# Protein

Category: Foods & Substances

Also known as: dietary protein, protein intake

Protein intake is a critical nutritional variable whose optimal quantity and source are determined by metabolic rate, age, and the specific balance of amino acids consumed. Peat argued that a minimum of 100 grams of good protein daily was required for mental and physical…

8 passages · 2 authors · 2009–2023 · Most-cited: [Ray Peat](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/voices/ray-peat/index.md)

Canonical page: https://bioenergeticoracle.com/concepts/protein

## Synthesis

**Protein** intake is a critical nutritional variable whose optimal quantity and source are determined by metabolic rate, age, and the specific balance of amino acids consumed. Peat argued that a minimum of 100 grams of good protein daily was required for mental and physical efficiency, even for sedentary individuals, based on a military study. [Source 1, 2, 4] He later suggested that for older people, an intake of 120-150 grams might be more appropriate, as the 100-gram figure represented a baseline for preventing a catabolic state. [Source 2] Falling below this threshold triggers a systemic *proteolytic state*, where the body senses deficiency and breaks down the **thymus gland**, lymph nodes, muscles, and skin to supply essential amino acids to vital organs. [Source 2, 5]

The amino acid composition of the protein source is more important than the absolute quantity. Peat consistently warned that the **tryptophan**, **cysteine**, and **methionine** found in high concentrations in muscle meats are directly antithyroid and promote stress hormones like serotonin and cortisol. [Source 2, 3, 5] He noted that Broda Barnes had to double his thyroid dose when significantly increasing his meat consumption. [Source 2, 5] In contrast, *gelatin* (or collagen-rich foods like skin, tendons, and bone broth) lacks these suppressive amino acids and is rich in glycine, which antagonizes the excitatory tryptophan-serotonin-estrogen-prolactin system. [Source 3] Peat recommended consuming 5-10 grams of gelatin alongside a serving of muscle meat to balance the amino acid profile entering the bloodstream, and suggested that a large portion of the daily 100-gram requirement could be met with gelatin. [Source 3]

The physiological context of the individual dictates the ideal protein intake. A young, growing person with a high metabolic rate requires more of the essential amino acids found in muscle meats for tissue replacement, such as making hair, skin, and gut cells. [Source 5] However, for a hypothyroid person or someone over a certain age, an excess of muscle meat can further suppress thyroid function and promote a stress response. [Source 2, 6, 8] Peat observed that food proteins stimulate insulin secretion, which can lead to a compensatory rise in **cortisol** to prevent hypoglycemia; this cortisol then increases circulating tryptophan and cysteine from muscle tissue, which together enhance *aromatase* activity. [Source 6] Roddy and Sgourakis have discussed the idea that lowering protein, particularly from muscle meat, may be beneficial past a certain age or in a state of illness, while shifting intake toward gelatinous components and shellfish could allow for a higher total protein intake without negative effects. [Source 8]

The quality and digestibility of the protein source are paramount. Peat considered animal proteins such as milk, cheese, and eggs to be superior to plant proteins from nuts and beans, whose digestibility and amino acid balance are not equivalent. [Source 4] He noted that a quart and a half of milk, a few eggs, and some cheese could easily meet the daily requirement. [Source 4] The liver requires adequate dietary protein to produce **albumin**, a factor correlated with the protein content of growing hair root bulbs. [Source 2, 7] However, Peat cautioned against relying on powdered protein supplements, which lack the full spectrum of nutrients found in whole foods like fruit, eggs, and liver, and emphasized that traditional diets consuming whole animals provided a much better amino acid balance than modern diets focused on refined muscle meats. [Source 6]

## People also ask

### Why did Ray Peat recommend eating gelatin with muscle meat?

Peat argued that muscle meats are high in antithyroid amino acids like tryptophan, cysteine, and methionine, while gelatin is rich in glycine, which antagonizes their stress-promoting effects. He recommended consuming 5-10 grams of gelatin alongside a serving of muscle meat to balance the amino acid profile.

### How does a low protein intake affect the body according to this perspective?

The corpus describes that falling below a minimum threshold of around 100 grams daily triggers a systemic proteolytic state, where the body breaks down the thymus gland, lymph nodes, muscles, and skin to supply essential amino acids to vital organs.

