the truth about grill meat,

Most people aren't aware that when you cook meat (whether it's grilled, broiled, or seared) there are carcinogenic compounds that can form called HCA's (heterocyclic amines).  Now don't panic...you ingest various carcinogens all the time, even with some vegetables. You can always protect yourself with more antioxidants.

Please Note:  When you cook meat in a water base as opposed to grilling, broiling, or searing, you eliminate the HCAs. So for example, meats cooked in a soup, or meats cooked in a crock pot will not have the problem of the carcinogenic HCAs and is a healthier way to cook meat.

But let's face it... grilled meat tastes awesome and there's no way I'm giving up my grass-fed steak from the grill, or my grass-fed burgers!

That's why it's important to know that there's a way you can use spices to both counteract, and also drastically reduce the carcinogens formed when you grill meat...

If you're going to grill meats, marinating meats for hours beforehand in liquid mixtures that contain rosemary and other herbs/spices can dramatically help to reduce HCA's (heterocyclic amines), which are carcinogenic compounds that can form when meats are grilled.  So using rosemary, thyme, garlic, oregano and other spices in a meat marinade before grilling meats can drastically reduce any carcinogens that normally would form on grilled meat. 

The antioxidants in rosemary and thyme from a marinade were specifically cited in studies at being powerful inhibitors of HCA formation when grilling meats.  But it was also noted that other spices such as garlic, oregano, and others can help to prevent HCA formation as well, so I suggest using a variety, which tastes great anyway!

One more important point about grilling meat:

Remember that the more well-done a meat is cooked, the higher concentration of carcinogenic HCA's can form, so rare, medium-rare, or medium are healthier choices than well-done.  I've never understood why anybody would want to ruin a good steak by burning it to oblivion anyway.  But hey, if you're one of those folks that likes your steaks well-done, just remember that you're eating a lot more carcinogens than a steak that's cooked less, so make sure to load up on your antioxidants (spices, teas, berries, etc) to help combat those extra carcinogens.  

Washing down your barbequed meal with a glass of unsweetened iced tea (rich in antioxidants) and also a good salad with lots of raw veggies can provide the antioxidants needed to counteract the effect of HCAs in your body from grilled meat. 

By the way, even charring vegetables on the grill creates different carcinogens such as acrylamides, so don't think that the negative effect of charring only applies to meats.

Hey, we all love a great barbeque, so no need to give that up just because of HCAs or acrylamides, but at least now you know how to counteract the effects of these in your body to protect yourself, and also how to use spices to drastically reduce the formation of HCAs on grilled meat!

Lastly, did you know that the TYPE of meat you may be grilling on a regular basis can be destroying your metabolism and health?

It’s true!

The truth is that grilling a grass-fed steak, burger, organic chicken breast or thigh, and many other types of meat can not only be on of the healthiest meals to prepare, but also BURN belly fat because of the high protein content, healthy CLA fats, as well as full amino-acid profile, and many other fat-fighting and metabolism boosting qualities of high quality meat…

However, you really need to pay attention to the type of meat you’re purchasing.  While many health and medical experts caution the consumption of meats claiming they can “cause heart problems,” and many other scare tactics, there are no scientific studies showing this when you're talking about high quality, organic and pasture-raised meats.  Most of the negative studies on meat refer to processed meats laden with chemicals, such as hot dogs or lunch meats, but not a good grass-fed steak.

Animals that are raised in high-population commercial farms are fed mostly corn, corn by-products, and other grains, that completely change the chemistry of the meat you’re preparing.

They turn an otherwise healthy & fat-fighting meal into a health-destroying, inflammtory, fat-GAINING meal.

So the next time you’re at your local butcher or grocery store, make sure to seek out the highest quality pasture-raised meats, loaded with more vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats.

Not only will they taste better, but they’ll also be much better for your waistline and health.

protein and muscle

Whether you’re following a plant-based diet or are just trying to figure out how to properly track your daily macronutrient intake, the question of complete vs. incomplete protein is one that springs up quite often.

Should you count incomplete proteins as part of your daily protein totals, and do they contribute positively to muscle growth?

Let’s go over it…

Do Incomplete Proteins Count?

complete vs incomplete proteins

The simple answer here is that yes, they certainly do.

Whether it’s 30 grams from a chicken breast or 1 gram from a banana, every gram of protein that you eat throughout the day does count toward your protein total and does assist your muscle building and fat burning efforts.

All proteins are made up of individual building blocks called amino acids, 9 of which are considered “essential” since your body cannot produce them on its own.

amino acids

Traditionally speaking, “complete proteins” are those that contain a sufficient proportion of all 9 essential amino acids on their own and are generally derived from animal sources such as chicken, beef, eggs, dairy etc.

On the other hand, “incomplete proteins” are those that are particularly low in at least one essential amino acid, which is typically referred to as the “limiting amino acid” in that food. These are generally derived from plant sources such as fruits, vegetables and grains.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that all protein sources are technically “complete” since they still do contain all 20 of the amino acids in some amount.

It’s just that some foods have lower amounts of certain amino acids in comparison to others.

For example, beans are high in the amino acid lysine but are low in methionine, whereas grains are high in methionine but low in lysine.

                  

If for some reason you were only eating a relatively small amount of protein per day from a limited number of sources, this likely would become a legitimate concern since you wouldn’t be receiving a sufficient amount of certain amino acids needed to optimize muscle protein synthesis and overall health.

