Supplements vs. whole foods

Ask your doctor. Ask your nutritionist. Ask the health authorities. They will all tell you the same thing:

You probably don't need supplements. Just eat whole foods. These are much better. And supplements - well, they're questionable in a way anyway. Didn't you hear about that wrestler who died from steroid creatine? Just drink your fat-free corn syrup and stop asking for supplements, okay? Now go on. Now, with all due respect to my doctor (who spent an entire hour learning about supplements in college 25 years ago) and to my nutritionist (who is incongruously kind of bacon-y) and to my government (which still recommends that the overweight portion of the population eat lots of bread) we're not just going to move on, we're going to ask questions.
And who better to ask these questions than Dr. Lonnie Lowery, who is a renowned nutritionist, bodybuilder and academic who has been involved in supplement research since 1989.

I called him a few days ago and asked him a seemingly simple question: "Are whole foods always superior to supplements?"

Here's what he had to say:

Preface

"Let me state the obvious first," he began. "Whole foods should make up the bulk of your long-term diet. Athletes need to learn how to incorporate them into their lifestyle. We humans have evolved with unprocessed plant and animal foods for hundreds of thousands of years, and our biochemistry is designed to consume these foods."

"But terms like 'natural' have been misused to the point where health authorities have issued warnings about over-interpretation of these terms. Let's defend supplements for simplicity's sake, because so few authorities do." And so we began.

Protein shakes vs. regular meals

You may not believe it, but there are some crazy people out there doing protein shake diets. No, really. And while you'd expect learned academics to scoff at this, Dr. Lowery said times are changing. "I've seen three studies that support the idea that meal replacement shakes are effective for fat loss and may be better than traditional diets," he noted. One idea is to start a healthy diet with a protein shake diet, get rapid results and then move on to a healthy eating plan with solid foods. "Protein keeps your metabolic rate high and helps protect muscle tissue," Lowery said. "The medical community has been using diets consisting primarily of protein shakes in clinical settings for years: protein-sparing modified fasting (PSMF). I think it's kind of odd that certain health organizations are trying to demonize protein drinks and at the same time use them to treat morbidly obese people. Lowery also noted that much of the effectiveness of protein shakes has to do with the ease of adherence to these diet plans. Drink several protein shakes a day and you'll be less hungry than the typical dieter. Shakes are also easy to take with you, they taste good if they're from the right manufacturer, and there's less room for error while dieting (your meals are convenient, you can take them anywhere, you don't have to count calories, you don't have to read labels, and you don't have to make choices). Lowery also emphasized that protein shakes are often superior to whole foods when it comes to achieving a calorie surplus. "That's what it takes to build muscle - a surplus of calories, about 2800 kcal, to build a pound of muscle," Lowery said. "With shakes, this is very easy because you can just add what you want. I've even made chocolate shakes with graham crackers!" Studies often confirm what we bodybuilders have known for years: drinking extra calories is easier than chewing them. The problem with solid food meals is that after one or two of these meals, the strength athlete looking to build muscle often compensates for the extra food intake later in the day by eating less. They are simply full. Liquids, on the other hand, pass through the stomach much more quickly.

"The summary at this point is that protein shakes work for both dieting phases and mass-building phases, and they often work better than solid foods from a diet plan adherence perspective," Lowery said. "I'm not saying you should live on liquids forever, but these shakes can be used to start a fat loss plan or to increase caloric intake on a mass-building plan." For a long-term bodybuilding plan, refer to the advice of Lowery's old mentor, Dr. Peter Lemon, who recommended that his subjects consume no more than 50% of their calories in the form of liquid supplements.

Bodybuilding supplements are bad! Supplements for old people are good!

Speaking of meal replacement shakes, have you ever noticed that many medical professionals demonize protein shakes and then in the next breath recommend drinks like Ensure or Carnation Instant Breakfast?

Ready-made shakes like these promise a "complete and balanced diet" and the Ensure website advises "It's your health, take care of it!" Let's look at the list of ingredients... The primary ingredients come from corn syrup, sugar, maltodextrin and soy protein.

What the heck is going on here? Dr. Lowery enlightens us:

"When doctors in hospitals gave their patients the usual 'clinical' supplement drinks, they were pumping sick people full of sugar and/or vegetable oil. Why? I asked them. They said it's because these drinks taste good and sick people don't eat enough anyway. My answer was 'Then why don't we make good food that tastes better?" Vegetable oil (such as safflower oil, palm oil or soybean oil) mixed with sugar is one of the most fattening and pro-inflammatory mixtures you can consume, according to Dr. Lowery. I would bet that these people would be better off with products from the sports supplement industry, which are demonized by the same clinical doctors. "They would probably love sports nutrition drinks if you changed the label and didn't tell them it was a bodybuilding supplement," Lowery added.

