Author - Dr. Nitin Gupte

Dangers Of High Protein Diets and Protein Supplements!

For over three-fourths of a century a few ‘obesity experts’ have expounded the theory of how proteins are good and carbohydrates are bad for human health. They have persistently advocated high protein diets as a sure shot weight loss diet. You see them in many variants of high protein – low carbohydrate diets.

Gyms too continue to sell the idea of high protein diets and protein supplements as it suits them to sell expensive protein supplements and strength training exercises under even more expensive personal trainers of questionable expertise.

Such so-called obesity experts and the gym industry thrives on making people believe that they should shun carbohydrates and eat high protein diets comprising of chicken and eggs.

Today millions of people imagine that carbohydrates are bad and proteins and fats are good for their health.

If you are one of them, you will do well to understand:

Carbohydrates don’t make you fat, excess calories do. Both carbohydrates and proteins provide 4 calories each gm while fats provide 9!

If you eat any of the above three nutrients in excess of your requirement, you will gain weight, not just carbohydrates. if you are trying to lose weight then you want to check our distance program. Fats are most likely to provide excess calories as they provide more than twice as many calories as carbohydrates and proteins. If

Most high protein foods like flesh, eggs, full-fat dairy, cheese, full cream paneer, and soya provide more fats than proteins.

So all high protein diets are more high-fat diets than high protein diets.

So they are much more likely to make you fat than carbohydrates’ dominant diets.

Whole grain cereals and pulses, vegetables and fruits are the heart-healthy foods, not high protein – high-fat diets.

Average people need no more than 0.8 gm protein per kg body weight and athletes need 1.5 to 2 gm, both levels can be supplied adequately by balanced, everyday food.

High protein – high-fat diets can increase your total and bad LDL cholesterol and triglycerides and decrease your healthy HDL cholesterol and lead to excess weight and cause hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, strokes and heart disease.

Being very low in fiber, they also cause constipation, piles, fissures and in some, diverticulosis and colorectal cancers.

The metabolism of protein produces large amounts of acids. This causes acidosis which our body must correct. The kidneys must excrete this acid to maintain the acid-base balance within the body. But the kidneys cannot handle fluids with so high acidity and they must dilute these acids with great amounts of water. Hence the body loses a lot of water and this leads to dehydration.

The body also uses calcium to neutralize this excess acid. Most of the body’s calcium is stored in bones. Thus the calcium is withdrawn from bones and used for this purpose, this leads to osteoporosis and can also cause kidney stones over a period of time.

This puts excessive strain on the kidneys which are already struggling hard to eliminate excessive amounts of waste products and this leads to chronic kidney disease in the long run.

The other vital organ eliminating the toxic waste products of protein metabolism in the liver. So both of these vital organs are overloaded when you take excessive proteins. This leads to kidney and liver diseases if excessive proteins and protein supplements are consumed for a long period. For this reason, people with a history of kidney or liver disease must not take excessive proteins from food and supplements.

Most gym-goers take protein supplements, in addition to eating high protein – high-fat diets in the form of multiple eggs and boneless chicken daily to help build bigger muscles and their recovery after weight training exercises.

For a vast majority of people, excessive consumption of high protein foods and protein supplements have no special benefit in either muscle building or repair. In fact, they do more damage than good.

Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. Our health depends upon getting a particular balance of amino acids, which is provided naturally in a balanced diet. Protein supplements provide a limited range of amino acids, thus severely disrupting this balance which can only lead to grave health risks.

Protein supplements, usually in the form of shakes, are high in calories. Thus they lead to more weight gain.

Most protein supplements are made from casein, whey or soya protein. Many people are sensitive to these proteins and develop gases, abdominal pain, hyperacidity, nausea and diarrhoea or constipation. People who consume protein supplements for sustained periods, and eat little heart-healthy food and fiber, suffer from chronic constipation, piles, fissures, diverticulosis, and colorectal cancers. Straining at stools can cause hernias.

Contamination with toxic elements is an ever-present threat when producing synthetic protein supplements.

A 2010 study found that some of the artificial protein supplements were contaminated with toxic metals like arsenic, cadmium, and lead, which can seriously damage your health.

Thus, obesity, dehydration, constipation, piles, fissures, diverticulosis and colorectal cancers, calcium loss from bones, kidney and liver damage, heart disease and strokes can be long term effects of excessive protein consumption.

So think twice before having high protein – high fat – low carbohydrates diets and buying protein supplements!

There is absolutely no need to waste money and health on high protein – high fat – high-calorie protein foods and protein supplements.

Also, read the article ‘Dangers Of Unscientific Treatments, ‘Dangers Of Protein Supplements’ and ‘Carbohydrates Don’t Make Us Fat’ on this website.