How much is too much protein?...Please help...
Hello Again,
Could you help me with this? My wife seems very concerned with my protein intake. She just sent me the following info...From my prev post, you now know that I am now 258lbs & work out pretty hard (8-12 sets of exercise per muscle group -working out 5 days per week) along with 40-45 minutes of cardio daily. My current diet yields ~160 gms protein per day & I feel that I will even up that(to increase my calories among other things). Could you shoot me a link or give me something that I can send her? I would love to hear your thoughts...
Thx,
Spike
...Here is what she sent:
here seems to be a lot of discussion now about how much protein we should
be eating.
I know The Zone and Dr. Atkins' diet push a much higher percentage of
protein in our daily intake than you do.
What's wrong with eating a lot of protein?
-- Anonymous
(Published 9/4/97) Proteins are large, complex, nitrogenous compounds built
of chains of amino acids. Protein forms
the building blocks of muscles, blood, skin, hair, nails and internal
tissues. Enzymes are proteins that orchestrate
all biological reactions in the cells. Protein is great. But we get plenty
of protein in a normal Western diet.
As little of two ounces (60 grams) of a protein-rich food is enough for
most of us. Most people in the Western world
eat at least four ounces at every meal. But biochemical researcher Barry
Sears, who wrote "The Zone," thinks Americans
are protein deficient. He recommends 30 percent protein in every meal as
part of a program that professes to help you
lose weight permanently, achieve your best athletically, prevent disease
and pump up your mental capabilities.
The reason these kinds of high-protein diets work -- at least temporarily
-- is because all that protein is forcing
he kidneys to get rid of urea, a toxic breakdown product of protein
metabolism, and pump lots of water from the body
into the urinary tract. So much of the weight loss is simply water loss.
While this is going on, however, you're also
losing minerals from your body, including calcium from your bones.
If you're eating more protein than your body needs to repair tissue, it's
burned as a fuel.
Unfortunately, protein is both an inefficient fuel and a dirty fuel. It's
inefficient because you have to
expend more energy to take protein molecules apart than to break down
carbohydrates and fats, because they're
more complicated in structure. It's dirty because protein contains
nitrogen. Instead of just producing carbon dioxide
and water, burning protein produces nitrogenous residues that not only are
irritating to the immune system
and toxic to the liver, but also put a big workload on the kidneys.
High-protein diets may cause fatigue, digestive strain and aggravation of
allergies and autoimmune diseases.
I've never seen anyone in the United States develop protein deficiency,
even on very low protein diets.
You would know if you were protein deficient because your hair and nails
would stop growing and
wounds would not heal. Unless you're recovering from a serious illness or
injury, or are a nursing mother
or a young child, you don't need extra protein.
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