Protein Restriction to Extend Life

[badger]

Oak - what kind of green tea are you drinking? I LOVE the tea at one of our sushi places, but everything I've tried from the grocery store is really blah. I love coffee, but I also love good green tea and would be happy to make the switch most days of the week if I could find a good one.

does the tea contain a bit of rice in it? Most sushi places serve "genmai-cha", which is literally brown rice tea. Really good, high-quality green tea makes me pee like nothing else - an excellent diuretic. But I also get indigestion if I drink too much (say 3 cups spread out over the course of the day). I think this is something that's unique to me, though. My relatives in Japan are just fine drinking 2-3times more than I do on a daily basis.

[Blueberry]

GLC - How are you brewing your green tea? It responds much better to cooler (175 degree f or so) water, and shorter (like 2-3 minute) steep times. Grocery store teas to tend to be iffy (unless you're going to an Asian market of some sort). Can you describe the green teas you have liked?

[OakLeaf]

My everyday tea is Rishi sencha. I get it in 250-gram envelopes from their website. +1 the better the tea, the lower the temperature you steep at. Thirty seconds is usually plenty, especially for a second or third infusion.

[GLC1968]

does the tea contain a bit of rice in it? Most sushi places serve "genmai-cha", which is literally brown rice tea. Really good, high-quality green tea makes me pee like nothing else - an excellent diuretic. But I also get indigestion if I drink too much (say 3 cups spread out over the course of the day). I think this is something that's unique to me, though. My relatives in Japan are just fine drinking 2-3times more than I do on a daily basis.

One place does serve it with rice in it, but that's not my favorite one. It's definitely good though and certaininly better than anything I've made at home.

GLC - How are you brewing your green tea? It responds much better to cooler (175 degree f or so) water, and shorter (like 2-3 minute) steep times. Grocery store teas to tend to be iffy (unless you're going to an Asian market of some sort). Can you describe the green teas you have liked?

Probably with water that is WAY too hot! I can't really describe the ones I like except that they are both mild and flavorful. And they don't leave an aftertaste which I often find with the grocery store ones...

My everyday tea is Rishi sencha. I get it in 250-gram envelopes from their website. +1 the better the tea, the lower the temperature you steep at. Thirty seconds is usually plenty, especially for a second or third infusion.

I think I need to learn more about tea. I like it when I have it at restaurants but I really dislike it made at home or work. It must be how I make it (and what I buy). Time for an education for me!

Thanks for all the info, everyone.

[OakLeaf]

There are a ***lot*** of different types of green tea, too. Chinese and Japanese varieties in general taste very different (Indian teas tend to be more like Chinese tea), but even so, there's a huge range of flavors and mouth feel - and caffeine content, too.

I'm not an enormous fan of Teavana, but they will let you sample the aromas of any tea on the shelf, plus they usually have several for tasting. You could also sample aromas if you have an Asian grocery with bulk bins.

[Owlie]

GLC, if I remember correctly, one of the teas commonly served at Japanese restaurants (including one of my favorites here) is bancha. I'm not a huge fan of green teas, but it's one I like drinking.

This reminds me, I need to go order some tea...

[GLC1968]

Thanks, Oak and Owlie!

My husband is going to be very annoyed with you guys. I finally got him drinking coffee with me every morning and now I'm going to switch to tea! I just ordered a book on the subject and I'm going to hitch a ride with a couple of local friends the next time they visit their tea place.

I believe we have quite a few in the area, so I should have lots of opportunities to learn! Thanks for all the info!


.....we now return you to your regularly scheduled programing/post, currently in progress.....

[OakLeaf]

Wikipedia has a pretty comprehensive article on green tea.

Too bad they don't have taste-a-vision.

[Owlie]

I'm not giving up coffee. Cutting back, sure, but not giving up. (Since I don't drink coffee at home, it's as much to save money as anything else.) Alcohol...I don't drink much because I keep forgetting I can buy it. And if I didn't eat much protein, I guarantee you I'd be cranky and spend every day with a splitting headache. I don't want to live to be 100 and be miserable!

(If I don't get at least one serving of meat a day, I get headaches...even when my vegan former roommate (who did her homework) cooked.)

Everything in moderation, right?

