ICYMI: BroScience, Diet-Culture, American Bread

read time 4 minutes

Hello posse, welcome to Posana.

Real quick! Before we jump into today’s topic I wanted to welcome you to this community. This is a newsletter where I aim to bring you a 4-minute read every week to help you build your healthy life. Just 4 minutes, that’s all you need.

Today’s quick bites:

• BroScience, How much protein is too much protein? What the actual science says.

• Diet-Culture

• American Bread-a short read

BroScience, how much protein is too much protein? What the actual science says.

BroScience. If you haven’t heard of it, then let me explain. BroScience is a colloquial term used to describe fitness and nutrition advice based more on anecdotal experience and popular beliefs among gym-goers than scientific evidence/rigorous research. The most popular of the sea of BroScienctists being @BroScienceLife and @MorePlatesMoreDates. The type of advice given is popular amongst the bodybuilding and fitness communities and includes tips and recommendations that often lack empirical support.

A popular claim is that one has to consume at least 2 grams per pound of protein to see the real “gainz” in the gym. This is a substantial amount. Let’s say you are a 180-pound adult male. Then according to BroScience, you would have to consume at least 360 grams of protein in a day to build muscle.

What does the science say? To start the recommendation for an adult (above 18) set by the American Medical Association is 0.8 g/kg (0.4 g/lb) of protein. This being said going back to the old example of a 180-pound adult male he would need to consume ~66 grams of protein a day.

But what about people who are beginning to put on muscle mass? In this study of new bodybuilders, there was no recorded benefit for consuming more than 0.68g of protein per lb of weight. So for our male example, he would have to consume no more than 112 grams of protein a day to see muscle protein synthesis (MPS)

Now for the experienced athlete, a study conducted in 2006 with high-performance collegiate athletes found that the subjects who consumed 0.8-0.9 grams of protein per pound of body weight did not see an increase in lean body mass, strength, or body composition.

The takeaway: To gain muscle mass rather than maintain it you will need to eat more protein ~0.7 g per pound. Higher than the recommended of 0.8 g per kg (~.4 g per pound), but not as high as the bros recommend.

Diet-Culture

Diet culture is everywhere. Besides the obvious ones of people promoting fad diets such as the cabbage soup diet, and the grapefruit diet there are also hidden diet messages around us. It’s everywhere without you realizing it. Trader Joe’s labels food items as reduced guilt. “Fat burning” fitness classes. The list is endless. Because diet culture worships thinness and pathologizes fat, it causes weight bias and stigmatism. It’s mainly driven by ideal body images created by celebrities then trickles down into influenced purchasing behaviors, and changes in fitness routines. My prediction...it’s not going away anytime soon. I can, however, give you a quick guide to recognize it and prevent it from managing your decisions.

1. Learn to recognize diet culture

2. Ask yourself what your values are.

   (if what you consume doesn’t align with what you believe don’t be quick to consume it, instead understand where the message is coming from).

3. Make sure that the diet culture doesn’t get in the way of your values

4. Seek a dietitian/therapist for additional support.

American Bread- a short read

I believe there is an alarming consensus on the fact that our bread in America could withstand the Great Depression. Have you ever had a loaf of bread for a month and it still looked good? With the increase in demand for a longer shelf life, the foods have turned from processed to ultra-processed.

White bread for the longest time has been an American household staple. A typical fresh artisan loaf can run you around 7 dollars and can only last on the shelves for about two days. It’s no no-brainer that one would choose the loaf that costs around 4 dollars and can last around 2 weeks.

My thoughts: if you have the money and can run through a whole loaf fairly quickly then get the fresh-made bread.

What I’ve been trying this week:

• Spent a whole day at the beach with friends it was nice to be away from my laptop for a moment.

• Tried the Echelon mat pilates workout for the first time, 10/10 for a quick burn.

Happy hump day,

Posana Team