### Why might older individuals need to adjust their protein sources?

Peat suggested that for hypothyroid or older people, an excess of muscle meat can further suppress thyroid function and promote a stress response, so shifting intake toward gelatinous components and shellfish may allow for a higher total protein intake without negative effects.

## Related concepts

- [Activated Charcoal](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/activated-charcoal/index.md)
- [Albumin](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/albumin/index.md)
- [Beef](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/beef/index.md)
- [Calcium](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/calcium/index.md)
- [GABA](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/gaba/index.md)
- [Gelatin](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/gelatin/index.md)

## Cited passages

Passage numbers match the `[Source N]` markers in the synthesis above.

### Source 1 — Ask the Herb Doctor: Food

Ray Peat · Interview · Dec 16, 2016

> ## Caloric Needs and Protein
>
> **Andrew Murray:** In terms of general nutrition, what would you rate as acceptable calories for a female doing relatively sedentary work?
>
> **Ray Peat:** I hope 2,000 is a ballpark. You can be very sedentary and still burn close to 3,000. Some people can be moderately active and get along on 1,700. Lots of people now are hypothyroid enough that they can move around with ordinary daily activity and still gain weight on 700 or 800 calories. You really have to look at your metabolic rate.
>
> **Andrew Murray:** How about protein intake for a female?
>
> **Ray Peat:** The military did a big study on people of military age, both men and women, and found that to do just ordinary work, both needed at least 100 grams of good protein every day. You see lots of people getting by on 25 or 30 grams, but I've known people always with pretty serious symptoms getting only 20 grams or less per day.
>
> **Sarah Murray:** It's hard if you don't want to eat meat three times a day. You can't eat more than two eggs a day because they contain some PUFA. So then you're left with dairy. I think dairy is the primary source of protein that's healthy for people.

### Source 2 — #55: Bioenergetic Nutrition Basics  |  "The Ray Peat Diet"  |  Appetite and Metabolism with Ray Peat

Ray Peat (with Danny Roddy) · Interview · Apr 25, 2021

> ## Dietary Basics: Protein
>
> **Danny Roddy:** You've said that eating less than 100 grams of protein makes the liver think you're starving. What is the significance of that number?
>
> **Ray Peat:** It probably depends on the balance of amino acids. When your body senses a protein deficiency, it turns on proteolytic enzymes so that it takes down your thymus gland, lymph nodes, muscles, and skin. Those proteins are converted to the essential amino acids which your brain and essential organs need. The sense of protein deficiency is essentially a proteolytic state which takes your whole body down.
>
> **Georgi Dinkov:** Doesn't the liver also need dietary protein specifically to produce sufficient amounts of albumin?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Oh sure, but combined with thyroid function.
>
> **Danny Roddy:** Would you revise this upwards? Is 100 grams a good base amount?
>
> **Ray Peat:** In the military study, that was for even little people working at a desk job; that was required for efficiency.
>
> **Danny Roddy:** Maybe 120-150 was even more appropriate for an older person?
>
> **Ray Peat:** I think so. The 100 was just the minimum for efficiency.

### Source 3 — Gelatin, stress, longevity

Ray Peat · Article · 2009 · https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/gelatin.shtml

