10/03/2022
This post comes from the following question:
“Can you write about protein and the current emphasis on its consumption for health and weight loss?”
Thank you for your question! It is definitely a hot topic and has important effects on people’s health. I am not sure the origin of how protein came to have such an elevated status as part of health. I first remember hearing this when I was young about certain things they would give people to eat on TV shows, like a bug, snake or cow testicle, and although it grossed people out, they seemed to always add, “But it is high in protein!” It was kind of a joke, I suppose, but it seemed to have been the beginning of putting protein on the current pedestal it now enjoys. We do need protein to make our own proteins, which make up so much of what we actually are. But how much do we need? That depends on how much we are losing from our urine and our G.I. tract, and how much we are growing (children, weight lifters, athletes, and those healing from major illness).
When the previous dietary protein recommendations were made, they did measure protein loss from the body (urine and stool), and they found that we would need about 5% of our diet from protein to replace what was lost. They doubled it in the recommendation to 10% just to make sure they were not overlooking something and giving a dangerously low recommendation to the country (not very scientific, but I understand the desire to be in the safe zone). Later they came up with a recommendation of 10-35% protein. I have never heard of the scientific basis for this recommendation, and I don’t particularly like the “Well they’re the experts!” rationale. I don’t care who the experts are (FDA, CDC, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, etc.), I prefer to see the proof, and I don’t believe they have any for this current recommendation. There is definite proof that diets high in protein from animal sources are linked to increased rates of cancer, kidney disease, increased calcium excretion, and more inflammation.
These days there are diet recommendations for every one of the 3 MACROnutrients (protein, fat, and carbohydrates [a.k.a. “carbs”]). We need all three of the macronutrients, but we do not need to focus much on managing the percentages in our diet. Rather our focus should be on eating the most nutritious foods—i.e. the ones with the most MICROnutrients (vitamins & minerals) and PHYTOnutrients (things that are in foods by the thousands and important for us, but are not in the vitamins category). The percentages of these three macronutrients will work themselves out if we focus on eating highly nutritious foods. To be transparent, foods with the most vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients are plants (vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruit, grains, mushrooms). Eating a mostly plant or all plant diet does result in a high carb diet. ***However, it is not the “high carb” part of the diet that makes it healthy (more specifically anti-cancerous, anti-diabetic, anti-atherogenic [plaque in the arteries], anti-hypertensive, and good for the immune system), what makes it healthy--and this is the TAKE-HOME MESSAGE--is the vast amount of micronutrients and phytonutrients. And what makes a high animal protein diet unhealthy is the miniscule amount of micronutrients and phytonutrients.***
Many people have strong opinions about their diet. People will point out that our body does not make all of the amino acids (the building blocks of protein) that we require. We need all 20 of the amino acids to make the proteins we need. Our body makes 11 of those. The remaining 9 are called “essential” because our body cannot manufacture them. Several of the others are “conditionally essential” because our body can make them, but may not make enough of them, and so some need to be eaten and absorbed. There is no doubt that the singular foods that contain the highest amount of “essential” amino acids and in the same proportions that our body needs are meat and other animal products. However, a diet composed of only plants will provide all of the essential and conditionally essential amino acids we all need need. So, although a bean may not provide every essential amino acid you need, beans + broccoli + corn + rice + lettuce + peach + banana certainly will, as will almost every other combination of plants. There is no one right combo of plants to get all the essential amino acids—there are hundreds of correct combinations. In fact, it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to make a diet of plants that does not give you the right combination of amino acids. Only 3% of people in the United States are deficient in protein and it is not because they eat a plant-based diet. May I please refer you to the bull, the horse, and the rhinoceros. All of these animals have an abundance of muscle made of protein and eat only plants! Their amino acid needs which are most similar to our own, come only from plants! Also, the gorilla, who also is a very muscular animal, eats a diet of about 85-95% carbohydrates, and is even more similar to us than the previous animals.
To those who are open to a paradigm shift, I will also say that eating a plant-based diet is delicious. Forget thinking that you are giving up tasty food. That is just false. Also, bear in mind that vegetarians live about 10 years longer than others eating a standard diet.
And to answer the last part of your question about the recommendation of protein for weight loss, this probably comes from the keto diet. Low-carb high-protein diets, can put people into ketosis. Ketosis is the result of the breakdown of fat for energy when there are not enough carbs available for energy. The thought is that by limiting carbs, a person will be in a constant fat-burning state. Unfortunately, they don’t just lose fat, they also lose muscle. Although everyone wants to believe that eating meat puts muscle on, the truth is that eating such a low carb diet results in MUSCLES being broken down to be made into glucose (gluconeogenesis) because although the brain can use ketones for fuel, it prefers glucose (carbs). So unfortunately, although keto diets result in WEIGHT loss that we see on the scale, it is actually a combination of fat and lean-protein muscle mass loss, not just pure fat loss. Nobody wants to lose muscle mass. The fact is that low fat diets result in more fat loss than low carb diets.
Thank you again for the great question! I hope this answered it!
