Glycine Power?!
One of the things I've been doing regularly for the past year or so is making carcass broths and bone broths and making stews and soups with it. I make the distinction of carcass v. bone because I mostly make two versions: (1) pork from pork shoulder bones my amazing pork guy provides me free by the bagful (so I don't have to save up bones in the freezer which is a huge bonus!) and (2) chicken from the whole carcass from chickens or everything from the parts -- e.g. a fair amount of skin and cartilage and "stuff".
There was a question about pork rinds and satiety the other day on PaleoHacks that reminded me of a few things. One was that whenever I would hear of the health bennies of gelatin protein, I always remembered reading that it was not a good major protein source because it is not a complete protein. Well, the protein from such broths may not be complete, but it is special indeed. I'm not one for anecdotes but my less-than-perfect-diet hubby is prone to getting bronchitis or worse at least a couple of times every winter and he's had issues with prolonged bouts that turn into one long episode. Last winter? One short cold! I tend to think that's no coinky dink.
Turns out bone/carcass broths are rich in, among other things, the amino acid glycine. From more general info sources on bone broth in general with some specific references to glycine:
A Google scholar search (these will fluctuate, but I only present to give you an idea of number of seemingly quality cites): glycine immunity.
From a supplement hawk: Amino Acid Glycine
And then there's this study:
The study investigated the mechanism by which glycine protects against increased circulating nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA), fat cell size, intra-abdominal fat accumulation, and blood pressure (BP) induced in male Wistar rats by sucrose ingestion. The addition of 1% glycine to the drinking water containing 30% sucrose, for 4 wk, markedly reduced high BP in sucrose-fed rats (SFR) (122.3 ± 5.6 vs. 147.6 ± 5.4 mmHg in SFR without glycine, P < 0.001). Decreases in plasma triglyceride (TG) levels (0.9 ± 0.3 vs. 1.4 ± 0.3 mM, P < 0.001), intra-abdominal fat (6.8 ± 2.16 vs. 14.8 ± 4.0 g, P < 0.01), and adipose cell size were observed in SFR treated with glycine compared with SFR without treatment. Total NEFA concentration in the plasma of SFR was significantly decreased by glycine intake (0.64 ± 0.08 vs. 1.11 ± 0.09 mM in SFR without glycine, P < 0.001). In control animals, glycine decreased glucose, TGs, and total NEFA but without reaching significance. In SFR treated with glycine, mitochondrial respiration, as an indicator of the rate of fat oxidation, showed an increase in the state IV oxidation rate of the ß -oxidation substrates octanoic acid and palmitoyl carnitine. This suggests an enhancement of hepatic fatty acid metabolism, i.e., in their transport, activation, or ß -oxidation. These findings imply that the protection by glycine against elevated BP might be attributed to its effect in increasing fatty acid oxidation, reducing intra-abdominal fat accumulation and circulating NEFA, which have been proposed as links between obesity and hypertension.
There's lots in this paper that I'm too bogged down in other things to go off on yet another tangent here. But since I had it on the mind I wanted to at least throw this up here for your perusal. Meantime, a bennie of it getting colder is that it's soup season. I've got a big ass jar (probably from somewhere like Costco) in the fridge that I'll spoon out (yep it gets that set up) for cups of hot broth, and I've got chicken soup to be made! When I first started reading about broths I was not convinced. How could it taste that much different? Well, once you cook with bone broths instead of water you'll know what everyone's raving about!
Comments
Yesterday (or the day before?) I followed a link from the comments here to the Low Odds Ratio blog (the very interesting post http://hanswuhealth.blogspot.com/2011/11/preliminary-review-of-adipose-tissue.html). I'd never been, had a look around and saw these:
http://hanswuhealth.blogspot.com/2011/05/glycine.html
http://hanswuhealth.blogspot.com/2011/10/about-glycine.html
(and linked from the above)
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/gelatin.shtml
Then MDA yesterday:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/dear-mark-coq10-gelatin-fruit-and-eggs-and-ldl/
which linked a bunch:
http://blog.cholesterol-and-health.com/2011/03/anyone-doing-paleo-without-liver-bones.html
Glycine is sweeping the paleo-sphere!
I must admit, I'm tempted to try up mine and see if it improves my sleep. I usually think though that seeing I eat heaps of meat that I'd get plenty of glycine (or any other amino acid).
This:
http://www.jbc.org/content/193/1/23.full.pdf
Seems to suggest that even my beef will see me do pretty well for glycine.
--Q
I know Peat has caused a bit of a stir with recommending gelatin for sleep because most people seem to think serotonin=sleep; but, 5-HT antagonists do increase slow wave sleep (and reduce UV-induced skin cancer/damage). I never understood the "mainstream" recommendation of eating "serotonin foods."
Be careful about giving your dog any cooked bones. You said "crumbly bones" and from that description you are probably OK. But anything large enough to splinter is a very bad idea. In my house, the dogs get raw bones or none at all. I lost a St. Bernard to a seemingly indestructable beef bone. She splintered it, and the splinter pierced her stomach or small intestine.
