Roots to Health with Dr. Craig Keever
Welcome to Roots to Health—where we dig deep into the foundation of lifelong wellness! Hosted by Dr. Craig Keever, Northwest Arkansas’ first and only plant-based pediatrician, this podcast unearths the power of nutrition, lifestyle, and holistic health to help kids, families, and adults thrive.
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Dr. Keever breaks down the science of nutrition and disease prevention in a way that’s simple, practical, and life-changing. From raising healthy kids to optimizing adult wellness, each episode delivers key insights that challenge conventional wisdom and empower you to take control of your health.
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Roots to Health with Dr. Craig Keever
Plant-Powered Protein Unpacked-Episode 3
Fueling your body with the right nutrients is crucial for a healthy lifestyle, and the topic of protein often raises questions, especially among those interested in plant-based diets. Join Dr. Craig Keever as he explores the world of plant-powered protein, unraveling the myths and misconceptions that surround this vital macronutrient. In a friendly and engaging manner, he introduces listeners to the essentials of protein—how it works in our bodies, why we need it, and how to ensure we're getting enough from plant sources.
Dr. Keever breaks down the science of protein, discussing essential amino acids, how they're sourced, and why plant foods can be more than sufficient. He dives deep into various protein-rich plants like legumes, nuts, and grains, revealing how everyday foods like chickpeas and even broccoli contribute positively to overall protein intake. Understanding the nuances of protein quality and bioavailability is equally important; Dr. Keever touches on how the body processes these nutrients, addressing common concerns about digestibility and effectiveness.
Additionally, this episode provides practical advice tailored to different lifestyles and age groups, emphasizing the need for personalized dietary requirements. Listeners will appreciate the engaging anecdotes and easy-to-follow tips that Dr. Keever shares to help individuals effectively incorporate plant-based foods into their meals. By the end, you’ll not only understand the power of a plant-based diet but also feel motivated to explore new recipes and meal ideas that maximize your protein potential.
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The information provided in this video is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have seen or heard in this video. Dr. Craig Keever is a licensed pediatrician, but the content shared here is general in nature and may not be applicable to your individual health needs.
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So I'm Dr Craig Keever and we're beginning our, or continuing, I should say, our podcast series on Roots for Health and I think the first episode or episodes, we kind of went into my story and some basics about you know, kind of lifestyle, medicine and plant-based eating, and I'm going to delve a little bit further into kind of what I would picture as the next phase of the story. When we're talking about nutrition, you know, and you get into studying this at all, you figure out very quickly that there's three macronutrients that our bodies need, and the three macronutrients I'm referring to are protein and fat and carbohydrates, and that's pretty much what our diet consists of when we're talking about things that we need for energy and building body parts and repair of muscles and making hormones and everything it takes for us to be a human, and so you'll see me looking at my phone periodically because I've got my little schedule of events here. So one of the, if not the most common question that comes out when most plant-based eaters tell somebody that's not a plant-based eater that I eat just plants, the first common question is where do you get your protein? So I'm going to start talking about protein a little bit at this point. And the short answer to that question is pretty much everywhere. There's protein in just about every plant you eat. The question is how much and how much is actually bioavailable and how do we get the right amounts? So there's zero question that it is very possible and not only very possible but likely that you will get all the protein you need from a plant-based diet. But you do have to pay attention. So, as I started to mention a little bit, you know what are the things that our body needs protein for and you know we need it for for muscle building, for body repair, for our immune system, for hormones. Insulin is really strictly a protein, but insulin is our hormone that controls our blood sugar, so it affects just about every aspect of our lives that we don't even know is going on, really.
Dr. Keever:So this first section that I'll talk about here is what exactly is protein, and you know, if you're not a science geek like me, you don't get so excited about this, but it's really interesting to me how proteins are made, and they're made actually directly from our genetic code. It's a long process that I won't go into here, but suffice it to say that our genetic code codes for each amino acid, and what's an amino acid? An amino acid is the building block of the protein, and so by coding for an amino acid and a specific sequence of amino acids. The, the genetic code will put together a specific chain of amino acids. The genetic code will put together a specific chain of amino acids and the arrangement of those amino acids will determine how that, what's called a polypeptide, will change shape and form, and then that creates every different kind of protein that there is, whether it's multiple chains of what are called polypeptides didn't mean to throw that term out there but a polypeptide is just a chain of amino acids.
