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Have you ever heard or read that too much protein is bad for you? I certainly have. While not as commonly attacked as carbs or fats, protein does get the occasional torch and pitchfork treatment. There are three common claims I hear relating to protein and health.
Too much protein will make you fat.
Too much protein can cause bone loss.
Too much protein is bad for your kidneys.
Are these claims true? Let’s take a look at these one-by-one.
Does protein make you fat?
Weight gain vs weight loss mostly comes down to Calories consumed vs Calories burned… mostly. The Calories we consume come from four places:
1g of Protein = 4 Calories
1g of Carbohydrate = 4 Calories
1g of Fat = 9 Calories
1g of Alcohol = 7 Calories
These are called macronutrients. (We’re going to ignore alcohol in order to not get too far off into the weeds.)
The reason I said, “weight gain vs weight loss mostly comes down to Calories consumed vs Calories burned” is because our bodies handle each of these macronutrients differently. Carbs and fats are mostly used for energy, while protein is mostly used for repairing bodily tissues, such as muscle tissue.
Due to how the body handles each of the three macronutrients, it’s actually very difficult for protein to be stored as body fat. In other words, while Calorie consumption is the main factor for weight loss and weight gain, if more of the Calories you eat come from protein, you will actually be leaner, not fatter. You can learn more about that here.
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Does protein cause bone loss?
The idea that high protein diets cause bone loss comes from the fact that higher protein intakes have been linked to more calcium in the urine. A possible explanation for this that has been proposed is that your body draws calcium from bones in order to buffer acid load caused by protein ingestion. [1]
However, newer studies have shown dietary protein promotes dietary calcium absorption. [2] In other words, more calcium is absorbed during digestion and less calcium gets discarded in your feces. Later, the calcium that doesn’t get used is disposed of via urine, which explains the increased concentration of calcium in urine.
The key here is the balance between the two. As it turns out, the extra calcium that’s excreted in your urine as a result of a high protein diet is less than the extra calcium that’s absorbed.
In other words, you retain more calcium than you excrete. This means high protein diets likely have a slight positive effect on bone health or at the very least, a neutral effect. [3][4]
Does protein harm your kidneys?
Some studies have shown higher protein intakes cause an increase in glomerular filtration rate (GFR), which is a marker of waste filtration for the kidneys. [5] Because of this, it was theorized that high protein intakes put extra strain on the kidneys.
Later studies did not support this theory. Further research has shown that high protein diets are not damaging to the kidneys in healthy individuals. [6][7] To take this one step further, some research has even suggested very low protein intakes could potentially increase the risk of death in patients with kidney failure. [8]
Takeaway
I have seen no compelling evidence to suggest there is any benefit in limiting protein intake in healthy individuals. Moderate - high protein diets have significant advantages such as greater muscle growth, greater decreases in body fat, higher diet satisfaction, and improved mood when dieting. [9]
The idea for this post came from Examine. You can check their post out here.
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