@FTD: I'm going to have to try oxtail bones -- not sure where I'd get them. I've heard that was good. I love love love my pork guy. I don't eat enough bone-in meats so that to save 'em up is a PITA. And when I want a pork butt he always saves me a beaut. Last one was 9 lbs of delish. The extra loose fat on that goes to hubby's hypermetabolic friend who fries it up LOL.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-126
August 17, 2009
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA scientists have discovered glycine, a fundamental building block of life, in samples of comet Wild 2 returned by NASA's Stardust spacecraft.
When I read that, it made me nervous. :) I thought maybe you were gonna start calling yourself Hannibal Carbsane.
It's difficult to find chicken feet and bones in my area. We've gotten soo special, people don't like those parts of the animal. You have to go down to Chinatown for that.
Lots of good tips. I'll try WF for the oxtails but it's a zoo (a human zoo) in my area.
Pixie dust Lerner? :D
It did get me off the statin and I did lose some weight. My wife and extended family complained that I was too skinny.
But in fact, I stabilized at around 25% body fat. That may be due to the fact that I am not strict about his rules. I tend to consume more fat than he recommends. And I take the occasional "mulligan" and ignore the rules.
I use organ meats, especially grass-fed liver(not for soup) and a beef tong. The most affordable kind of meat. Chile made out of tong has a very nice texture.
I tell you I feel great and past three days my insomnia has improved immensely.Passing out at 09:30 instead of usual midnight makes a huge difference in how I look and feel.Except for the pound of pasta night but 1600cal at night loaded with sodium is not pleasant to any body.My skin looks better,weightloss is FINALLY happening and I have no hunger whatsoever.
Today I ate a large bowl oatmeal with two bananas smashed in and Splenda.Lunch was a big plate of rice with black beans,onions,green peppers,jalepenos and some fat free French drizzled on top.Right now I am baking a bunch of small red potatoes to be eaten mixed with alot of white rice and frozen corn.Its basically Vegan but I will eat a bit of lean meat here and there as I did when I got chicken noodle soup that has some in it.Its crazy how you wonder where you will get protein but nutritionally a Vegan diet based on starch(who knew???)supplies a good amount.
I remember 20 yrs agao when I first found Atkins and my friend first found fat free.He kept telling me to try it and I declined because I would get sever hypo but amazingly I am super stable right now.I run into my friend every now and then and he is still super low fat(eats lowfat meats though)and looks great!
To my mind, that would be based on physiology just as there are ectomorphs, mesomorphs, endomorphs - or just as there are different types of muscle fibers that make some more suited to marathoning versus weightlifting versus sprinting.
P.S. Since watching two of those videos, I'm thinking about going without animal protein for one day per week - being an intermittent starchosaurus :)
But several years ago I did do very low fat for a few months, and lacked vitality. So one day a week might be enough, for me anyway.
Then Mcdougall stated that primates have two genes for amalyase while humans have up to 16.That makes sense to me that we are evolved to eat more starch since amalyase is an enzyme that breaks down starch into sugar for absorption.I get no indigestion and excellent excretion from carbs too.
As for the Inuit and VLC,Mcdougall makes sense when he says that they are people living on the fringes of what is adaptable to.I have always felt weird adding tons of fat to my diet.I also wanna add that this could be the honeymoon phase and I will ride it out and see where it takes me.
I still haven't put much effort into understanding that diet. But it is an attempt to provide different diets for different people. And I think that according to that approach, McDougall would be wrong for me.
Carbsane's website though is for brushing aside the faiths of others and doing what you learn and believe to be proper yourself.Its a learning place compared to how the nutrition zealot sites are.It kills me when LC'ers call people stupid for eating a ton of fruit or potatoes and vice versa when any diet follower bashes VLC.
I know you mention you're a drinker, but the burping, etc. sounds like perhaps you have gall-bladder/bile issues and perhaps a fat malabsorption problem. T'would explain why you do better on a low fat diet.
Thanks for sharing!
@Lerner: Intermittent Starchasaurus! Love that :)
@Tsimblist: The thing about the BT diet that bothers me is that if my Dad was O- and my Mom AB+, then I could be A+ or -, or B+ or -. A diet best for me would not be that for either of the people I inherited half my genes from. That doesn't make much sense to me!
Matt Stone was pushing the eat all you want and more to bump the metabolism and I do not discredit him because as he points out he is just trying to learn.But I feel that mayabe being at optimal temp is not good in a realistic world.We are fighting our genes and our human survival instinct by thinking that we will find the holy grail in diet and be able to live happily ever after......
I no longer feel that controlling my caloric intake is a struggle, because I get so much positive feedback from having lost weight - but I do feel that getting in enough exercise is.
Does anyone else feel this way?
I exercise some every day, but I keep feeling I should get in more. And more. And more.
I wonder if I've displaced my "more, more more" feelings about food to exercise.
@galina I love interval-training as well - great results for relatively small time investment in terms of building enough muscle so I can wear sleeveless tops without embarassment & keep my fat pants in retirement
Diana,I agree with the intervals as being excellent.When I do them I experience this shift in my look.Its like all of a sudden one day I pass a mirror and do a dbl take.I then look and see a younger me and by that I mean my skin just looks incredible.I factor that into the way interval training forces a high VO2 max and hence your body is super oxygenated....aka your fit.And being fit means your body burns more fat doing any activity which is a super plus.I have always felt that the reason we get fatter when we age is not due to a drop in metabolism but instead a drop in VO2 max condition.You see heavy people huffing and puffing climbing stairs and skinny people rarely out of breath.
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