A Beef with McDonald's

China is a huge, unregulated market for McDonald's. Can you imagine the profit potential? ‘Inject protein and vitamins into your body?’ Maybe they will soon be offering to “supersize it” with a HGH shot?

Actually, virility enhancer isn't so far off the mark for the burgers. You should note that with increased protein intake, there is a corresponding increase in free-floating testosterone levels. This has been pretty well established. However, the University of Pennsylvania also found, much to their surprise, that the same thing goes for fat. Monounsaturated seems to yield the greatest increase in testosterone, and I believe saturated fat isn't too far behind. In addition to all of this, beef contains certain micronutrients (B-vitamins, iron, zinc, etc) that may help with hormone production and general energy levels.

In my own experience, I overtrain much more quickly if I've been eating chicken as my main protein source instead of beef. Now, if I have to eat chicken, I make sure to take liver tablets alongside it.

This is all assuming of course that the (heavy) processing McDonald's uses doesn't destroy all of the great things in beef. I don't know the methods they use, so I can make no claims about that.

While I agree the marketing wording is a bit strange (wondering if something was lost in translation?) - beef does have quality protein and vitamins in it that are essential.

And I thought McDonald's was for famlies.

Quarter pounders aren't generally on my list of "good quality proteins".

I somehow doubt that eating the Quarter Pounder from “McD” will “inject” the same amount of nutrients that are found in a quality (read grass-fed) steak. Given that the beef they use is not that nutritious to begin with, after all the processing, you are left with “empty” protein and a load of unhealthy fats.

By the way, increased protein and saturated fat intake does not automatically lead to a corresponding increase in testosterone. You cannot increase testosterone over your “normal” levels with food.

According to info I've read, Chinese citizens are already starting to suffer from McObesity, McFlatulence, McImpotence, McHeart Attack, McCancer and a host of other nasties as a result of their shift to a more western-style diet.

McDonalds represents the worst, not the best, that the west has to offer. I think it's a shame that people are suckers for such slick advertising. I also feel that it's a shame that the Chinese government are quite happy to let this sort of rubbish into their country and culture, yet are still preventing the best of western democracies and freedoms (including various political literatures and ideologies) into their country.

Still, when it comes to turning a buck, since when did quality and the welfare of one's citizens have anything to do with it? You only have to look at the lack of regulation in the US, Australia and elsewhere to see that, where the majority of junk food commercials are still prime time ads tailored and marketed to kids and teens.

Sad, sad, sad.

iFitandHealthy: Depends how you define "normal" levels. Certainly, the dietary alteration I suggested works better when combined with weight training. Basically, with most issues, it comes down to not sabotaging your testosterone levels. Many things like not getting enough sleep or overtraining will sabotage it.

Interestingly enough, there is a mass-gaining program based around protein deprivation. To sum it up, you go through a period where you are eating 30 grams or less of protein a day, all the while increasing the workload on your muscles. This causes your body to panic, so it will produce more hormones in order to preserve the muscle it has, somewhat similar to the "starvation response" you see in dieting. Once you've reached a fully panicked state, you reduce training volume and eat very high amounts of protein. Your body, now greedy for protein, will use this opportunity to build muscle.

I haven't used this program yet since I need to lean down first, but it certainly looks promising and some of my old training partners have reported great results with it.

“Depends how you define "normal" levels.”

“Normal” is defined as your baseline testosterone level. In addition, just like for other blood levels of hormones, etc, there are established medical standards for “normal” testosterone levels for a given age.

If you test below “normal”, which is often the case for men over 30, one can get a legal testosterone prescription from a doctor.

If you artificially suppress your testosterone, you can bring it up to a baseline with a diet and exercise, but you are not going to push it over no matter how much protein or fat you eat.

The only way to push your “T” levels past your baseline is to shut down your body’s natural production of it with “T” injections or some other steroids.

Hamalainen E, H Adlercreutz, P Puska, et al. Diet and serum sex hormones in healthy men. Journal of Steroid Biochemistry. 20(1): 459-464, 1984 Jan.

Volek JS, WJ Kraemer, JA Bush, et al. Testosterone and cortisol in relationship to dietary nutrients and resistance exercise. Journal of Applied Physiology. 82(1): 49-54, 1997 Jan.

By the way, when they say "Steroid Biochemistry" note that "steroid" is actually a categorization of lipids, not AAS.

Uh, I'm pretty sure the amounts of cattle hormones, antibiotics, acrylamide residues (on the fries), nitrate levels, and the fake cheese they use on a quarter pounder burger/fries meal pretty much negates just about any healthy qualities it may have had.

"By the way, when they say "Steroid Biochemistry" note that "steroid" is actually a categorization of lipids, not AAS."

Right, so?

Spectra: Oh yes, indeed. I was just referring to the Chinese belief that beef has male-enhancing effects, which is really what's driving McDonald's forward over there. However, this is assuming good beef. What I'm claiming is that indeed research seems to back this up. To be clear though, McDonald's beef is not good beef.

"Right, so?"

I just wasn't sure if you'd know the difference.

I know the difference, but I’m not sure I understand why you posted those references.

They demonstrate that diet, specifically fat intake, can have an impact on testosterone levels in men. The research could of course be wrong or biased, but I just wanted to demonstrate that I wasn't just making this up.

Of course it does, but increased protein intake does not necessarily lead to corresponding increase in testosterone, as you originally stated.

The University of Pennsylvania study I mentioned above found an increase of testosterone both with increases in protein or increases in fats. There's someone I can email to get the exact name and authors of the study, if you like.

Ryan, forget about the study for a second and think. Who would want/need to use AAS if you could just eat more protein and have a meaningful increase in testosterone levels?

You originally said: “You should note that with increased protein intake, there is a corresponding increase in free-floating testosterone levels.”

This sounds as if, under any condition, if you eat more protein, your “T” levels will automatically rise. As I already explained, your “T” levels, if they are below your baseline, could be restored to “normal” (whatever is normal for you), but that is about it.

iFitandHealthy: Where did I say the increase was large, especially compared to AAS? There is no natural remedy that will get nearly the same hormonal advantage as AAS. Plus, like most systems in the body, there's a limit to how much you can do. When it comes to increasing hormonal levels with dietary fat, there doesn't seem to be any benefit to eating more than 30-40% of your calories from fat. I'm sure protein has a point of dimishing returns too.

If you want me to be explicit, which it seems you often require me to, what I'm really saying is if you're a person who lives pretty much on carbs, eating a reasonable amount of protein will give you better testosterone levels. Is that reasonable to you?

Ryan,

That is more than reasonable. It is accurate!