Could a High Protein Diet be Dangerous for your Health?

That I have found contradicting information about this question would be an understatement, and to a very large extent this post is going to contradict some of the things I have said before.

On a previous post, Optimal Weight Training Diet, I talked about how the body reacts to excess protein, and provided you with the view of nutritionist Nancy Clark who states that consuming extra protein will not put your health at any risk simply because your body cannot store any excess protein; at the same time Clark is quick to explain that the body could build muscle just as well from carbohydrates.

For all those trying to lose weight carbohydrates are as bad as the devil itself, and to a point this may very well be true if the carbohydrates being consumed are mainly simple carbohydrates such as processed and refined carbs, white flour, white rice and sugar, but the right carbohydrates (mainly whole grains) could hold the key to not only weight loss, muscle development, but most importantly to optimal health.

Dr. Thomas Campbell II on his groundbreaking work The China Study compared western and eastern diets and found that protein was responsible for increasing cancer rates in the developed world.

Could protein really be the food of cancer cells?

Dr. Campbell went as far as to call protein “a cancer fertilizer!” But don’t panic yet, only high quality protein is linked to cancer development.

What are sources of high quality protein?

Animal sources of protein are considered high quality protein; this includes meat, eggs, and dairy. The China Study included animal research where animals were exposed to known carcinogens and a group was fed high quality protein (casein) and the other group was fed plant protein.

The results always showed that animal protein resulted in cancer development in 100% of the animals when the animals were exposed to carcinogens, and 0% cancer development on animals exposed to those same carcinogens when fed plant protein.

The study did not focus only in animals, he compared diets across China and other eastern countries where people had different dietary patterns based on the area where they lived and he found a direct link between cancer and amount of animal protein consumed. To give you a quick recap, the study showed that the poorest people, those who could not afford animal protein had a much lower cancer rate than their wealthier counterparts, who ate plenty of animal protein.

Cancer is a pretty big deal for me since my sister is sick with it at only 27 years of age, and I can attest to her poor eating habits, was that enough to cause cancer? I don’t know, I can’t tell, and perhaps you don’t even care, cancer may not be a concern of yours although that 1 out 2 males in the U.S. is going to get sick with cancer at some point, and 1 out of 3 women.

A healthy diet, can (according to Dr. Campbell)

• Enable diabetic patients to off their medication
• Heart disease can be reversed with diet alone
• Breast cancer is related to levels of female hormones in the blood, which are determined by the food we eat.
• Consuming dairy foods can increase the risk of prostate cancer.

What is the biggest lesson from the China Study?

What you eat has the potential to help your body fight, and prevent disease, even in the face of deadly diseases. The following paragraph from the book summarizes it pretty well:

“What we found was shocking. Low-protein diets inhibited the initiation of cancer by aflatoxin, regardless of how much of this carcinogen was administered to these animals. After cancer initiation was completed, low-protein diets also dramatically blocked subsequent cancer growth. In other words, the cancer- producing effects of this highly carcinogenic chemical were rendered insignificant by a low protein diet. In fact, dietary protein proved to be so powerful in its effect that we could turn on and turn off cancer growth simply by changing the level consumed.”

The China Study

I am not going to sell you anything, I won’t ask for your email or tell you to take some pills that are sure to get pulled off the market in a couple of months from now (remember Hydroxycut getting pulled off the shelves back in 2009? It’s back but I wouldn’t trust it with my life); instead I would like to show you how you can come up with your own fool-proof plan to lose 10 pounds fast.

We must determine your daily caloric expenditure (this spreadsheet will do all the calculations for you); this number will tell us how many calories your body needs every day to do things such

as walking, doing the dishes, watching TV, exercising, etc.

Once you know your daily caloric expenditure we are going to create a calorie deficiency, in other words, you will be feeding your body fewer calories than what your body actually burns during a given day. If you are overweight, and do this for a short period of time, your body will not starve, it will continue to use the same number of calories it was used to burning, but the calories will be coming from stored fat instead of excess foods.

This brings us to another important point; in order to lose weight you must either eat less or burn more calories. Perhaps you could do both and speed up the process!

How To Lose 10 Pounds Fast, rules

Cut the junk food; get rid of sugars, sodas, processed foods and absolutely no fast food. Start eating healthy (if you aren’t yet), incorporate whole grains, whole wheat breads, brown or wild rice, a lot of veggies too.

Start exercising; this like eating right is just something that will change your life in more than one way, you will not only look better, you will also feel better. There is no need for you to do something crazy like lifting heavy weights at the gym biggest loser style. Just get your body moving, jump on a treadmill, bike, do what you can, sweat a bit.

