Too much protein is bad??

It seems the take home from most of the protein/calcium and bone loss research I've seen is that a higher than the laughably low RDA intake for protein and exercise/strength training (and reguardless of protein source) helps to preserve bone/muscle mass.

Intakes around say the BroScience 1g/pound may require more dietary calcium to offset mild acidosis, but can overall be beneficial to bone and muscle health.

Total agreement that the western diet is crap because at the RDA and with all animal protein you do get the slight negative of increases acidosis without the benefit of a higher protein diet while consuming a diet that is piss poor in nutrients.

However diets with half a brain overcome all the small negatives highlighted on this thread.

This "metabolic acidosis" theory of calcium depletion is an old 70's and 80's idea and really not something most should worry about even if it were truly a risk, except in certain extreme cases. Its not really an issue from looking at newer studies. And from a logical perspective, when you weight train and eat increased protein, the increased weight loads will cause increased stimulation of bony growth and remodeling to compensate, far outweighing any slight pH factors if they existed. Low protein diets do appear to *reduce* calcium absorption, conversely.

In the same time period there was a large vocal group who spread the ideas that anyone doing an Adkin's diet would have kidney and liver damage from eating almost exclusively protein and fat. This has also shown to be false.

Now gout could be worsened by increased protein, but its relatively rare. And logically, again if you are weight training your protein needs go up. And the risk of metabolic syndrome (increased abdominal fat and linked pre to full diabetes) is a far greater a risk of increasing gout likelihood.

Writers on Yahoo are pretty poorly researched, I would take whatever you see there with a grain of salt. If you are worried still, or are an osteoporotic elderly woman (or have kidney issues already), see your doctor. Not only is there no good evidence for what this writer says, but 110 is not an excessively high number anyways.

If you're an older woman, too much animal protein (especially meat and dairy) can contribute to osteoporosis. I took a course in nutrition a few years ago, and the way they described it was that the body releases acids to digest animal protein. Too much protein will cause acid levels to rise on a continuous level in your body. To neutralize and buffer the acidity, your body will release calcium phosphate, which it pulls from the bones. So obviously too much calcium pulled from the bones will increase the risk of weaker bones, and eventually osteoporosis.

It may explain why the countries in the world that have the highest meat and dairy consumption, also have the highest levels of osteoporosis. It should be the opposite.

It's called metabolic acidosis. And thank you, somebody who knows what they are talking about is such a breath of fresh air around here.

Well for a start the process being described above (calcium release to use as buffering agent) is alkalosis. Metabolic acidosis is often the reverse of this when this buffering fails to occur or there is a build up of acid such as lactate in septicaemia, or ketones following ketosis. Sometimes this occurs when the kidneys fail to excrete a build up of acid due to renal impairment. In the past high protein has been thought to cause renal impairment but this is largely discredited, and protein is only a problem in already impaired kidneys.

I could go on but is this the kind of thing you were looking for in terms of someone who knows what they are talking about?

If you're an older woman, too much animal protein (especially meat and dairy) can contribute to osteoporosis. I took a course in nutrition a few years ago, and the way they described it was that the body releases acids to digest animal protein. Too much protein will cause acid levels to rise on a continuous level in your body. To neutralize and buffer the acidity, your body will release calcium phosphate, which it pulls from the bones. So obviously too much calcium pulled from the bones will increase the risk of weaker bones, and eventually osteoporosis.

It may explain why the countries in the world that have the highest meat and dairy consumption, also have the highest levels of osteoporosis. It should be the opposite.

It's called metabolic acidosis. And thank you, somebody who knows what they are talking about is such a breath of fresh air around here.

Maybe you mean someone wearing the same tinfoil hat.

You guys have been going rounds from one board to the next!

b-U-m-P

My doc, a respected bariatric doctor at Vanderbilt, recommends at least 120 g a day protein while losing weight. He wants me to get 40g for breakfast, and 30-40 for each lunch and dinner. Extra protein helps with the healing of what you're putting your body through and helps keep your burning focus on fat rather than muscle, I"m told.

The author of that editorial (note the difference between it and a well-cited article relating information rather than vague opinion and poorly articulated "research" ... he's attributing a lot of evils to "protein" that have been attributed to specific types of processed red meats. Big difference.

Note in his profile that he is a vegan ... that tells me a lot about his motivations for writing this. It's poorly researched and his motivations are suspect. I wouldn't worry if I were you.

If you're an older woman, too much animal protein (especially meat and dairy) can contribute to osteoporosis. I took a course in nutrition a few years ago, and the way they described it was that the body releases acids to digest animal protein. Too much protein will cause acid levels to rise on a continuous level in your body. To neutralize and buffer the acidity, your body will release calcium phosphate, which it pulls from the bones. So obviously too much calcium pulled from the bones will increase the risk of weaker bones, and eventually osteoporosis.

It may explain why the countries in the world that have the highest meat and dairy consumption, also have the highest levels of osteoporosis. It should be the opposite.

It's called metabolic acidosis. And thank you, somebody who knows what they are talking about is such a breath of fresh air around here.

Funny, no mention here of protein, let alone animal protein being a cause of metabolic acidosis:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000335.htm


ETA: also....OP is 20 years old!

If you're an older woman, too much animal protein (especially meat and dairy) can contribute to osteoporosis. I took a course in nutrition a few years ago, and the way they described it was that the body releases acids to digest animal protein. Too much protein will cause acid levels to rise on a continuous level in your body. To neutralize and buffer the acidity, your body will release calcium phosphate, which it pulls from the bones. So obviously too much calcium pulled from the bones will increase the risk of weaker bones, and eventually osteoporosis.

It may explain why the countries in the world that have the highest meat and dairy consumption, also have the highest levels of osteoporosis. It should be the opposite.

The protein-osteoporosis connection has been debunked. Bones are made of protein, in addition to calcium carbonate. People who live in countries where they work indoors all day, not getting sunlight to make enough vitamin D, and not getting enough exercise to help maintain their bone mass, are more prone to osteoporosis.

^^plus you need to look at the diet as a whole and not just point the finger at one aspect of it when looking at meta-analysis.

I just want to point out that you are getting your info from yahoo....

bump for the info!