The problem with perishability

Protein foods spoil quickly, which is not the case with protein powder. Simply put, bacteria multiply much slower in dry foods than in wet foods.

"The best thing you can do is pour protein powder dry and without water into a shaker bottle and then take it with you. Then you can add water later," Lowery said. Dr. Lowery works a lot with college athletes, most of whom skip meals. "It's terrible," he said, "I'm constantly faced with the challenge of getting them to eat protein foods when they're out all day. Protein foods go bad quickly unless you're eating tuna straight out of the can between courses. In this situation, protein powders are very suitable. Some people take their protein powder with them in dry form in a shaker bottle and mix it with water when they need it. This way they don't waste all their efforts in the gym by skipping meals."

Unfortunately, Dr. L and NCAA programs generally can't directly administer drinks that contain more than 30% protein. Yes, you heard that right. Despite all the controversy, this rule still stands. Sadly, it's a rule that can banish a commonly needed tool from athletes' nutritional arsenal. Even supplements that contain fat can beat whole foods when it comes to perishability. Long-chain unsaturated fats like fish oil or flaxseed oil go rancid quickly at room temperature, but this doesn't happen as quickly when these oils are put into capsules because oxygen can't get to the good stuff. "A lot of people in the health industry seem to think that once you put a nutrient in capsules it becomes something bad. But you don't change a nutrient just because you put it in capsules," Dr. Lowery said. Perishability may not seem like a big issue, but at a time when most people are away from home, have shorter breakfast breaks, longer commutes to work and are generally busier than ever, it's crucial to have 'portable' foods that won't go bad, which is especially true if you're a bodybuilder or athlete who's on the go.

Nutrient content: pill vs. fork

"You can pack enormous amounts of EPA/DHA into fish oil gel capsules - more than you'll probably ever get from eating fish," Dr. Lowery said. And if you were to eat that much fish, you should remember that we live in a polluted world. Whether it's farmed fish or wild-caught fish, it's often contaminated with heavy metals or organic pesticides. I would rather use a highly concentrated, pure fish oil supplement that I trust." Lowery noted that he has nothing against eating salmon, cod and other fish, but a bodybuilder simply can't get enough of the good stuff if he only eats fish and doesn't take a fish oil supplement. And even if he could, there's still the contamination problem mentioned above to worry about if the daily fish intake is high.

"And it's not just fish oil," Lowery said, "but also things like CLA. You can easily take a couple grams of CLA a day in supplement form, but you'd have to consume gigantic, unrealistic amounts of dairy, beef and turkey to consume those amounts."

Creatine falls into the same category. It would take about 10 pounds of raw steak to get the amount of creatine you need for a creatine loading phase. Certainly creatine supplements are superior to whole foods in this regard (and only cost about 10 cents per serving). Vitamin D? The same applies here. You simply can't drink enough vitamin D-fortified milk to get your vitamin D blood levels into a healthy range. Most of us supplement. "This is especially true for those of us who live in areas where sunshine is simply not an option right now," added the pale white Lowery. Now, if there are any doctors, nutritionists or health department workers out there telling us we should be drinking 45 liters of milk a day instead of taking a four-cent vitamin D pill, I'm at a loss too.

But supplements are processed! And processed is always bad, right?

Not necessarily. Fish oil supplements, for example, are processed to remove all the bad stuff like mercury. Dairy protein supplements are processed to remove all the lactose and other stuff we don't want, while keeping all the good stuff we do want.

"The term 'processed' as it applies to supplements does not mean that important ingredients are removed, as is often the case when we talk about processed foods (where insane amounts of sodium are added, for example). The intent of processing in this case is to make something better," Lowery said. Still, Dr. Lowery often hears criticism regarding nutritional supplements. "The only time this makes sense is when we're talking about an incomplete protein or amino acid supplement, but no halfway sane protein consumer would subsist on just an incomplete protein source or amino acid tablets." "Don't get me wrong," Lowery added, "some protein supplements are full of junk. For example, I've seen a protein powder that contained 10,000 mg of peptide-bound amino acids. But that's only 10 grams of protein. That's the equivalent of a cup of milk! You don't measure protein in milligrams."

And protein bars? Don't even get me started. "Athletes need to be aware that the 25 grams of protein on the label could be mostly worthless. Some companies add biologically worthless collagen and gelatin to their bars to improve the stats. Please people, take a closer look. Read the ingredients list of your protein bar and make sure it doesn't contain any of these worthless useless protein sources high up in the ingredients list," advises Lowery. In summary, legitimately processed supplements are not a problem. They're processed to remove the stuff we don't want. And processed carbohydrate foods? Not so good. With these foods, food manufacturers remove stuff we want, like fiber.

