Paleo Baby

In this episode, registered nurse Amelia, food scientist Julie and me discuss protein. Protein is fascinating for a million different reasons; not enough eventually leads to muscle wasting, too much to an inefficient conversion to glucose.  How much protein should you be eating? What type? When? Unfortunately, we can't answer those questions but we can certainly guide you through some self-experimentation to find out. Amino aicds are the building blocks of protein. Certain amino acids are gluconeogenic, meaning they can enter the citric acid cycle and be converted into malate and pyruvate and then glucose. Others are ketogenic and convert into acetyl-CoA and then ketone bodies. Many amino acids are both ketogenic and gluconeogenic! It's complicated, but know that the branched-chain amino acids  leucine, isoleucine and valine are the most ketogenic, and you should favour them for the purposes of athletic performance. Branched-chain amino acids have been shown to increase the effectiveness of the ketogenic diet