> (Again, the popular nutritional idea of amino acids as simply building blocks for tissues is exactly wrong—muscle protein can exacerbate muscle disease.) All of the conditions involving excess prolactin, serotonin, and cortisol (autism, postpartum and premenstrual problems, Cushing's disease, "diabetes," impotence, etc.) should benefit from reduced consumption of tryptophan. But the specifically antiinflammatory amino acids in gelatin also antagonize the excitatory effects of the tryptophan-serotonin-estrogen-prolactin system.
>
> In some of the older studies, therapeutic results improved when the daily gelatin was increased. Since 30 grams of glycine was commonly used for treating muscular dystrophy and myasthenia gravis, a daily intake of 100 grams of gelatin wouldn't seem unreasonable, and some people find that quantities in that range help to decrease fatigue. For a growing child, though, such a large amount of refined gelatin would tend to displace other important foods. The National Academy of Sciences recently reviewed the requirements for working adults (male and female soldiers, in particular), and suggested that 100 grams of balanced protein was needed for efficient work. For adults, a large part of that could be in the form of gelatin. If a person eats a large serving of meat, it's probably helpful to have 5 or 10 grams of gelatin at approximately the same time, so that the amino acids enter the blood stream in balance.
>
> Asian grocery stores are likely to sell some of the traditional gelatin-rich foods, such as prepared pig skin and ears and tails, and chicken feet. Although the prepared powdered gelatin doesn't require any cooking, dissolving it in hot water makes it digest a little more quickly. It can be incorporated into custards, mousses, ice cream, soups, sauces, cheese cake, pies, etc., or mixed with fruit juices to make desserts or (with juice concentrate) candies. Although pure glycine has its place as a useful and remarkably safe drug, it shouldn't be thought of as a food, because manufactured products are always likely to contain peculiar contaminants.
>
> [references]

### Source 4 — Ask the Herb Doctor: Vaccination & Immunity II

Ray Peat · Interview · Jul 18, 2014

> **Andrew Murray:** Thank you for the call.
>
> **Ray Peat:** An example of how to get 100 g of protein would be just 3 quarts of milk all by itself would provide just about the right amount. But you could also get it from 15 eggs or a combination of a quart and a half of milk and a few eggs and some cheese. But you can't depend on the protein in nuts and beans, for example, because their digestibility and quality isn’t equal to the animal proteins, such as milk, cheese and eggs.
>
> **Andrew Murray:** Okay. I think we do have another caller on the air. So let’s take this next caller. You are on the air.
>
> **Caller:** A couple of things. I just want to mention – you were talking about covering your head when you're sleeping. I find it really helps to sleep if I cover my head with a towel or a shirt or something like that. It helps a lot. My question was about a galanga or galangal. First of all, I wanted to know, is galanga and galangal the same thing?
>
> **Andrew Murray:** Yes. Galanga is, I think, the same – I think the thing you are talking about.
>
> **Caller:** They are both the same herb. It looks like a ginger, right?

### Source 5 — #55: Bioenergetic Nutrition Basics  |  "The Ray Peat Diet"  |  Appetite and Metabolism with Ray Peat

Ray Peat · Interview · Apr 25, 2021

> ## Dietary Basics: Protein
>
> **Danny Roddy:** Is there a point at which this dietary protein can cause kidney issues in a hypothyroid person?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Broda Barnes experimented eating a lot more meat in his diet. He found he had to double his thyroid dose. It's very easy to overdo the protein, displacing carbohydrate and liberating the thyroid-suppressing tryptophan, cysteine, and methionine. Experiments using natural gelatin as a protein—lacking those antithyroid amino acids—showed they could tolerate a fairly higher dose of protein.
>
> **Georgi Dinkov:** Is there a ratio of gelatin to the rest of the protein that you think is beneficial?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Probably. I think that changes with age and activity level. A young person who is growing at a very high metabolic rate needs more of the methionine, cysteine, tryptophan type protein.
>
> **Georgi Dinkov:** Is there any role physiologically needed for tryptophan aside from producing niacin?
>
> **Ray Peat:** A little bit for tissue replacement—making hair, skin, and gut cells that have to be shed. When you reduce any of those three amino acids to a minimum, life expectancy in animal experiments goes up tremendously.

