Proteins are some of the most essential nutrients for your body. They comprise of chains of amino acids joined together to give proteins their shape and function. As a result, they form complex molecules that aid in vital cellular functions, help build muscle, and increase immunity. If you’re an athlete or bodybuilder, you’ll likely require supplementary protein products to boost the level of proteins in your body. The main reason for doing so is that 9 of the 20 amino acids required by our bodies are considered essential, meaning our bodies do not have the machinery to produce them.

Hence, the only source we can obtain them is from the food we eat. The most common protein supplements found in the market are protein powders that isolate plant or animal proteins. However, which one should you use? Here we take a look at plant protein powder why it is a better alternative than whey protein powder.

Plant Protein Powder

As their name implies, plant protein powder is derived from plant sources like rice, soy, hemp, and pea. Depending on the different amino acids and proteins present in a plant, manufacturers can use different methods to extract and isolate them into a finished product. Additionally, they add flavoring and control the amount of other nutrients present in them. Rice and peas are the two best sources of plant powder, but manufacturers can make a blend using different plant proteins so that the end product contains sufficient quantities.

Proteins denature in extreme temperature and pH. As a result, cooking food at high temperatures can affect protein uptake and digestibility. Since protein powder supplements don’t rely on extreme temperatures for extraction, the quality of proteins extracted is higher and more concentrated.

Rice Proteins

Most people think that rice is heavy on carbs, but that’s not entirely true. According to this study, rice, specifically brown rice, has the highest lysine content among cereal proteins. It also exhibits the highest digestibility and energy digestibility among staple foods. Because of these reasons, rice protein powder is an excellent protein substitute for infants with allergies to cow’s milk.

Though its lysine content is the highest among cereal proteins, its amount isn’t sufficient enough to be called essential. Whey protein powders do contain more lysine content; however, the abundance of rice and the low cost of production of rice protein powders allow for additional lysine to be added to the end product.

Pea Proteins

Pea protein powder is made by grinding up and extracting proteins from yellow split peas. It is a rich source of essential amino acids, namely, isoleucine, valine, and leucine. These amino acids make up proteins that are essential for muscle growth and repair, promote healing of wounds, and stimulate hormone production.

The only drawback to pea proteins is that they are low in methionine, an essential amino acid that helps detoxify the body and is important for healthy hair and nails. Again, it can be supplemented as per the manufacturer in different protein powder mixes.

How Plant Protein Powder Is Better than Whey Protein Powder

Although whey protein powder contains all 9 of the essential amino acids required for complete protein synthesis in our bodies, plant protein powder is still a better alternative on account of a number of reasons.

Digestibility

Whey is the liquid part of milk after it is separated from its solids during cheese production. Because it is a derivative of dairy products, people with lactose intolerance may experience severe digestive issues like bloating, acidity, stomach aches, and even irritable bowel syndrome. Lactose intolerance gets worse with age. If you were taking whey protein powder with mild tolerance issues, it might develop into a more severe discomfort.

Your only alternative is to consume plant-based protein powders. Considering the variety of raw materials for extraction, you’ll find multiple sources of proteins that are lactose-free and don’t exacerbate intestinal issues.

In addition, like whey protein powder, plant protein powder is gluten-free as it is not derived from cereal proteins such as wheat, barley, and rye. This makes it suitable for consumption for people who have celiac disease.

Additional Nutrients

A balanced diet not only consists of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats but also requires trace amounts of other substances. These nutrients are essential to the absorption of primary dietary requirements and also prevent rare diseases.

Pea protein powder is rich in iron, an element required for hemoglobin synthesis. Hemoglobin aids in the transport of oxygen throughout our bodies. If you’re low on hemoglobin, you’ll experience lethargy when carrying out your daily activities.

Moreover, they contain a host of vitamins and antioxidants that help the uptake of calcium, strengthening bones, improving skin and hair health. Whey protein powder does contain these additional nutrients; however, their amount is not comparable to plant protein powder. It also has higher calories in the form of saturated fats that tend to deposit in our bodies resulting in unhealthy gains.

Price

Given the abundance of plants, they provide a much more inexpensive source of proteins than whey as a raw material. This leaves more room to play with when making blends. As a result, you’ll find products that cater to specific eating lifestyles like veganism and vegetarianism. This is also why plant protein powders also taste better, allowing for better flavors to be added.

Environment

Perhaps the biggest reason for choosing plant protein powder over whey is the lessened impact it has on the environment.

Modern farming practices involving dairy production include clearing large areas of land for grazing spaces for cattle. This may require deforestation on a grand scale, making the practice net carbon positive. However, the biggest threat to the environment comes from manure. Cows and their waste produce methane, a greenhouse gas that traps heat 30 times more than carbon dioxide and contributes to climate change.

