Same here. I have an unusually high metabolism anyway, but my body doesn’t like much in my stomach early in the morning. So I don’t do that. I also find that too many carbs in the morning makes me queasy, so I don’t do that either. I usually eat a high-fat pastry (croissant or baguette with butter) with my morning coffee, then something more substantial later in the morning for second breakfast. That seems to keep my body happy.
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I definitely prefer food-based food, not powder-based food, but I’m running into a problem with that. I eat meat, so being veg isn’t important one way or the other, not to me.
If I don’t have something liquid to eat, that has enough protein, I end up not eating at all. That’s my main problem: when I don’t eat anything until mid-afternoon.
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The voices of a million Jewish grandmothers were raised as one: “Chicken soup!”
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If you need 18g - 20g protein in a beverage, go with whey protein isolate powder. If you can manage 6g of protein in coffee, and maybe if you’re in your 40s or better, try collagen hydrolysate. I use NeoCell Super Collagen in my coffee, and in water mixed with ascorbic acid Vitamin C crystals, because collagen uses up Vitamin C, and Vitamin C boosts blood sugar levels and the adrenals and lowers cortisol levels. The synergistic plus is younger looking skin. The collagen powder I use is tasteless.
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Well, I’m in my 60s and on hormone treatments for my prostate cancer, so, while the weasel is still there, it’s no longer quite so rabid. Given that I don’t have to work in the morning anymore, I can get by on a couple of pieces of buttered toast, but lunch had better be substantial.
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I’m really just trying to find what works at this point. I’m mid-40s, so the collagen thing sounds like it might be a good option.
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Collagen contains only 4 amino acids. If you lived on a meat diet it would form about 30% of it. I will simply repeat my own strong suspicion that such limited foods in such concentrated form are woo.
I’ve always been a “high-fat substantial breakfast, light lunch” sort of person, but for the last few months I’ve been experimenting with intermittent fasting by eliminating breakfast completely (just black iced coffee) and having an under-300-calorie lunch. After a few days my body got used to it.
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For old school protien powder, porridge?
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See, now I’m susceptible to what you call “woo” when it’s given by doctors who aren’t selling me supplements or “consulting services.”
I followed Dr. Michael Eades’ “woo” in The Six-Week Cure for the Middle-Age Middle and lost at least 15 kg. I’ve kept a minimum of 14 kg off for a year.
Cardiologist Dr. William Davis’s Undoctored recommends collagen with Vitamin C as collagen is a strong component of the formation of the arterial wall. It doesn’t have to be ascorbic acid powder: fruits (red peppers botanically, culturally over here they are classified as vegetable) and vegetables will do as well.
Dr. Nasha Winters (ND) in The Metabolic Approach to Cancer claims collagen comprises the extracellular matrix, which provides a scaffolding that tries to prevent cancer cells from spreading.
I’m a believer in homemade bone broth, but I don’t make it very often. As you write, bone broth is the Jewish penicillin, and my grandmother and her sisters were very healthy despite not being Jewish, half of them living into their 90s, one a centenarian, from having grown up on a farm and eating all of a free-range livestock mammal, and drinking the bone broth. I’m also a believer in “do the best with what you can and what you have.”
I can’t afford the US for-profit healthcare system. I learned from these doctors and Ph.Ds (in Dr. Winters’ case) because they treat patients, Dr. Nasha Winters is an ovarian cancer survivor, and it’s much cheaper for me to read a published book in a library than hunt around locally for a reliable, informed doctor. When people my age and especially older who still have their parents and siblings with them share their skepticism and tell me that I am falling victim to woo I can’t help but wonder why they think I would never search for reliable primary and secondary sources (“if you’re not born rich and lucky like us what makes you think you can ever work to attain a comfortable lifestyle?”). I should just chalk up the too-early demise of my siblings and my parents (cancer, heart attack) to bad genes and accept ineluctability. My longest-living immediate relative was 64 when he died, my youngest brother, active in martial arts, bicycling, weight lifting, running died at age 44 of a blood clot.
I am just throwing out ideas of what seems to work according to the doctors’ books I’ve read recently. @CleverEmi will know by experimentation what works for her hypoglycemia. As they’re recent they have suspicion of being dietary fads, but even a scientist endures skepticism and criticism when introducing a finding that’s contrary to prevailing established science, whether or not she’s a pioneer or innovator. And of course, IANAD nor a nutritionist, but I’m more likely to trust one that’s not industry-sponsored or subsidized by food processors. There’s certainly no harm but $10 USD lost if she tries NeoCell 200 g or $23 USD fattening a manufacturer’s income statement if she goes with 454 g of Great Lakes Collagen Hydrolysate.
