The Protein Myth

It is important at this point to mention that I am not Vegan, or Vegetarian but we will come back to that.

We all understand that protein is important.  The human body makes over 200,000 proteins from 11 non essential (meaning the body can make them) and 9 essential (meaning the body must get them from the diet) amino acids (AA’s). It is important to understand that the body does not absorb protein. The protein you ingest is broken down by digestion into its individual AA’s, then the AA’s are absorbed. Once the AA’s have been absorbed the body goes about reconstructing those AA’s into whatever type of protein is needed by the body at that time.

Protein Sources
The truth is this protein only comes from plants. What? Yes! As we mentioned previously there are 11 non essential & 9 essential AA’s. So where do the 9 essential AA’s come from? Well you might say eating a steak for example. Yes they are in the steak, and chicken and fish etc, but animals have the same limitation of also needing essential AA’s to be able to construct their protein. So where did the animals get the essential AA’s? Well the lion ate the gazelle, and the gazelle ate……………… plants! Or we ate the cow, and the cow ate the plants. If all the herbivores died so would the carnivores. Why is this important? Because we are stuck on the idea that protein has to come from animal sources, or that the sources of plant protein are inferior or unable to be digested and used.

It is true that some plant proteins are relatively low in certain essential amino acids. This has lead to “The Protein Combining Myth” where we where lead to believe that we needed to combine vegetable sources of protein to make sure we get all of the amino acids we need. As Dr Michael Greger outlines in his video “The Protein Combining Myth”this simple is not true. Why? Because it turn out that the body is not stupid.

“Our body maintains pools of free amino acids that can be used to do all of the complementing for us, not to mention our body’s massive protein recycling program. Some 90 grams of protein are dumped into the digestive tract every day from our own body to get broken back down and reassembled, so our body can mix and match amino acids to whatever proportions we need, regardless of what we eat, making it practically impossible to even design a diet of whole plant foods that’s sufficient in calories but deficient in protein. Thus, plant-based “consumers do not need to be at all concerned about amino acid imbalances…from the plant-food proteins that make up our usual diets.” – Say’s Greger

So how much protein do we really need?

The Institute of Medicine recommends that all adults should consume 0.83 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. This amounts to 56 grams per day for the average male and 46 grams per day for the average female. Wait a minute! Only 56 grams per day for the average male and 46 grams per day for the average female? I eat more than that for breakfast! The science is clear and has been clear for a while, you don’t need anywhere near the amount of protein the protein industry says you need. Regardless of what you are told or sold your body will use what it needs and then has to boot the rest out, the process of which leaves you with some expensive pee and an acidic inflamed body to deal with.

Muscle growth – ’cause your not average and work out a lot more than everyone else and want to be huge!

If you feel as though you want or ‘need’ way more protein than mentioned above let’s talk about it. Most of us are not body builders and though you may want to put on some size it’s not the best idea from a health perspective to just follow along with what the big guys and gals are doing from a protein intake perspective. Some body builders eat 200-300 grams per day and create whole youtube channels dedicated to showing you how they eat that amount of protein and how you can do it too. This gives rise to protein myth “If you want to put on muscle you have to eat large amounts of protein”.

On the surface this seems to make sense. To grow muscle we need to lift weights, which tears and damages the muscle, and excluding water muscles are composed of about 80% protein, so to build muscle I have to supply it with enough protein to fix the damage from working out as well as enough protein to build new muscle. Let’s Eat!

But how much protein do YOU as an individual, given you weight and body fat percentage, really need?

What does the science say? How much protein do we need per kg to maintain our current muscle or to build muscle? Let’s get nerdy and look at some studies.

All of these studies controlled for energy intake, either based on individual requirements or by setting energy intake to be equal in all experimental conditions, so that only the proportion of protein in the diet varied between groups. If the studies were based on unreliable methods such as nitrogen balance, a marker of lean body mass changes, I only included them if they controlled for sweating and dietary adaptation periods.

• Tarnopolsky et al. (1992) observed no differences in whole body protein synthesis or indexes of lean body mass in strength athletes consuming either 1.4g/kg or 2.4g/kg over a 2 week period. Protein oxidation did increase in the high protein group, indicating a nutrient overload.
• Walberg et al. (1988) found that 1.6g/kg was sufficient to maintain positive nitrogen balance in cutting weightlifters over a 7 day time period.
• Tarnopolsky et al. (1988) found that only 0.81g/kg was required to maintain positive nitrogen balance in elite bodybuilders (over 5 years of experience, possible previous use of androgens) over a 10 day period. 0.99g/kg was sufficient to maintain lean body mass in bodybuilders over a 2 week period. The authors suggested that 1.2g/kg was sufficient for bodybuilders.
• Lemon et al. (1992) found no differences in muscle mass or strength gains in novice bodybuilders consuming either 1.3g/kg or 2.6g/kg over a 4 week period. Based on nitrogen balance data, the authors recommended 1.6g/kg.
• Hoffman et al. (2006) found no differences in body composition, strength or resting hormonal concentrations in strength athletes consuming either 1.69g/kg or > 2g/kg over a 3 month period.

