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Protein absorption



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Kindle posted a response to a topic on Protein that surprised me, about how much Protein we can absorb. That was absolutely the first time I had heard of a limit. I did some googling, and was very surprised. Several sites talked about absorption rates of 8 to 10 grams per hour for whey protein, with a time frame of about an hour and a half before the excess is converted to sugar. Even dense protein, the max I found was 30 grams per meal that could be absorbed. Has anyone looked into this topic mite, that can send me some really good links?

If we can only absorb 15 grams of protein per shake, why are we drinking shakes with 25 - 30 grams at a time? Should we be splitting these shakes to maximize absorption? Why was this never mentioned in my prep classes?

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The info I got from my NUT was the body absorbs 30 gms per hour.

However, when I went looking for links after reading your post it appears it's not as simple as that. I googled "how much Protein can the body absorbs at once". I got links for a lot of articles geared towards body building and most of them were trying to sell a product. I scanned a few. One of the things I noticed was that it takes the body longer to break down and absorb Protein in a non liquid state. This makes sense since many surgeons want their patients getting their protein from food as soon as possible.

I think a shake with 25 - 30 gms or even meals that clock in around that much are okay. even if we aren't taking an hour to drink it, if we leave that 30 min eating/drinking room it may be okay. I think it's just one of those things too technical to go into in a nutritional class.

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      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
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      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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      1. summerseeker

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