Nutrient timing

Supplements can have other advantages over whole foods: precise nutrient timing. While foods deliver the things we want slowly, supplements can deliver those ingredients in the precise amounts you want, when you want them.

Let's take one of Lowery's favorites: Caffeine. If you want a quick boost of exactly 200mg of caffeine, you can simply pop a caffeine tablet. Drinking coffee is fine, but "imprecise". You can't drink it on the go, it doesn't work as quickly and the exact caffeine content can vary. In addition to this, unless it's iced coffee, coffee doesn't sound particularly appealing on a hot summer day before squats. "People tend to drink coffee like they smoke. It's sipped throughout the day," Lowery says. "I'm not sure that low levels of caffeine throughout the day are going to do much. They're not going to do much, at least in terms of performance. To boost performance, you need a bigger boost of caffeine at a well-defined time. Most studies recommend six milligrams per kilogram of body weight (probably less if you're looking to stimulate fat burning). And remember that caffeine is not exactly the same as coffee." Even though he loves his coffee, Lowery concludes that it's probably healthier and more effective to dose caffeine as a supplement than to drink cup after cup of coffee throughout the day. In other words, you are using your substance of choice tactically.

Fiber without carbohydrates

What's the first thing you notice when you start a strict low-carb diet? You will realize that you would sell your soul for a Dorito. What's the second thing you'll notice? Yes, sometimes it is difficult to reduce carbohydrates and still get sufficient amounts of fiber. Supplements can be beneficial here too. "There are plenty of foods that can give you plenty of fiber while keeping your carbs low. Think high-fiber vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower," Lowery says. "I'd rather see people choose whole foods if they can stick to that path. Vegetables are definitely better than fiber supplements. But let's be realistic, some people just don't like vegetables or don't have the time or desire to prepare vegetables." This brings us back to the issue of adhering to a specific diet. Yes, it is possible to consume adequate amounts of fiber as part of a low-carb diet, but is it easy for a dieter who works all day at the office or has classes? In these cases, consuming a fiber supplement or adding fiber to something you're already drinking anyway may probably be more realistic than steaming a pound of broccoli at your desk on your coffee break. And remember that there are some low-carb diets that don't allow vegetables to begin with. In these cases, fiber supplements can come in handy. Whole foods are definitely better when it comes to fiber intake. The intake of all the cancer-fighting phytochemicals you get in conjunction with your fiber is simply unbeatable. But fiber supplements are a quick and convenient part of the overall picture if you're having trouble maintaining a perfect diet.

Phytochemicals: This is where whole foods win

Up to this point, we've highlighted often overlooked benefits of supplements. But there are cases where and nature is simply too far ahead in terms of time and experience and where whole foods win hands down. "Fruits and vegetables contain healthy phytochemicals that work together metabolically in unknown combinations," says Lowery. "Supplements don't always work in the same way that whole foods do in this addiction." Here's an example: the famous study on beta-carotene and smoking. Basically, they found that smokers who eat a lot of beta-carotene-rich fruits and vegetables don't get lung cancer as quickly. The smart guys in lab coats conducted a clinical trial in which they gave smokers only beta-carotene in supplement form. To the scientists' surprise, lung cancer rates increased in the subjects who consumed beta-carotene only in supplement form.

"This is a classic example of why we should trust Mother Nature and a whole foods approach," Lowery said.

Supplements vs. food: the bottom line

Despite the warnings against pills and powders by doctors and washed-up nutritionists, supplements can do a lot of things that whole foods can't. Good examples include creatine, fish oil, CLA, vitamin D and other things like resveratrol, which you simply can't get enough of in the form of whole foods to have a medicinal or performance-enhancing effect. Even protein powders are now considered by the scientific community as supplements with strategic benefits over whole foods.

Dietary compliance also plays a major role here. Even though eating tons of organic green vegetables and exotic berries every day has a lot of benefits, in reality we are more likely to follow a diet with a superfood supplement. This simply saves time and money. But in context, Mother Nature is a wise bride and she knows more about the magical interplay of phytochemicals and human physiology than we do. Is Dr. Lowery saying that you should replace whole foods with supplements? Of course not. But he does say that supplements can sometimes have clear benefits over whole foods. The science is catching up. This means that nutritionists and even the government will catch up in 15 to 20 years. Until then, eat your whole foods and take your pills and powders.

By Chris Shugart
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/supplements/supplements-vs-whole-foods