Nutrition

Listening, repeatedly, to the the lectures series of Nancy Amy at UC Berkeley Introduction to Human Nutrition Spring 2007, has been a wonderful gift to me. Right now I do not have the luxury of not paying attention to my consumption.

In fact I've been consuming the cleanest most natural food I had access to for most of this year. The problem was that I did not have access to enough food and I was not considering my protein intake. Now I weigh 59kg (130 lbs) and I've learned that .8 kg/ kg body weight is a reasonable base line. I've also come to understand that my protein intake has been significantly less than that and my caloric intake and nutrient range has been unbalanced and not congruent with my actual physiological needs.

So for me to actually consume sufficient calories and the wide breadth of nutrients including 47 g protein per day will require two things: Access to fresh produce in abundance year round and a manual blender so that I can drink the food. (So I can consume enough to get the nutrients I need)

Two sources of cooked food, sprouted wheat bagels (11g/bagel) and hummus(8g/ half cup) have, entered my diet as what I considered a necessity to increase my protein intake wtihout having to eat beyond the point of comfort.

Obviously we do not know in text book terms all that we need to consume to be optimally healthy. I'm sticking with the idea that I have co evolved with my food and that this man-made garbage these man-made monstrosities are not about food and nutrition but about corporate money profit. That's not "food" for me.

Nuts in general are high in protein:
These are the grams contained in 1/4 cup of the following nuts
8 sunflower
8 peanuts
7 almonds
7 pumpkin
7 sesame
6 pistachios
5 Brazil nuts
5 filberts
5 walnuts
4 cashews
4 pine nuts

There is protein in most fruits and vegetables! However for me to get my protein from those alone would require lots of chewing or lots of drinking...Drinking is faster, even with saliva integration.

Bananas have all of the essential amino acids plus two extra to boot. "Essential amino acids" are those humans are ill equipped to manufacture ourselves bu which we need to survive so we have to consume them. A banana has 1 to 2 grams of protein..depends on how big the banana is. (Proteins consist of amino acids linked together.)

I'm going to send this to my dad, it might be more accessible. Professor Nancy Amy, Nutrition 10 at UCB...Fantastic overview. Specific enough to be immediately useful is remarkable!

It is accessible through iTunesU at iTunes or through the link provided above.