Is Our Obsession with Consuming More Protein Killing Us?

Consuming More Protein Is Consuming Us

Walk down a grocery, or do a quick Google search on weight loss, and you will be inundated with low-carb, high-protein diets, articles, and products. Low carb, Paleo, keto, Eco-Atkins, and zero carb are all hot topics, and they are all focused on consuming more protein and fewer carbs. According to Food Insight, nearly 3 out of 4 US adults are trying to consume more protein, and that percentage has been increasing.

In fact, we already eat far more protein than is recommended, far more than we did 50 years ago, and far more than any other major country in the world. But guess what all that protein is getting us. We are the most overweight and unhealthy major country in the world.

More Meat is Not the Solution, It’s the Problem

According to the Chartbin analysis of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the average American consumed 114 grams of protein per day in 2007, and the amount has likely gone up since then. The recommended daily allowance of protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight. So, the average US man (per CDC weight 195.7 lbs./88.6 kg) should be eating about 70.9 grams of protein daily, while the average US woman (per CDC weight 168.5 lbs./76.4 kg) should consume 61.1 grams of protein daily. Clearly, we are consuming more protein, far more than we need, by at least 60%. And yet, the miseducation by food companies and the media has 64% of us scrambling to eat even more protein.

So, what’s the matter with all this protein? Dr. Garth Davis is a bariatric surgeon and the author of Proteinaholic: How Our Obsession with Meat is Killing Us. After evaluating thousands of patients, he was struck that most of them were trying to lose weight by consuming more protein. In fact, many, despite their obesity, were afraid that they were not getting enough protein, and that could make them sick. Dr. Davis studied the health effects of high protein diets, the optimal diet for health, and the Blue Zones, where humans live the longest (highlighted in Dan Buettner’s book The Blue Zones: 9 Lessons for Living Longer).

Myths of the “Protein Gospel”

In Proteinaholic, Dr. Davis describes how that journey led him to uncover the myths of the “Protein Gospel.”

Myth #1: Consuming more protein is the key to weight loss. In fact, animal protein is one of the biggest contributors to the obesity epidemic in the US. In nearly every study, he found that animal protein is correlated with weight gain. Let that sink in for a minute, the studies show that the most recommended diet actually CAUSES weight gain. That is not surprising because what do bodybuilders take to gain body mass and muscle? Yes, you guessed it – PROTEIN.

Myth #2: Animal protein is one of the healthiest foods. In fact, animal protein is strongly associated with diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and cancer.

Myth #3: Plans don’t contain protein. In fact, beans, pulses, nuts, vegetables, and grains all contain protein, and it is usually much better for you than animal protein.

Myth #4: Carbs, vilified by nearly everyone, are the enemy. In fact, carbs are the basis for most of the caloric intake of the diets consumed by the Blue Zones cultures around the world- as much as 80% of calories in some long-living cultures.

The sad truth is that trying to lose weight on low-carb, high-protein diets like Paleo, Keto, Atkins, South Beach, and Sugar Busters is probably wrong. I struggled to lose weight for ten years with these diets and other variations. While I might have lost 5-10 pounds during a month or two, it was impossible to stay on them. Every time I dropped off one of those diets, I would gain back all the weight and usually a little more.

In reality, our cells need carbs to survive. Carbs, not consuming more protein, are the source of energy for the cells in our body. That is what makes these low-carb diets so hard to maintain because we are quite literally starving our body of the basic building blocks it needs to survive. This is not a healthy way to live.

Saturated Fat and Animal Protein Go Hand-In-Hand

What’s more, when most people eat a high-protein diet, that usually means an increase in animal protein laden with saturated fat. As Dr. Davis wrote in Proteinaholic, “Do you look anything like a lion? We are omnivores. Our intelligence and anatomical adaptation have allowed us to survive harsh situations by being able to eat anything, but that does not mean what we eat is the best thing for us!”

Too much saturated fat is the primary cause of heart disease, the number #1 killer in America (approximately 800,000 deaths per year). To give you an idea of the difference in saturated fat in different foods, I took a chart from Google’s saturated fat calculator, which uses USDA data (see for yourself — search Google for saturated fat in 4 ounces of food).

Google’s Data

Recommended Daily Amount of Saturated Fat: 13 grams

Saturated fat in common animal protein sources:

4 oz tilapia, cooked – 1 gram

4 oz chicken breast, roasted – 2.5 grams

4 oz salmon, cooked – 2.8 grams

4 oz turkey, slices – 3.6 grams

4 oz eggs omelet – 3.7 grams

4 oz chicken breast, fried – 4 grams

4 oz pork chops – 5 grams

4 oz hamburger, double patty – 6 grams

4 oz of ice cream, vanilla – 7.7 grams

4 oz of bologna, slices – 7.7 grams

4 oz of hot dog – 8.7 grams

4 oz steak – 9 grams

4 oz of salami – 10.1 grams

4 oz of bacon, pan-fried – 15.6 grams

4 oz of cheese, cheddar – 24 grams

Saturated fat in common plant protein sources:

4 oz of kidney beans, raw – 0.0 grams

4 oz of lentils, boiled – 0.0 grams

4 oz of spinach – 0.07 grams

4 oz of broccoli – 0.1 grams

4 oz of wheat spaghetti, cooked – 0.11 grams

4 oz of chickpeas – 0.3 grams

4 oz of quinoa, cooked – .67 grams

4 oz of chia seeds – 3.6 grams

4 oz of walnuts – 6.8 grams

Clearly, the plant-based protein sources above are far lower in saturated fat than animal-based proteins. Given that the recommended daily amount of saturated fats is 13 grams, it is easy to see how you would quickly exceed it by consuming animal-based proteins. And if you eat bacon and cheese, you should be scared to death because those two break the bank by themselves!

As a vegan, the most common question I hear is, “So, where do you get your protein?” Well, the reality is all protein comes from plants originally. Animals do not “manufacture” protein. They get their protein from eating plants (or other animals). So, if we get our protein from animals, that is really just an inefficient way of recycling plant protein through an animal. All the plant proteins listed above provide all the daily protein we need, but they do it without all the saturated fat of animal protein.

Consuming More Protein Is Very American

What would the Blue Zones tell us is the best way to eat for longevity? Not surprisingly, it is a diet mostly composed of fruits and vegetables. Most Blue Zone cultures consist of mostly plant-based diets, if not 100% vegan. While some of these cultures consume animal proteins (mostly fish) in their diets, they are typically no more than 10% of their caloric intake. That is quite different from the average American diet, where 15% to 20% comes from animal protein – and even higher for those on a low-carb, high-protein diet, often 40% to 50% of those folks’ calories come from animal protein.

While a vegan, I realize that not everyone can go 100% plant-based with their diet. However, I believe you should try to limit the amount of animal protein you consume daily to about 10% of your calories. And if you have heart disease, diabetes, or cancer, you should consider going 100% plant-based, at least for a while, to see if it improves your health.

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This is an updated version of an article originally published on August 8, 2018.

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