Protein deficiency?

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Protein deficiency?

Postby Lyndzie » Tue Apr 25, 2017 8:22 am

I met a woman last week that claimed that she had to eat chicken, even though she doesn't like it, because otherwise she suffers from protein deficiency. I asked her how she knew that she was protein deficient, and she said her hair would fall out and her nails would have deep ridges when she didn't eat meat. I was under the assumption that anyone eating sufficient calories would have enough protein.

A few questions: are these symptoms signs of insufficient protein? Does this mean she is probably under eating? Or have a highly processed diet? She was petite and slim. I am obviously not a doctor, and this was a brief conversation, but it definitely grabbed my attention.

A guess if she ate only white rice and fruit she might not be getting enough protein, but then again, she wasn't buying any rice or much fruit. (Maybe I should have paid more attention to what she was purchasing! That would probably have told me the answer, huh?)
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Re: Protein deficiency?

Postby obawan12 » Tue Apr 25, 2017 9:21 am

Hi Lyndzie. I don't know if those are signs of protein deficiency, mainly because protein deficiency does not really exist in western nations. :)

Anyone who suffers from protein deficiency that does not live in a 3rd world country is either starving themselves (anorexic, etc), or getting nearly 100% of their calories from refined junk food. Anyone who is engaging in these eating habits is going to have much worse health problems to worry about than protein deficiency.

Something that happens quite a bit, is when people stop trying to eat meat, they don't actually replace the calories with anything else. There is a woman at my work, who went vegetarian as some sort of religious practice, but said she had to stop because she was getting sick. Sadly, I know all she did was take the meat out of her white rice bowls without adding anything to it. Otherwise, she ate straight junk. It's no wonder she felt sick!

There's no doubt the woman you ran into is no different than most americans, who are very confused about nutrition and hold an essential belief that they cannot be strong or have energy without consuming meat. It is very sad.
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Re: Protein deficiency?

Postby bbq » Tue Apr 25, 2017 10:17 am

I guess that she's referring to BS (Bro Science) like this:

The bald facts about diet: to avoid hair loss, you need meat
http://china.timesofnews.com/the-bald-facts-about-diet-to-avoid-hair-loss-you-need-meat

BAD NEWS FOR BALDING VEGETARIANS
http://www.hishairclinic.com/bad-news-for-balding-vegetarians/

Maybe chicken is the only source of protein in the entire universe?
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Re: Protein deficiency?

Postby colonyofcells » Tue Apr 25, 2017 10:29 am

Animal products are sort of high fat junk food with lots of calories so the hair loss maybe is caused by inadequate calories.
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Re: Protein deficiency?

Postby Lyndzie » Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:55 pm

obawan12 wrote:Something that happens quite a bit, is when people stop trying to eat meat, they don't actually replace the calories with anything else


That is a good point. I know that people don't get the whole starch thing, so she probably was just under eating without replacing the food. Heck. I didn't even fully grasp the starch = satiety concept until the past year.

Also, if balding was cured by eating meat, then my husband would look like Cousin It
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Re: Protein deficiency?

Postby bbq » Tue Apr 25, 2017 10:07 pm

Cure of alopecia areata after eradication of Helicobacter pylori: A new association?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3158418/

Keys to alopecia areata might lie in gut microbiome
http://www.mdedge.com/edermatologynews/article/109490/hair-nails/keys-alopecia-areata-might-lie-gut-microbiome

Fecal Transplants May Be a Miracle Cure for Some of Our Nastiest Illnesses
https://www.wired.com/2016/11/microbiome-therapy-making-fecal-transplants-better/
Colleen Kelly started using fecal microbiota transplants in 2008—one of the first gastroenterologists in the US to do so. Over the years, she has noticed some strange side effects. One of her C. diff patients, for instance, also suffered from alopecia universalis. He hadn’t been able to grow any hair since he was 16: not on his head, not in his armpits, not even on his eyebrows. But when he got a stool transplant from his sister, he started sprouting fresh patches.

When Kelly told a colleague about the result, she got a second shock: He had seen a fecal transplant recipient regrow hair too. The two doctors were stuck. They didn’t have the resources to analyze their patients’ microbiomes to see what bugs might have been responsible for the change. “You don’t know how bad I wish I had that,” she says.
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Re: Protein deficiency?

Postby foodaddict » Wed Apr 26, 2017 2:43 am

Well I have alopecia and I had it when I was eating a diet with meat in it as well as on a vegetarian diet and on a pescetarian diet and flexitarian diet and now on this WFPB diet I get it as well as I noticed a bald spot in my head this morning that def not was there yesterday. :(
Im eating probiotic capsules daily.

Well when I was eating meat I defended eating it as I thought I was doing the correct thing. As 2 MDs had told me to eat meat I just had to eat it and I told my friends who where vegetarains that I do what I want to do and I wanted to save my life and get healthier.

So people will eat what the docs and dietitians tells them to eat.

when I was in the hospital I was told to eat more fat as they thought I was not eating enough fat on the LCHF diet since I had a stroke :shock:

So last year I started this WFPB diet and at first it seemed like the hair did grow really well so I didnt notice anything..........

Well so protein or not.............well it must be something else the matter and how come all vegetarians and vegans are not bald then if its the lack of meat doing it?
I started to eat meat again to ripe the benefits of it. They eat meat in the bible. why should not we continue to eat it? I hate manipulated facts !
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Re: Protein deficiency?

Postby Skip » Wed Apr 26, 2017 10:17 am

Lyndzie wrote:A guess if she ate only white rice and fruit she might not be getting enough protein, but then again, she wasn't buying any rice or much fruit.


I don't think that Walter Kempner would agree that....
"The fundamental principle of ethics is reverence for life" Albert Schweitzer
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