they only studied guys after the age of 25- that men’s testosterone levels were dropping by an average of 1.2% to 1.3% a year. So that means a guy’s testosterone levels, like a 30-year-old’s testosterone levels in 1988, were around 17% to 25% higher than a guy of the same age’s testosterone levels in 1998. We thought testosterone was when you hit 30; you lose 1% yearly.
Testosterone At All Ages
But what we’re seeing is this across all ages. It’s just not an age-dependent testosterone thing. We’re seeing it generationally. We’re also seeing increases in mental health problems, obesity, all these things. I kind of think they’re correlated. So for guys, really start focusing on the little things you can do in your lifestyle, like not drinking from plastic water bottles, supplementing with zinc and Vitamin D, eating more high-quality fruits and vegetables, and the five meat rules we discussed, higher quality meats. It’s not about the quantitative or low quality. And get active.
If you can do those kinds of things, then you can increase your testosterone levels, and it’s very important for any guy that wants to be optimal, but also any guy who wants to be healthy. I’d say that one thing I’d leave guys with is to focus on those testosterone levels because we’re seeing them drop across the board; it’s freaking me out. Those best protein sources for your diet will help you become fit.
Rick:
Excellent point. Chad, where can people get more information about yourself and The Man’s Diet book?
Chad:
Yes. If you Google my name, the site will be there, and all the stuff will be on that first page. And then, if you go to chadhowsefitness.com, you will see on the shop page you will see The Man Diet. You can look at the page and see if it’s for you, and you will also learn a lot of stuff on that page.
Rick:
Chad, thank you very much for your time.
Chad:
I appreciate it, Rick. Thanks for having me on.
To meet your daily protein needs and achieve a balanced diet, it’s important to understand the best protein sources for your diet and why you should be eating them.