Dr. Keever:There are a total of 20 amino acids in our bodies that make up all the thousands of proteins that we have in our bodies, and what determines that, as I mentioned, is our genetic code and the arrangement of specific amino acids. Out of those 20 amino acids, nine of them are what we call essential amino acids. What that means is our bodies cannot make those, so we have to actually eat those. The rest of the amino acids, the other 11
Amy Keever:Is it true with the standard diet, that animals really can't make? They have to have those amino acids that come from plants to be able to make the proteins in their own bodies.
Amy Keever:Well, that's a interesting question
Amy Keever:I don't mean to get you off topic.
Dr. Keever:Yeah, no that's an interesting question and and I suppose ultimately what is true is that plants ultimately do um originally synthesize all these amino acids, and what we make the 11 amino acids that we can make in our own bodies, what we make that from is things in our diet that we've ingested from plants. So it could be said that proteins are not made by any animal.
Dr. Keever:Right. and
Dr. Keever:And to some degree we would be right but our bodies can take parts from the plant-based diet that we have, but it needs those plants, but it needs those plants.
Dr. Keever:Yes, at some level we need those plants. Yes, plants, but it needs those plants. Yes, so what types of plants account for the bigger parts of protein? Where do we get our protein? And there's a lot of sources. I would say I have about three or four that are tops in my diet. There's some others that are high in other people's diets that I'm not as fond of, but legumes are probably the biggest source. Any kind of bean, lentils, soy, chickpeas, black beans, tofu, tempeh, edamame, some other sources. There's even protein in whole grains and, of course, in nuts and even in vegetables. Watermelon has protein. Watermelon has protein. Broccoli has protein.
Dr. Keever:There is a kind of a tongue-in-cheek I would say tongue-in-cheek sign that compares broccoli to steak. And I don't know exactly what it says, but it compares the amount of protein in, I think, 100 grams of broccoli as being very similar to 100 grams of steak. That's a little bit misleading because to eat the amount of broccoli that you would need to get the amount of protein that you get in a steak, you would eat a huge amount of broccoli that would not be very digestible. Okay, so while it is a little bit misleading, the point is there is protein in broccoli. We may not be able to access all of that protein, the bioavailability of it, because of the fiber and whatnot in the broccoli. We may not be able to break down all of that and use all of that protein within every piece of broccoli that we eat, but it is there and we will be able to use some of it.
Amy Keever:Because we don't store protein.
Dr. Keever:That's right. That's right, and I'll get to that point in a few minutes. So there is a concern in the plant-based world that we get a complete protein. Now what does that exactly mean? You know, because of the fact that our bodies have nine amino acids that are essential, we need to make sure that we get all those nine amino acids that we can't make on our own. And, for instance, if your diet consisted only of rice and that was your only source of protein, there's a few amino acids of the essential amino acids that you would be missing. All right, flip side of that, if your only source of protein was beans. Same kind of thing. There are some amino acids that are not present in some beans. So a very easy way to remedy that is what we say in the plant-based world eat the rainbow. If you have a well-rounded diet and, in my example, if you have a serving of beans and a serving of rice and you mix those, you now have complete protein.
Amy Keever:And it's not something to get overworked about as far as how much you're really getting on that
Dr. Keever:Exactly, now, having said that, as kind of my next point of reference, it is pretty important to get the right amount of protein in your diet.
Amy Keever:But not something to be stressed over.
Dr. Keever:Not something to be stressed over and if you're eating enough calories in your diet and you're eating a well-rounded diet, 90% or more chance you're going to get all protein that you need. But if you're trying to really pay attention to it, our bodies, the vast majority of the human population will get enough protein for all the maintenance and immune function and hormone function. If we ingest about 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, okay, now that's going to vary somewhat depending on your age, depending on your activity level and depending on what your goals are. All right, regarding age, younger people, growing people tend to need a little bit more than that because you're using more, you're growing, you're increasing your muscle mass and all of that, So younger people may need closer to 1 gram to 1.1 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. Older people as we age 60s and 70s, we start experiencing a condition called sarcopenia. It's just a normal process of aging and what that means is we start losing muscle mass as we age. In order to decrease the rate of that happening or prevent it from happening, older people also need a little bit increase in protein, probably up to a gram to 1.1 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. Another factor if you're into athletics, specifically bodybuilding, and you're trying to build muscles on muscles, you might even need up to 1.6 grams of protein per kilo of body weight.