Additionally, uncontrolled farming practices don’t account for the manure that runs off into streams and rivers. Manure in water bodies promotes algae growth that can destroy marine life. Algae form a blanket over lakes and ponds, preventing river plants from receiving sunlight. As a result, the whole food chain gets disturbed, and an ecological disaster may follow suit.

The immune system is a complex system of chemicals, processes, and cells that defend the body against harmful and invading pathogens like bacteria, toxins, and viruses. It is essential to make sure the immune system is working in a healthy manner all year round because it is the best defense humans have to prevent disease and infection. This means committing to some healthy life choices such as exercising and sleeping well.

Moreover, research has highlighted how some natural foods, vitamins, herbs, and minerals can also make the immune system response more efficient and effective. Below, we have outlined some foods, vitamins, herbs, and things you can do to boost the immune system.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is quite important to everyday functioning as well as the immune system. It improves the fighting effects of white blood cells, which make up a vital part of the immune system defense. Vitamin D promotes the immune system response, which also results in decreased inflammation in the body.

It is quite common to have a Vitamin D deficiency, which can begin to affect the functioning of the immune system. Low levels of Vitamin D have been linked with respiratory tract diseases such as asthma and influenza.

Studies show that taking supplements for Vitamin D can help by improving the immune system response and help reduce the risk of getting respiratory infections. Other studies also show that Vitamin D can enhance the response of the body to antiviral treatments for some infections like HIV and Hepatitis C.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C plays a huge role when it comes to fighting infection and the immune system’s health. It plays a crucial role in the functions of different immune cells. It is also important because it improves the ability of immune cells to protect your body against infections. Vitamin C is necessary to clear out old cells through cellular death and replace them with better functioning, new ones.

Vitamin C is a fantastic antioxidant that helps you protect against the damage that comes from oxidative stressors and free radicals. This type of oxidative stress negatively impacts the immune system’s health, so it must be dealt with before it begins to cause harm.

With Vitamin C supplements, you can reduce the severity and duration of the infections that occur in the upper respiratory tract. This includes combating the common cold too. Studies show that regular supplements of Vitamin C can reduce the cold duration by 14% in children and 8% in adults.

Some individuals are also prone to common colds because they are put under high stress, such as soldiers and marathon runners. Regular Vitamin C supplements can help by reducing the occurrence of colds by around 50%. People who are dealing with severe infections such as ARDS and sepsis that occurs from viral infections can also benefit from Vitamin C intravenous high doses.

Allicin

Allin is present in whole garlic. When you chew or crush up garlic, the allin compound turns into allicin. Allicin gives garlic its particular taste and smell, as well as the medicinal properties that make it special. It is known to improve the fighting response of white blood cells against disease and viruses, especially the flu or common cold. It also has anti-inflammatory properties that reduce the emergence of infections and diseases in people.

So, one of the things you can do to boost the immune system is to add garlic to your next meal! It’s delicious and beneficial.

Echinacea

Echinacea is known for the benefits to the immune systems. Several studies have noted the importance of Echinacea to help the immune system in fighting viruses and infections. This can help you heal and recover from illnesses at a faster rate. It is a common prescription to treat and prevent common colds for this very reason.

Consuming the Echinacea plant can lower the risk of getting colds by around 50% and even shorten how long the cold lasts by around one and a half days.

Astragalus

Astragalus is known to protect people from diseases like diabetes and cancer. The antioxidants in astragalus protect cells from damage through the oxidation process. It is often used to boost the immune system to prevent upper respiratory infections and colds as well as liver protection, diabetes treatment, and reducing blood pressure.

It is known for its anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties, which means that people use it for wound care too. The antiviral properties and immune system stimulation of astragalus can prevent colds too.

Ginger

Ginger is known for boosting the health of the immune system through its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. While acute inflammation can help with some infections and fever, chronic inflammation can end harming your body and immune system, which can increase the chances of developing certain diseases. It can help with common colds and flu by reducing their severity.

Ginger shots and foods with ginger can help keep your immune system healthy, so it is important to incorporate that into your meals! Studies show that it is a powerful antibacterial and antiviral ingredient.

One of the best things you can do to boost the immune system is to make a ginger shot with lemon juice and honey. These three ingredients together can help boost the immune system and have antiviral and antibacterial benefits.

Other Things You Can Do to Boost the Immune System

The first line of defense for your body is definitely your immune system, which is why it is important to incorporate good habits throughout your life. Here are some natural things you can do to boost your immune system.