### Source 6 — Email Exchanges — Protein

Ray Peat · Email · 2015

> # Protein
>
> For intense exercise, it's about a gram per pound of body weight.
>
> I've always been very sedentary, but I have usually had close to 150 grams daily. The traditional meat eaters didn't waste anything,ate all the skin, ears, tails, snouts, feet,tendons, lungs, intestines, marrow, blood,brains, gonads and other glands, picked the ligaments off the bones, so they had a much better balance of amino acids. (Small town restaurants in Mexico, China, etc., still serve those.) Muscle meats are essentially a refined food.
>
> That's more than enough, and with low thyroid function the excess of tryptophan, methionine, and cystein can lower your thyroid even more. Until your metabolic rate is higher, 80 to 100 grams would be better. Replacing it with sugar, or very well cooked starch, would support thyroid function.
>
> It's better to take your protein during the day, sugar and fat in the evening. The powdered protein lacks most of the nutrients, so you probably need some fruit, eggs, and liver, for the other nutrients, including potassium and magnesium.
>
> Food proteins stimulate insulin secretion, and to prevent hypoglycemia cortisol is increased. The food proteins (along with tissue proteins) can be used for energy under the influence of cortisol. Meats, other than beef, lamb, venison, and bison, usually contain enough polyunsaturated fat to affect estrogen, testosterone, and energy production. Stress, or increased cortisol, increases the circulating cysteine and tryptophan from muscle (meats), and these together with cortisol tend to increase aromatase. The high ratio of phosphate to calcium in meat activates a variety of stress processes; a high intake of calcium supports energy metabolism. Sugars tend to lower circulating free fatty acids, amino acids, and cortisol, while activating the thyroid hormone.
>
> I think it just takes a few hours, or a day, to normalize the tryptophan. Vitamin B6 helps to guide the metabolism of tryptophan away from excessive serotonin.

### Source 7 — Specialized Nutrition for Male Pattern Baldness

Danny Roddy · Video Transcript · Sep 29, 2016 · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWFVt9qICoc

> The amount of albumin, which is a protein that the liver secretes, is correlated with the protein intake. So I wanted to read this one from 1976. They said the serum albumin showed significant correlation with the protein content of the growing hair root bulbs. There was significant correlation between the percentage of growing hairs, their bulb diameters and protein content, which in turn correlated with protein intake of the subject. Um, obviously milk and cheese are great sources of protein and they also come pre-packaged with IGF one or insulin like growth factor one. I'm trying to write an article about that, but it seems to be, uh, some evidence to suggest is deficient in pattern baldness. And it has like an inverse relationship with this inflammatory cytokine called, uh, I forget the full name, but it's TGF, uh, dash B one. And this appears to be a promoter of fibrosis, or I think one study called it like the main switch of fibrosis in androgenic alopecia, so-called. And so I know they say this growth is part of cancer, but I am extremely skeptical. Given the respiratory ideas of cancer and blaming IGF-1 doesn't really make that much sense to me. So for what it's worth. So I did have an article on this, the centrality of the liver and explains a little bit about IGF-1. But obviously milk and cheese are good protein sources. They have calcium, IGF-1, other substances. Glycine found in gelatinous cuts of meat like lamb shank and oxtail are good. Chicharron, if you can find them. Mushrooms are a good source of like a fungal protein and they have lots of anti-estrogenic qualities and are nutritious. And I think they're apigenin. They have a anti-inflammatory substance in them too. And then like supplemental proteins like eggs, ruminant liver and oysters.

### Source 8 — #98: Ray Peat Inspired Nutrition in 2023? | Dietary Satisfaction | Appetite, Sugar, and Weight Gain with Emma Sgourakis

Danny Roddy · Interview · Feb 25, 2023 · https://open.spotify.com/episode/3IqEVnAXgRR4fXonTu0F46

> **Emma Sgourakis:** No, but I think it's all relevant. Exactly like you said, if someone's sick, well, where on the scale do you decide where someone's sick or not? And there's a lot of people walking around and surviving, but they're not thriving. And perhaps you'd almost put them in the sick category. So maybe them going, you know, overdoing protein, particularly the muscle meat is a really bad idea. But even shifting the idea of what protein is because I think a lot of people straightaway assume protein and, of course, they go for, you know, predominantly muscle meat, eggs, then maybe dairy and cheese, but they forget, you know, the gelatinous components and the shellfish and things like that. And maybe if they had just as much protein per se but of those different proteins. maybe they'd get away with that much protein and they'd feel better for it. So I think it depends on what kind of protein you're talking about too. Absolutely. A hundred percent.
>
> **Danny Roddy:** Yeah. I feel like that last thing you said, again, I think we've talked about this and I think we're both pretty easy going towards nutrition. You know, it's like, it serves a purpose to do what you want in life. It's not the point of your life is to not obsess about nutrition.

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