However, in the context of an overall diet providing enough total daily protein from a variety of sources, the whole notion of “complete vs. incomplete protein” basically becomes a non-issue.

daily protein intake

This is because your body can only build a limited amount of muscle in any given day to begin with, and it only requires a finite amount of each specific amino acid to maximize your growth potential over that specific period.

More protein and more amino acids does not automatically mean more muscle growth, and there are diminishing returns as your total protein intake gets higher and higher until eventually there’s no added benefit at all.

So, instead of thinking in terms of “complete vs. incomplete protein”, it’s far more useful to simply think in terms of total protein intake and total amino acid intake for the entire day as a whole.

As long as you’re getting in somewhere between 0.8-1g of protein per pound of body weight daily and are following a standard “fitness diet” that includes a variety of different protein sources, you’ll automatically be getting enough of each individual amino acid to optimize your results.

For that reason, worrying about the specific amounts of “complete” vs. “incomplete” protein you’re consuming is really just an unnecessary over-complication.

Remember, your body does not view your diet within the context of individual foods, and amino acids are amino acids regardless of which specific source they’re coming from.

On top of this, your body also has a “free amino acid pool” available that it can draw from if certain aminos are missing at a particular time when they’re needed.

So, if a certain meal you eat is low in a particular amino acid, your body can draw from this pool to balance things out.

This is why, contrary to what was traditionally recommended in the past, there’s actually no need for vegans/vegetarians to specifically combine their incomplete protein sources together at each meal to form a complete protein.

The Bottom Line On Complete Vs. Incomplete Protein

incomplete protein bodybuilding

While it’s true that a typical “complete” protein source such as chicken would be superior to an “incomplete” protein source such as rice on a gram for gram basis, it’s really not a practical concern when looked at in the overall picture.

As long as you’re consuming enough total protein for the day as a whole derived from a variety of different sources, all of your individual amino acid needs will be met one way or another.

The issue of complete vs. incomplete protein is more or less an outdated concept at this point, and it’s not something you need to concern yourself with from a muscle building or overall health perspective.

Just focus on total protein content and variety, and you’ll be good to go

THE TRUTH ABOUT COUNTING CALORIES:

To count or not to count? The idea of “counting calories” seems like a tedious task. It tends to conjure up negative images of food obsessed individuals revolving their entire day around their diets and tossing individual blueberries onto a food scale in order to meet some perfect daily total. But is it really necessary to count calories as part of your fat burning or muscle building diet? Well, it really just depends on what you define as “necessary”. Is it possible to lose a significant amount of body fat week after week without counting calories? Yes. Is it possible to consistently gain new muscle size and strength without counting calories? Sure. It all comes down to how serious you are about your program, how precise you want your results to be, and what exactly you define as ”counting calories” in the first place. Let’s go into some more detail here… First off, what exactly are calories anyway? Calories are simply a measurement of the total amount of energy contained in the foods you eat. If your goal is to burn fat, you need to create a calorie deficit by burning more calories than you consume. If your goal is to build muscle, you need to create a calorie surplus by consuming more calories than you burn. This is the most foundational, fundamental dietary principle there is and it must be followed if you want to see progress. It’s not that cut and dry, though. There is also an optimal range that you’ll want to hit in order to achieve the best results. The figure I typically recommend is a 15-20% deficit for fat loss, and a 15-20% surplus for muscle gain. If you’re not counting calories in any real way, there’s a decent chance you’ll get the deficit/surplus aspect met (though even this fails in a lot of cases), but a pretty good chance that it won’t be in the optimal range. What are the consequences of this? Well, if your goal is fat loss, and your deficit is less than 15-20%, you simply won’t lose fat at your maximum potential. If it’s greater than 15-20%, you’ll still lose fat, but you’ll also lose an excessive amount of lean muscle tissue in the process. If your goal is muscle gain, and your surplus is less than 15-20%, you won’t gain muscle at your maximum potential. If it’s greater than 15-20%, you’ll still gain muscle, but you’ll also gain an excessive amount of fat as well. This is where counting calories comes into play. It’s a way to hit your diet with precision so that you: a) Maximize fat loss while minimizing muscle loss. Or b) Maximize muscle gain while minimizing fat gain. If you simply “wing” your diet, it’s going to be pretty hard, if not impossible to accomplish this. There are two basic solutions to this… First, you can go the ideal route and simply track everything. Find out what your daily calorie/protein/carbohydrate/fat needs are based on your goal, find out the nutritional content of the foods you’re eating (you can use an online nutrition database like calorieking.com), and then structure a daily meal plan for yourself. It’s actually not as difficult as it seems – it just takes a bit of time to initially plan it out. Secondly, you can estimate. Find your daily nutritional needs, get a good idea of the nutritional content of the foods you typically consume, and then just do your best to stay within the right range without actually tracking every single calorie. It’s really up to you. It depends how serious you are about your results and how much effort you’re willing to put into your diet. Option number 1 is obviously going to yield the best possible results, but option 2 can also work decently well with some reasonable focus and discipline. One thing is for sure though: you definitely need some sort of system in place where you understand what your daily calorie/protein/carbohydrate/fat needs are and have a reasonably accurate idea of what you’re taking in through your diet.  Otherwise, you’re just shooting darts with a blindfold. Try to completely “wing” your diet and there’s a very good chance that you’ll be burning fat or building muscle well below your potential (or losing muscle/gaining fat to an excessive degree), or even worse, wasting your time in the gym altogether. Proper fitness nutrition is not rocket-science, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that calories don’t matter. If you truly want to achieve an impressive, head-turning body, they absolutely do. this here