• Reduce Smoking: Smoking is known to have a negative impact on the immune system and reduces its ability to fight off viruses, bacteria, infections, and diseases.
• Healthy Diet: It is vital to incorporate a healthy diet full of the necessary nutrients and minerals you need to have a healthy immune system. This includes all the vitamins, minerals, and other necessary nutrients that every human needs for a good life.
• Regular Exercise: It can help flush out the body of harmful toxins and bacteria, which makes it easier for your immune system to protect you.
• Adequate Sleep: A full 8 hours of sleep is vital for humans to live a healthy and comfortable life.
• Minimizing Stress: Incorporating some breathing techniques and relaxation activities can help you minimize stress.
• Vaccinations: It is important to keep up with vaccinations to boost your immune system’s capability to defend itself against disease.

Nowadays, putting on weight has become so easy with the abundance of sugary drinks, junk food options, and carb-loaded foods available in the market. Getting rid of the excess flab, on the other hand, is a matter of true dedication and commitment towards your weight management goal. However, there are some natural ingredients that work effectively when it comes to accelerating the weight management process.

These natural ingredients include matcha tea, green coffee bean, cayenne pepper, apple cider vinegar, and L carnitine. Even though these ingredients may not burn all the fat on their own, but they sure do help burn fat faster and lose weight naturally.

Here are some natural ingredients and their weight management benefits.

How Does Matcha Green Tea Help Lose Weight?

With matcha tea, shots, lattes, and even desserts available in a number of places, matcha has managed to reserve a spot in many people’s daily diet. Matcha is obtained from the Camellia sinensis plant, just like green tea. However, since it’s grown a bit differently than green tea, it has unique nutrient content. Matcha tea gets its nutrients from the entire tea leaf, giving it higher caffeine and antioxidant content compared to green tea.

Matcha is packed with catechins, a type of plant compound that acts as a natural antioxidant that cleanses your body internally. The combination of matcha and green tea results in matcha green tea, which offers many benefits for weight management.

Here are some benefits of consuming matcha green tea.

Boosts Metabolism

Matcha green tea helps cleanse the body through its antioxidant content and speeds up the metabolic rate. This results in an increase in energy expenditure and boosts the fat-burning process. According to research, having matcha green tea, along with doing moderate exercise, can help speed up the fat- burning process by 17%.

Maintain Weight Management

Matcha green tea can help you lose weight by speeding up your metabolism and increasing your fat-burning rate. Moreover, according to a study, matcha green tea also helps maintain weight management.

How Does Green Coffee Bean Help Lose Weight?

Green coffee beans are simply raw and unroasted coffee beans. According to popular opinion and research, green coffee beans and green coffee extract is believed to offer a variety of health benefits.

Green coffee beans are used as a supplement for weight management. They are packed with chlorogenic acids; compounds with potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, which helps with weight management, regulating blood sugar, and improving cognitive and memory skills.

How Does Apple Cider Vinegar Help Lose Weight?

Apple cider vinegar has been around for thousands of years, providing immense benefits for one’s health. Acetic acid is the most important component of apple cider vinegar. This short-chain fatty acid dissolves into hydrogen and acetate in your body, aiding in weight management.

Here’s how acetic acid in apple cider vinegar can help you lose weight:

Lowers Blood Sugar Levels

Acetic acid improves the ability of your muscles to absorb sugar from the blood-reducing insulin levels, which helps with burning fat. A research conducted on rats showed an improvement in their liver’s ability to take up sugar from their blood, helping in fat burning.

Improve Metabolism

According to a study, acetic acids help increase the amount of AMPK in the body – an enzyme that increases your metabolic rate and speeds up the fat-burning process.

Reduces Fat Storage

A study conducted on obese rats revealed that acetic acid helped keep them from gaining weight, and also increased the production of belly fat-reducing genes in their bodies.

Helps Suppress Appetite

According to a research study, acetate helps suppress that part of your brain that controls your appetite, resulting in a reduction of your food intake.

How Does Cayenne Pepper Contribute towards Weight Management?

Cayenne pepper – one of the spiciest herbs – can help kick start your weight management. Capsaicin is the main active ingredient of cayenne and many other peppers. According to research studies, capsaicin is believed to be a thermogenic chemical that can help increase your metabolic rate and decrease your appetite.

Here are a few weight management benefits of cayenne.

Reduces Cravings

Adding capsaicin to your diet in the form of cayenne can help suppress your appetite, decrease your caloric intake and enhance weight management. According to research, those who consumed cayenne with every meal noticed a reduction in their cravings and an increase in the feeling of fullness.

Increases Your Metabolism

A research study found that women who ate cayenne and other types of peppers experienced an increase in their metabolic rate for up to 30 minutes after consumption. Since our metabolic rate is the speed at which the body converts food into energy, a higher metabolic rates helps increase weight management.