Glycine is one of the four amino acids in collagen, be it either in bone broth powder, or collagen hydrolysate, or (best) bone broth itself. Glycine is known to be an anti-hypoglycemic agent.
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I use Muscle Milk brand. It gives me a good stable solid feeling that lasts a few hours. I had protein powder when I was in college, and I took it mixed with water, which was revolting. This has a mild pleasant flavor (Cookies and Creme flavor, but it’s mild) and I take it with milk, and I like it fine, still, after five years taking it.
I have to manage my own blood sugar (my body doesn’t do it for me) and there are carbs in it that will give me an initial boost, as does the milk I take it with, so I have to work that in, meaning I’ll have it when I’m heading out to exercise or when I’m a little low going into a meal. After that first boost, the protein and fats take some time to digest, and that’s nice.
This link looks like it has the nutritional label: https://www.bodybuilding.com/store/cs/milk.html
There’s a fair amount of calories in it from sources other than protein, which may not meet your needs. Now that I think about it, I could probably use a second source on my shelf that’s closer to pure protein.
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I drink Muscle Milk too. They have powder, but I like the shakes. Despite the name, it’s not milk (so should be ok for lactose intolerant) but does have milk protein (so not good if you’re allergic). It’s bland enough and has a milky texture that coats the stomach. Gets me through the morning until I’m ready for breakfast later.
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I did IF before my wife got pregnant and super sick and I ate with her to help her along and gained more baby weight than her and didn’t lose it at all. IF rocks, I would eat a lot of food after a workout and light for the rest, about 2000 calories for a huge guy and it worked tremendously well for me. I really need to go back but it takes a lot of discipline to get started before things went smooth.
As for eating more, I recommend Red beans and rice if you need more “healthy” calories - or some other comfort food similar to it. There’s just about anything you made in there, and adding rice to what is essentially a flavorful sauce is great. Nuts are the other option since they are high calorie and relatively healthy, and often marketed as health food to sabotage diets because the caloric density.
As for protein powder, everything I read a few years ago pointed to just buying the cheapest thing around because a lot of the ones marketed as a healthier alternative normally lie about it because there’s little to no oversight. Powdered peanut butter is delicious, the protein coffee with milk is delicious, but otherwise I would just go on Amazon and find the cheapest possible casein and call it a day.
Beans, rice, etc will help keep blood sugar steady and casein protein is much slower to digest and helps with maintaining blood sugar as well. Casein also tends to blend creamier and taste better.
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How does powdered peanut butter differ nutritionally from occasional binges of eating regular peanut butter with a spoon? I am asking for a friend.
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If you had a conversation with my GP you might be surprised. He is remarkably sceptical of big pharma, and he has quite a low opinion of his own profession who he thinks are much too prone to seek magic bullets. The word “woo” is his. He would agree that there are genuine breakthroughs against the prevailing beliefs in the profession - but not that swallowing X powder is likely to be one of them. He does not believe in magic bullets. The last one we really had was antibiotics. And just about everything has side effects.
My point is that we are simply not designed as a species like a car. We can’t simply put better oil in here or better quality fuel in there. Absorbtion of nutrients is complex and did not evolve in a logical, linear fashion. Swallowing anything - whether it’s sugars, carbohydrates, amino acids or fats - in large quantities with rapid bioavailability is very likely to be bad for us in the long run. We evolved eating foods that had relatively low availability such as fruit, vegetables and meat; among the few high availability foods were honey but that was only available in small quantities, and when we started making artificial honey problems resulted.
Not all doctors get rich peddling pharma, but some make quite a lot of money out of books. People want miracle cures. It may seem over the top to be suspicious of books etc. promoting individual substances or the idea of eating a single food type, but on a priori grounds it seems something of a no brainer. We’ve had things like the Wakefield scandal over here only to see him go on to make money in the US, dietary fads come and go without apparently making any difference to general health, and I stick to the advice of my GP: keep your weight at the low end of the band (because grade inflation is happening in recommended weights) and eat a variety of food, paying attention to levels of calcium, magnesium and vitamin D precursors.
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It’s basically dried, pressed peanuts – it has about 75% less calories & fat than peanut butter. The taste isn’t identical… there’s a slight burnt quality to it. But it’s close enough that the huge calorie/fat difference is pretty cool.
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Have you ever tried it mixed with chocolate milk? Maybe not the healthiest thing going, but pure awesome.
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I tried it in my smoothies and didn’t like it.
Still just eating it as a snack paste! 
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