Are You Eating Too Much Protein?

Careful, you're probably eating too much protein...

Said from someone who clearly hates gains.

Got your attention right?

Unfortunately, this is a similar headline I came across from a Vox article that was making its rounds.

Here is the link to it for reference: Vox Article

🚩 
Red Flag #1: If it’s a health article from Vox, don’t take it serious

The same type of headline and an article that follows which makes so many people think protein is actually bad for them and ruining their health.

Here's my reply.

As always, I wanted to go into the article open minded and see what the author’s point was.

Let’s look at the main points this article made:

1. People (mainly Americans and Canadians) are eating too much protein according to the Federal Dietary Guidelines

2. Excessive Meat consumption is correlated with diseases such as increased risk of cancer and heart disease

3. The increase in meat consumption is hurting the environment due to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions

4. Plant-based foods are also high in protein therefore, you don't need to eat meat products.

5. There is a fiber gap that people need to address.

Another point being that unless you are serious about bodybuilding, then you don’t need to worry about protein…

Should decrease your meat consumption…

Or just become vegetarian or vegan.

Ah there it is – I was waiting for the agenda to unveil.

Essentially this article was an attempt to demonize meat consumption and push the “everyone should be vegan” movement.

First and foremost: I am not against vegans. Live your life, everyone should eat fruits and vegetables, just don’t proclaim that eating meat is killing everyone – it’s not.

Let’s break down this article's claims:

People (mainly Americans and Canadians) are eating too much protein according to the Federal Dietary Guidelines

Here’s the thing about the Federal Dietary Guidelines, the RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance) is the minimum amount needed for people to avoid disease and deficiency, not live a healthy life.

Essentially, you need to eat this minimum standard just so you don’t get sick and not possibly die because of malnutrition.

Rarely are they enough for someone to live an optimal and healthy life and are usually grossly under prescribed.

Example: The guideline this article gives (according to the RDA guidelines) is 0.36 grams of protein per pound of body weight every day. This means that for a 200 pound man, that will only be 72 grams of protein.

Did you hear that break?

That was my heart shattering.

One thing is for sure, if a 200 pound man is eating only 72 grams of protein (no matter the source), I guarantee you that he is not going to be living a healthy life.

So what is the optimal range the average person should hit?

0.5 - 0.7 grams per pound of bodyweight.

Yes twice the amount the RDA suggests.

To take it further, I usually just recommend 1g per pound of bodyweight.

Yes this is a high protein diet – no it won’t hurt your kidneys.

The main reason I recommend this is because, well for one, it’s much easier to calculate as it’s easy to just use your weight as your protein target instead of doing all that math.

Also, behavior-wise, I anticipate people to not hit this target right away. However, more than likely, they will still fall into that optimal range of 0.5 - 0.7g even if they fall short.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner. 

(Pun intended)

Excessive meat consumption is correlated with diseases such as increased risk of cancer and heart disease.

This is the claim that just won’t die.

There are a handful of studies that correlate red meat consumption with increased death rates, diseases like cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and so on and so forth.

Here’s the thing about these studies…

🚫 High red meat eaters in these studies tend to be less health-seeking individuals so we tend to overlook the behaviors of these people that contribute to the higher risk mortality rate like…

• They are sedentary and not regularly physically active

• They tend to smoke, drink, and have other unhealthy behaviors

• Eat a primarily highly processed food diet

Due to their behaviors is what caused them to get these diseases, and not the red meat consumption alone – yet, the correlation draws back to the red meat as the headline.

This is the same situation as back in the day when they thought coffee caused cancer because there was a correlation between coffee drinkers and increased cancer rates.  

(Yes I'm serious, this was a thing)

When they looked back at these studies later, they realized that the majority of the participants would smoke cigarettes with their morning cup of brew. 

Take away the cancer sticks, and who would've guessed that coffee did not cause cancer. 

Correlation does not equal causation. 

This was drilled in to my head when I was learning how to read research. 

🚫 Consumption of ultra processed meats, but not red meats, is associated with a high incidence of coronary heart disease and diabetes. 

Associated with the point above, most of the participants in these studies eat a high amount of ultra processed meats. These processed meats are usually also served with other ultra processed foods that have shown to lead to diseases such as the ones mentioned in the article when over consumed.

🚫 The methods involved in these studies are poorly constructed.

Most of these studies are food frequency questionnaires with a follow-up years later without anything in between. Simply they survey people (surveys are already a poor point of reference for research as they are highly subject to inaccuracies) and follow up seeing how their health is. No check-ins during, no types of controls, or determining if someone’s lifestyle had a play in the results.

This is why it’s important to look at the studies people reference and read more than just the title and abstract. A lot of times they are cherry picked to prove a point that may not be as sound as the conclusion they draw from it.

The increase in meat consumption is hurting the environment due to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

This is a complex one – I’m also not going to be hypocritical and leave it out just to strengthen my point. We are honest around these parts, ladies and gents.

Yes, beef is the highest greenhouse gas-producing animal product. It does contribute to the increasing greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere even seeing emissions being twice as much as plants in some cases.

However, it's important to note that heavily processed, high-sugar foods actually have the lowest greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint. But that doesn't mean we should be consuming more of these foods now should we? As, of course, they are not the healthiest of choices.

I do care about this planet, so of course I am not saying that this isn’t a problem. I’ll concur to that point that more red meat production does lead to high greenhouse admission.