Burns More Calories

Not only does cayenne help increase your metabolic rate, but it also helps burn more calories since it’s spicy. Consuming spicy food causes an increase in your body temperature. So, when your body temperature increases, it causes your body to go into cooldown mode, resulting in an increase in calorie burning.

How Does L Carnitine Help Lose Weight?

L-carnitine is an amino-acid derivative that is taken in the form of a supplement. It helps produce more energy through the transportation of fatty acids to the mitochondria of your cells. Since this supplement helps move fatty acids to your cells to be burned for energy, it increases your body’s ability to burn fat and lose weight. However, L-carnitine isn’t beneficial for weight management alone; it is to be taken as a supplement along with healthy eating and exercise.

The Bottom Line

All the above mentioned natural ingredients can be quite effective for weight management. However, incorporating them into a healthy diet, followed by a good exercise routine, can help speed up the weight management process.

By Ryback Reeves

I have been obsessed with supplements and herbs since I was a teenager. I remember saving money up to buy my meal replacement shakes and trying all the different protein powders, while being totally clueless about artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose that were used to sweeten these things. I remember when Red Bull was first released I thought it was the greatest thing in the world and I would chug multiple cans prior to working out, consuming easily over 100 grams of sugar in one sitting and then eventually switching to the sugar-free ones thinking I was being “super healthy” because I wasn’t drinking all the sugar. I remember buying Ephedra pills at gas stations and eventually the weight management products that all used thinking I was so fit and healthy, but in reality all this stuff was and is so bad.

This pattern of consuming supplements would continue and I was always fascinated by the latest stuff I would see in the bodybuilding magazines. I even remember going into a well-known supplement shop and their staff selling me Andro, which is a prohormone and something a 20-year-old kid should not have been taking nor something a supplement company should be selling kids that age, but that’s par for the course in this industry. I remember going to one Mr. Olympia Expo and seeing all the different supplement companies vying for people’s attention with what appeared to be roided out men and women wearing their brand shirts hawking these so-called supplements that had given them their shredded and jacked physiques. Something about the whole scene just didn’t sit well with me and I left with my bag of free goodies of aspartame- and sucralose-filled samples and protein bars that were going to get me to the next level, or so I thought.

Fast forward to my first year in wrestling and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why at times I had such a hard time breathing and recovering while training, but it was because I was consuming this weight management products laced with so many bad ingredients it’s a miracle my heart didn’t just explode on the spot from all the stress it was under. I would get sick and puke, but never thought the supplements I was taking were harming me. I mean, the supplement industry is supposed to be about health and fitness, but little did I know at the time that it was just a business for many of the big-time players and that the only thing that mattered was the bottom line, even if it was costing people their health.

At around the age of 26, I started experiencing blurry vision along with blackouts when standing and never wanting to get out of bed even after a good night's rest because I was still tired. It was at this point that I started researching my symptoms and the one thing that kept popping up was artificial sweeteners and people all over experiencing similar symptoms. I remember I was in denial at first and kept chugging my diet sodas and drinking my protein shakes, bars and pre-workouts that were filled with this stuff until I realized that maybe I needed to cut this stuff out altogether and just see what happened. Well, what happened was that after a few weeks none of the problems I was having existed anymore and I felt better than I had in a long time, probably like I felt before I started consuming all this harmful stuff. I threw out all my supplements that contained aspartame and sucralose and started ordering raw powders to make my own supplements along with all the various herbs I would combine to make my own formulas. Little did I know at the time that this was the birth of Feed Me More Nutrition, but it certainly was!

When I decided to launch Feed Me More Nutrition in 2016 I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, as we have seen countless celebrities and bodybuilders launch lines only to disappear almost as quickly as they came on the scene. Some have actually done quite well, but they are the problem because they get into an industry that has an obligation to give people products that will enhance their lives and not sacrifice their health. Artificial sweeteners and colors do not belong in anything let alone dietary supplements, it just makes zero sense, yet 99% of today’s companies use them because they’re cheap and many love the taste. I firmly believe the majority of the problems the world faces today is caused by capitalism for bad purposes, as we have allowed companies to profit off of things that sacrifice our health. Individual responsibility is a must though, and knowledge is power, but so many people trust supplement companies with their health only to be let down time and time again. I remember being that customer growing up, which is what drives me to be the change the industry needs. I can’t stop these companies from doing what they're doing and using people online to promote their dangerous products, but I could help educate people on how I got to this point in my life and why Feed Me More Nutrition is about everyone winning by using the highest quality ingredients with no artificial sweeteners or colors. We are in our 5th year now as of 2021 and growing rapidly because more and more people are sick and tired of all the BS. The supplement industry needs to change, but it starts with us changing ourselves first!