[emily_in_nc]

Lots of good discussion here, and just to be clear, I posted the article b/c I found it interesting, not because I agree with it or follow caloric restriction in my own diet. I definitely am a "moderation in all things" gal, eating neither a high protein nor high carb diet overall. I did do low-carb for a couple of years when I had 15 lbs. to lose, but it was hard to for me to eat that way over the long haul since my DH is very much a high-carb man, so now I am back to a more balanced way of eating. I try to eat healthy, whole foods, plenty of vegetables, very little red meat. I eat fish and chicken, and I also like to get protein from beans, nuts and nut butters, and some low-fat dairy, like yogurt.

[jessmarimba]

Emily, I was just laughing to myself over how far some of these threads can travel

I've read some interesting studies on calorie-restricted diets and their effect on lifespan, but I'm not sure what they considered "restricted" and the activity level of the participants. I'd say I probably don't eat a lot of meat but I was a vegetarian for several years and it's mostly b/c I'm uncomfortable cooking it (while I don't mind medium steak, I've never cooked chicken without seriously overcooking it).

Peanut butter, however, is another story. Please tear me away from the girl scout Tagalongs.

[Owlie]

Send 'em my way.

[miller]

All I know is that this summer and fall when I was in marathon training, my fingernails and toenails were so brittle that I could hardly cut them. Even though I kept them super short, they would break at the slightest pressure.

When we ordered our Thanksgiving turkey, we asked for as small a turkey as possible, but we were late ordering (largely because DH would've preferred our usual veg Thanksgiving, but I was really craving protein and talked him into it) - so a lot of people were ahead of us for the smallest ones. We wound up with a 15# turkey, so we ate turkey for eight days running. I can't remember the last time I ate meat eight days in a row, but it had to have been at least 20 years ago. DH, who's not athletic, didn't deal with it well, but for myself, I just felt topped up. Like I'd gotten something I'd really been lacking. No ill effects at all on my digestion or whatever, just feeling really good.

Protein powders (which I really dislike getting essential nutrients from "food-like substances," powders or pills), and even fish that I usually eat once or twice a week, just weren't doing it for me.

Over the winter I can get better meat than I can in the summer, and I've been eating beef or chicken about every other week. My nails are better, I'm making steady progress healing from my crash (pretty much 95%, now - not quite ready for handstand when I tried two days ago, and not totally pain free shifting my RD, but otherwise good).

So I continue to believe, even more strongly than I did before, that I need more protein than I typically get. As with just about everything, I think the lesson is listen to your body.

Sounds interesting

I feel like you need to listen to your body more then anything else

I have had good success with pistachios to keep me going in between meals

I got the same feeling you were talking about like my body got something it really needed

[celticgarden]

Many years ago I was a very lean vegetarian (who hadn't learned to like veggies all that much). I went through 6 weeks of Peace Corps aquaculture training eating at southern buffets every day, resisting most forms of protein. Then we went to Africa. Within months of eating the high carb, low veggie diet there I CRAVED meat. Not only meat, organ food. I could put away a huge plate of cooked meat, liver, kidney. I listen to my body. As Spring heads our way I start drinking tons of green smoothies: spinach, kale, yum!

Yeah, living longer for me is not a goal. Living healthier, yes. My friend's Mom is 93, just gave up her keys last year. Being 93 and active (cooking for the "seniors" at the center!) is great.

[KnottedYet]

I'm not a fruit fly.

I'm not a rat.

The study doesn't apply to me.

I think it's cute that the end of the article talks about how all you need to do is decrease the protein, and then you can eat MORE of everything else and still get the health benefits!!! Ooh, boy, isn't that music to the Standard American Diet: Look, you can eat MORE! It's all about finding ways to eat MORE! Hey, we'll put cellulose in the bread which you can't digest, then you can eat SIX pieces of bread instead of just TWO! Yay! MORE MORE MORE. Drink this soda sweetened with a neurotoxin, and you can have a sixpack at lunch instead of drinking just one can of sugared soda. MORE MORE MORE. Drop the chicken from your soup, and then you can have THREE bowls instead of ONE! EAT EAT EAT. Give MORE money to the corporations that find ways to feed you more, and everyone gets MORE of what they want. Sheesh.

Eat good food. Savor it. Have 5 ml of alcohol with your meal. Go for a walk.

What is it Michael Pollan says? "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."