But, as much as I care about this planet, I also care for the human race. If we were to convince everyone to stop eating meat without considering the potential drawbacks, we could potentially cause nutrient deficiencies and a rise in obesity rates. Removing all animal products from the American food system, for example, would have a small to insignificant change in greenhouse gas emissions, as we will still have farming, pollution, and other forms of carbon emission still present, but would as well lead to elevated rates of nutrient deficiencies and obesity.

Ultimately, what's best for the environment isn’t what's best for our health – blunt but it’s true. Healthy humans make better decisions, require less medicine, and lead more meaningful lives. An unhealthy population is damaging to the environment due to the ecological footprint involved in dealing with pharmaceuticals and medical care.

So yes, there is a tradeoff with greenhouse emissions when it comes to red meat production compared to plant based foods, but does having a sicker human population that may lead to worse decisions or decreased innovation really a better alternative?

Plant-based foods are also high in protein therefore, you don't need to eat meat products.

This one is always a funny one to me.

Yes there are plenty of plant-based food options that you can get protein from. There are plenty of ways to get the protein you need from plant based sources – hell there are vegan bodybuilders for crying out loud.

And yes, at the end of the day, if you are getting enough total protein, it doesn’t matter too much where you are getting it from.

Here’s the problem I have with this point.

The amount of total food you need to eat in plant foods to get the same amount of protein from red meat is far greater.

One of the common comparisons that is used when comparing vegetables to red meat is one like the following: Broccoli has about 9g of protein per 100kcals, and a rib eye steak has about 7g of protein per 100kcals.

This looks promising like woah I can get jacked on just broccoli?

On paper this seems like the case…

Let's apply this to practical standards shall we?

Practically, to get a 20g protein serving you would need to eat 770g of broccoli where you only need 160g of the steak and even leaner cuts of meat will get you there with even less calories.

That’s 27 ounces of broccoli…or rather almost a pound and a half of broccoli compared to less than 6 ounces of ribeye to get the same amount of protein…

Are you going to look me straight in the face and say you want to eat a pound and a half of broccoli instead of just a quick ribeye?

Let’s also not forget that, in the case of total amino acids, that ribeye is going to have a complete amino acid profile with all the essential amino acids as opposed to the broccoli that is going to be incomplete.

Oh yeah, that ribeye also comes with a bunch of vitamins and minerals such as B-Vitamins – which are essential and you can only get from animal products.

So not only do you have to eat way more broccoli to get the same amount of protein, you still need to eat other vegetables to compensate in order get a complete amino acid profile and you have to supplement the necessary micronutrients you just can’t obtain from solely plant sources.

It’s already a common occurrence that people don’t eat enough protein to optimize their health even when using animal products. Are you really going to expect them to have to eat even more food just to get enough protein, as well as supplement, and have them be consistent with it?

Goodluck with that.

There is a fiber gap that people need to address.

Even though I just spent this entire blog post shitting on this article, this main point I do agree with.

See I am not a total asshole.

The author did nail this part that there is a fiber gap amongst the population that needs to be addressed.

Fiber is a type of carbohydrate that our bodies cannot fully digest. Fiber plays a crucial role in our digestive health and overall well-being. It has numerous benefits, including improved digestion, increased satiety, and better overall health.

As stated in the article, a 2021 study found that only 7 percent of Americans get enough fiber.

This is very alarming to say the least especially with the rise of digestive issues and diseases.

A high-fiber diet is associated with improved longevity, reduced risk of heart disease, lowers bad cholesterol, and helps prevent conditions like diabetes. Fiber also plays a crucial role in feeding the healthy bacteria in our gut, which is essential for maintaining a healthy digestive system.

What is the best way to obtain fiber in your diet?

Through the inclusion of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains – there is a happy ending after all.

Exclusion is not the best practice.

This leads us to the main point I wanted to bring with this blog post.

I don’t have anything against vegans or having more of a plant-based diet.

Getting more fruits and vegetables is going to be beneficial to everyone.

My problem with this article is that it was trying to demonize red meat as not being healthy when that is far from reality.

Unless you have religious beliefs against eating meat or a strong drive to protect animals – which I understand, I was a vet assistant/vet tech for over eight years so I have a deep love for animals…

Excluding red meat for health purposes just doesn’t make sense to me. Especially since red meat is one of the healthiest things you can consume with it being the most micro dense foods on this planet.

The thing that irritates me with the diet community (this isn’t just veganism, you can add any other “X” diet you want to fill the blank with) is that they exclude and then shit on entire food groups that could be beneficial to the masses to try to sell their diet cult better.

My personal opinion?

Why not just eat meat AND plenty of fruits and vegetables?

There is so much conflicting information on the internet. Why must we try to confuse the masses by pitting health foods against each other?

The best diet for the average person is probably going to be one that is primarily whole foods, features high quality animal products like red meat, has lots of fruits and vegetables, includes whole grains (if tolerable), is high in fiber and one that can be sustainable forever.

Also at the end of the day, everyone is different. A one-size fits all approach rarely works, and people should test a variety of different foods to see what works best for their bodies and their lifestyle.

Take your health under your own control – it’s your life and your wellbeing.

Today’s challenge: Stop listening to Vox for health advice. Meat is good for you.

Now that you are aware how unhelpful that article was, you can go forward and make an educated decision on how you want to live your life.

In short, get enough protein, meat won’t kill you, eat your fruits and vegetables, fiber is important, and prosper my friends.