Quote:
Originally Posted by Danny
I haven't seen the specific film you are talking about, but I know Vegetables and the nutrients they provide are very healthy, but there is no need to cut out meat from your diet (when I say meat, I include the lean meats like chicken, turkey and fish). In fact, I think that it is rather unhealthy unless substituted with other proteins like eggs, milk, etc... as thin doesn't mean healthy and protein is essential for good health. And getting your protein from soy is bad for you, if you are male. It increases your levels of estrogen hormones and decreases your levels of testosterone.
For me it would be awfully difficult to obtain my daily protein intake (300 grams) without meat. A lot comes from my use of whey and casein, but I love me my meat (though, when I say meat, it's actually almost all turkey, chicken, and tuna). I only eat beef or pork maybe once a week, though I love that as well.
Right now I am 6'3 and 275. I've been bulking and while I need to cut about 15-20 pounds of fat, I am predominantly muscle. I am also in the best physical shape of my life, extremely strong and still as fast as I was when I was thinner. My cardiovascular shape is a little off as I am still getting back to where I was before I hurt my ankle, but it's still very good for someone my size and with a sedentary lifestyle (not including working out and playing sports, but general work, friends and family life).
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Its ironic that you claim that soy will increase your levels of estrogen, while you yourself admit you get a lot of your protein from dairy based products... Soy does contain phytoestrogens, but these do not effect the actual estrogen levels in your body and certainly do not decrease testosterone. Dairy cows on the other hand are pumped full of estrogen, so that they can start producing milk earlier, which in turn ends up in dairy products. This is why over the last couple of generations girls are starting to mature earlier and earlier than they ever have, among other problems... so if you're actually, concerned about your testosterone/estrogen balance, you are much better off getting rid of dairy than soy.
Also, on the whole protein consumption argument. Even for an extremely active athlete 300 grams seems a bit excessive. Your body can only process about 30-40 grams every 3-4 hours anyway, and everything beyond that is stored as body fat or burned away as energy. You could probably easily get by with half of what you are taking in, and experience no loss of muscle (and you will lose body fat, provided you don't replace the protein with other foods). I'm currently sitting at about 215 lbs. right now at about 7-8% bodyfat and am lifting more than a lot of the dudes that are much bigger than I am at the gym, and I get by just fine on about 100-130 grams a day... Everyone is different, of course, but most people have had more protein equals more muscle driven into their heads repeatedly, and at a certain point this just isn't true. I could get into the effects of extreme levels of protein on your liver, kidenys, bones, etc, but I'll digress for now...
Because... the whole point of the movie, from what I've heard, isn't about weight loss or body composition, but on total health... People who consume little to no meat live longer, don't get heart disease, have lower cancer rates, and are just generally more healthy... A very small part of this probably has something to do with vegetarians and vegans having far, far less cases of obesity than meat eaters, but it is mostly because the human body isn't built to process the large amounts of meat that people try to cram into our bodies. For example, true carnivores have mechanisms in their bodies to deal with the high amounts of cholesterol in a meat based diet. Humans, however, weren't designed to eat a mostly plant based diet, so when we consume high amounts of cholesterol, it builds up in our arteries, and the complications go on from there...
What you want to put in your body, is your own choice, but to say that not eating meat is unhealthy is simply ignoring study after study that says the exact opposite is true.