Over 20 other studies have consistently failed to find any benefits of more than 1.4g/kg/d of protein.

I personally believe that 1.4g/kg/p is still too high and not needed, Why? I’m keeping in mind these studies are trying to find the absolute limit of protein synthesis in athletes and body builders that are trying to take their bodies to the edge everyday. Most of us don’t live at the limit. Most of us are normal people trying to lose a bit of weight and gain a bit of muscle. My personal opinion? Stick to 0.83g per kg of LEAN body weight to maintain, and maybe go up to 1.1-1.2g per kg of LEAN body weight if you are interested in building muscle. Continue to monitor your LEAN muscle levels and adjust protein intake accordingly.

Notice above I mentioned LEAN body weight. The fat on your body does not need protein. If you are a male that weighs 85kg and are 20% body fat, (20% of 85kg = 68kg of lean body weight) then your calculation would be 68kg x 0.83g = 56g of protein. Hence we come full circle as to why the average male only needs 56g of protein per day.

“But don’t you just pee out all of the protein your body doesn’t use? So what’s the big deal if I eat 3-4 times the amount I need?”. Read on and I’ll explain why eating too much protein is not a good idea.

 

Protein Excess

Remember the war on fat 30 years ago? Where we declared that fat was bad, and we decided that everything needed to be low fat or fat free “hey look at this bag of sugar it’s 100% fat free!” or “Haven’t you heard? carbs are bad, your gunna get fat if you eat carbs, quick change to a keto diet where we don’t eat those nasty carbohydrates, we eat high fat around here!”

We aren’t here to talk about diets, that will be for another time however when was the last time you read an article (apart from this one perhaps) where you were told “Wait a minute eating too much protein can be bad for you”. Protein seems to have escaped ridicule and has be held on high as the darling macro nutrient receiving nothing but praise and adulation. But you can have too much of a good thing.

Our cells don’t use protein in for energy, it has to be broken down into glucose. If you consume too much protein it can be converted into glucose by a process called gluconeogenesis. The conversion of protein to glucose occurs as a result of the hormone, glucagon, which prevents low blood sugar and so isn’t a bad thing unless you are OVER-consuming protein.

The break down of proteins into glucose creates urea. All cells in the body create urea, however proper maintenance of urea levels is critical to overall health, as an excess of urea causes the body to become acidic which creates a lot of inflammation as well as serious illness.

Therefore,  when we consume more protein than the body needs the process by which the excess protein is broken down into glucose creates excess urea leading to excess acid load in the body, causing lots of inflammation.

Protein Fermentation

Not all excess protein is able to be broken down and absorbed by the gut, some protein may stay in the colon where it begins to ferment. Imagine an acid bath, this is what the colon is now dealing with.

Fermenting protein stimulates the growth of many pathogenic species of bacteria in our gut. These additional characters produced by fermenting protein are thought to damage the lining of the gut, which can contribute to leaky gut, a disease state where the barrier of the colon becomes permeable allowing undigested food and other particles into the bloodstream that don’t belong there. Leaky Gut plays a part in autoimmune conditions.

So what foods are the ones to stay away from? Mainly foods containing animal proteins. High cheese, meat, diary, eggs consumption creates highly acidic conditions in the distal colon. Very little protein makes it to the large intestine if you are not eating excessive amounts.

Foods containing animal proteins also tend to take longer to go through the digestive system than plant proteins. A study was conducted with university students where they were given an 800cal pizza heavy with meat, cheese animal protein, they tested the time it took for that food to pass through the entire digestive system, the transit time was 19hr. They then repeated the test with the same students the next week with same calorie meal however the animal protein was replaced with plant protein. Transit time was reduced to 90min.

As I mentioned Im not vegan, or vegetarian. I predominantly eat a whole food plant based diet with minimally processed foods. In truth I’d say our diet would could be broken up into 90% vegan, 6% vegetarian and 4% KFC/Domino’s Pizza. Hey I’m not perfect! And neither should you be. I’m passionate about providing information so we can all live the life we want to live and make informed decisions about health and what goes into our bodies, don’t try and be perfect.

Finally

My final points on protein.

• Eat around 0.83 grams for males and 0.69 grams for females per kg of lean body weight per day.
• Lessen animal protein intake dramatically. I’m not saying don’t eat meat! I’m saying eat less meat and more plant based protein sources.
• Don’t be concerned with getting enough protein and amino acids from plants, as long as you eat a varied diet you will get all the protein you need.
• Protein tends to keep you fuller longer, so if you feel hungry after cutting down your animal protein just eat more of whats good for you. You won’t get fat eating good food