Dr. Keever:Now to Amy's question about, or point about we don't store protein. We have storage mechanisms for two of the three macronutrients in our body. So if we eat too many carbohydrates, our bodies can create a substance called glycogen, which then helps our body regulate and keep our blood sugar steady. So when a blood sugar starts to drop, we can access our glycogen. It activates and creates more glucose for our blood sugar. For our fat intake, we have an infinite storage supply of fat cells. We can get as fat as we want, and I have historically. However, regarding protein, we don't have any place to store our protein.
Dr. Keever:What happens when you eat too much of it? Well, our body uses on a daily basis what it needs to repair for immune function, all the hormones, everything that I've mentioned and once we get to the point where okay, we've used everything, any extra protein in our bodies that we've ingested gets converted to carbohydrates and fat, because that's how we store. So these gym rats I affectionately refer them to to them as that are convinced that we have to have. Two grams of protein per pound of body weight are just not quite accurate. It's going somewhere it doesn't need to, because what's going to happen is, if they spend eight hours in the gym, they'll use more protein, that's a given. Yeah, but not that much. And then whatever extra they have, it gets converted to carbohydrates and fat. So it just makes no sense to eat extra protein that your body's not eating and it's hard on your liver and your kidneys.
Dr. Keever:And it's hard on your liver because your liver and kidneys have to work at breaking that down. So protein by and large is not a particularly great source for energy right for our bodies, and I'll get to that later when I talk about fats and carbohydrates and um. This protein does have four calories of energy per gram of protein that you digest, just like carbohydrates. It's the same as carbohydrates. Fats have nine grams or nine calories per gram of fat you eat. So that's just a little side note. All right, what kinds of things? Real-life examples of meal ideas to help with getting your protein intake Chickpea salads, peanut butter on whole grain toast, quinoa, veggie bowl, tofu scramble, tofu scramble yeah, there's all kinds of things.
Amy Keever:And those proteins to me seem to keep you feeling full for a much longer time that's exactly right Than a typical, you know standard diet does.
Dr. Keever:Yes, yeah, the proteins will help you maintain that satiation feeling. Yeah, very much so. All right, see, it looks like I've addressed all of that.
Amy Keever:And you know, for people that don't know how this is, it's like we really just have plant-based our regular recipes that we used to love in the standard diet. So it's not full of salads. It's not full of exactly yeah.
Dr. Keever:Well, my lovely vegan chef here has made it her main goal in life to create all of our historically comfort foods from the standard American diet into a compliant version, and it's been absolutely wonderful. So let's see. Oh, for those that are really interested in kind of tracking your protein intake, because it is- very eye-opening.
Dr. Keever:Probably the best way to do that that I've found. There are many apps for it. We've found one called Cronometer, and if you just put in what you eat, you've got to put in everything, you've got to be honest, but it will calculate all your macronutrients, all your micronutrients, and so you can easily follow.
Amy Keever:It's the best by far as far as showing nutrition. Yeah, it's the best one we found.
Dr. Keever:Yeah, so that one has worked very, very well. If you're really busy, you know, one of the things that you need is some convenient way to get like snacks in and stuff, and there's very easy ways. Like, you've made a very nice roasted chickpea, um, you know several things like that that you can kind of put together. And hummus hummus is a great, uh, quick snack and and, yeah, so all kinds of things that are readily accessible, um, and it does take a little more prep time than the standard American diet, and I think that's the difficulty at first.
Amy Keever:And it's a different way of cooking. It doesn't have to be overwhelming at first, but I have found if you don't do it in a very tasteful way, you kind of give up before it's when you've really. You know, it takes a little bit to find those recipes that you really love. Or you find somebody like us that says
Dr. Keever:Exactly so, I suppose.
Dr. Keever:In conclusion, regarding proteins, I'd just like to recap and say that you know it's easy to maintain appropriate protein levels, you know, on a plant-based diet. On a plant-based diet, I'd say you want to be somewhat cognizant, or aware of how much protein you should ideally take in a day, I mean, and using a chronometer app can be very helpful with that, as well as tracking. Am I getting not only enough protein, but where is it coming from right?
Amy Keever:well and people deal with two family members saying are you sure this is good and healthy for you, so having a doctor that backs you up, or having a nutritional guideline like that? You know, like we've joked about the guy that said on game changers, like I don't see people that are eating their kentucky fried chicken with you know telling me what their nutritional level is exactly, but people, the people around you, are going to ask you know, and if you feel like, if you're close to them, you might need to know you know, be able to show that to them
Dr. Keever:Exactly.
Dr. Keever:Eating plants isn't just enough, it's powerful. Stay nourished, stay inspired.
Amy Keever:There you go
Dr. Keever:.
