Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "
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02.12.2008 |
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Chewing better increases amino acid uptake from meat
Fast & slow proteins
Slow proteins are more suited to bridging the long gaps between meals. Slow proteins are also more efficient than fast ones.
Elderly people do not deal as efficiently with protein as young people do. It's as though their protein metabolism is getting rusty. But their protein metabolism does get going again if they take in a large amount of proteins in a short time. This is called protein pulse feeding. Fast proteins are better suited to this than slow ones.
Study
Results
Meat, the researchers conclude, is a relatively fast protein if you chew it well. And if you can no longer do so, meat is a slow protein.
When the researchers measured the amount of amino acids that the old people absorbed from the meat they discovered something else. The people with dentures absorbed less amino acids from the meat. As a result, the concentration of urea [that's the proteins that the body has processed and no longer has a use for – Ed.] in the blood of the old people with their own teeth rose more than that of the people with dentures. That is why the elderly with their own teeth produced more CO2 after eating.
The graph below shows the results that the researchers obtained when they looked at how much leucine the test subjects absorbed after consuming meat. Leucine is an anabolic signal for muscles, the researchers think.
Conclusion
The French also believe that the chewing ability is one of the factors determining how the muscles profit from the proteins in meat. Muscle weakness in the elderly - sarcopenia - is perhaps also partly the result of the deterioration of the teeth.
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