Quality Protein
Quality matters! Ever heard of the thermogenic effect of food? It's the result of your body expending energy, i.e. burning calories, to digest food. At the bottom of the hierarchy is processed foods that require very little energy to digest and at the top of the hierarchy is lean protein, requiring up to 30% of the calories consumed for digestion. What does that mean to you? Eat a 3 ounce chicken breast that is approximately 150 calories and your body will burn 45 calories just digesting it so your net calorie consumption is only 105 calories. Eating the equivalent in calories of Cheetos would result in a net calorie consumption of approximately 145 due to the food being so processed and requiring very little energy for the digestion process because there's little nutrition to actually extract. So the actual definition of lean protein according to the USDA is lean meat having less than 10 grams of total fat, 4.5 grams or less of saturated fat, and fewer than 95 milligrams...