So, how many fewer calories should I be consuming to lose weight fast?

Ok, now that we know our daily caloric intake we are going to create the calorie deficiency we talked about before. How?

To lose 1 pound of body weight we need to be consume 3,500 fewer calories. A healthy weight loss program would include a plan where you aim to lose about 1 pound a week by cutting 500 calories of your diet every day.

500 calories is a very reasonable number if your goal is to lose one pound in a week; to lose more than just one pound in a week you would have to cut more than 500 calories off your diet every day, and you would have to burn more calories than before by doing more exercise.

I do not recommend going on a program where you cut a huge number of calories off your diet for a long period; for a week, it may be ok,

To attain your goal of losing 10 pounds fast you should say no to TV, walk more, snack wisely, and chew some gum; these simple things could help you lose an additional 5,000 calories in a week, which translates to more than one pound! (see my article “5 tiny changes that can transform the body you have into the body you want”).

Just by becoming more active, cutting calories and watching your diet you will be able to lose the 10 pounds you want to shed.

If your goal is permanent weight loss then the more conservative approach will yield the best results, cut a small number of calories off your diet, get moving and see your body change weekly.  If on the other hand you must fit on that one size too small dress you got by next Saturday, then be warned that unless you make some major changes the weight will surely come back as fast as you lost it.

Thanks for the pic above Svadilfari. CCL.

Your weight training routine and diet are now equally important, but Professional bodybuilders and nutritionists sometimes disagree on what the right weight training diet should look like. Let’s take a look at the situation from both, a nutritionist’s point of view and an athlete just like you.

Nutritionists Optimal Weight Training Diet

Most nutritionists will agree with you on the fact that in order to build muscle you must exercise and lift weights, but not all will agree on the amount of protein you should consume. Nutritionist Nancy Clark explains that consuming an extra amount of protein will do nothing for you because your body can’t store any excess protein.

Clark says that extra calories are necessary to build muscle, and according to her these calories should come mainly from carbohydrates, and not from protein sources.

Clark is not alone, there are many other nutritionists who have a similar view on the issue and believe that a proper weight training diet should be centered around high quality carbohydrates and not on protein.

Carbohydrates are broken down in our body and transformed into energy, this is what fuels us through a workout routine, but eating too much of the wrong carbohydrates can do more harm than good, since many of the processed carbs, such as white flour will turn into sugar.

Good Carbohydrates choices include:

• Whole grains (such as whole wheat, barley, quinoa, couscous, oatmeal)
• Brown rice
• Wild rice
• Beans, lentils
• Whole grain pastas

What do Athletes and Bodybuilders consider an Optimal Weight Training Diet?

Arnold Schwarzenegger believes that protein is the building block of a muscle physique, and he stated that the right amount of protein should be about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight; this may be no surprise to you, but the question then becomes,

Do You Just Need Massive Amounts of Protein?

An effective weight training diet will not only focus on the amount/ratio of protein, carbs and fats; equally important are the size of your meals and the time between each meal. Keep your muscles well-fed at all times.

Good Protein Sources include:

• Salmon, tuna
• Chicken Breast
• Turkey
• Eggs

Enough show me what the weight training diet looks like!

Since every person has a different calorie/carbs/fats need it is practically impossible to say just follow this diet and your biceps will grow so big that they will burst out of your shirt, so when looking at the guide below, consider it just that, a guide from which you may build your own optimal weight training diet.

• Eat several small meals throughout the day, 6 is a good number
• Eat clean, avoid foods high in fats
• Avoid Fast Food (you need calories, but just not these)
• Choose Complex Carbohydrates such as the ones shown above. Whole Grains.
• Get your protein! Between 0.5 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight
• If you can’t eat six meals a day for reasons such as being out of the house a lot, plan ahead and prepare healthy, nutritious snacks to take with you.
• Don’t forget your fruits and veggies

Amount of Carbohydrates and Protein

The optimal weight training diet requires, like we said above, that you consume high quality carbohydrates and protein, but what about the amounts?

How many grams of Carbohydrates, Proteins should I eat?

Nutritionist Clark says that a good weight training diet where you are trying to put on muscle mass should follow this guideline:

• 3 to 5 grams of carbohydrates per pound of body weight
• 1 gram or less of protein per pound of body weight

What about Supplements and Shakes?

Many bodybuilders choose to supplement their weight training diet to include:

• Creatine
• Whey Protein
• BCAA (Branch Chain Amino Acids)
• Beta Alanine
• Casein Protein

Resources:

Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook

Photograph SSCusp CCL