“I just received an email from a vegan chef, touting the new movie with T. Colin Campbell, “Forks Over Knives“. Why someone would send ME a link to a vegan propaganda movie is beyond me, but then again it fueled the fire for this blog post… Anyway, T. Colin Campbell is the guy behind the China Study, both the actual study and the popular book by that name. It’s one of the latest anti-meat campaigns, claiming that protein in general causes all sorts of cancers. If there’s one thing in this world that sends me into a raging fit of frustration and despair, it’s comments like, “Most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting our present menu of animal-based and processed foods.” You can find that little snippet of wisdom right below the trailer for “Forks Over Knives”. Yes, the processed foods can go, and even the processed, animal-based foods. But what does Campbell suppose we lived off of when there were no grocery stores around to supply us with enough grains, fruits and vegetables to meet our (minimum) protein needs: NOT MEAT? I live in Boulder, CO, which is probably the vegan capital of the country. I haven’t verified that because I’d rather not know for sure. Our Whole Foods was at one point plastered with signs promoting the banishment of meat from all shoppers’ diets. I noticed the signs on my way to the meat counter. I’m pretty sure that little stunt had something to do with the China Study book, since I also saw IT hanging out all over the store, too. In this vegan-steeped city, I’ve overheard more than one sallow-looking, overweight, prematurely aging woman tell her friend how she doesn’t allow her growing children (who have a high need for protein) to eat meat, even if they want it. There’s a lot of misinformation out there about meat – about the fact that it’s bad for you. There’s a whole slew of flawed research that has led us to this frenzied point, including studies that have used food-like substances to pass as the study diet. I’ve never heard of a single anti-meat/anti-saturated fat study that uses anything but grain-fed, antibiotic and chemically laden, super fatty cuts of meat as the basis of the diets, if they use meat at all in their studies. I wonder what would happen if they used wild game or pasture-raised meats. And don’t forget about the studies that have completely blown marginally significant results out of proportion, while ignoring other significant results that would have nullified their claims. The China Study is no better than any of them. While I thought (delusionally) that the China Study had been thoroughly debunked here, here, here, and here, I am clearly living in a fantasy world, considering Campbell has a movie coming out. That guy has convinced America that meat is bad because he found that casein, a milk protein, may have had a positive correlation with some cancers. From there, he did a huge human population study in China, the results of which he selectively highlighted in his book in order to make the most convincing argument against meat. Basically, he was still only working with the fact that casein was maybe correlated with some cancers (there are other constituents in milk, by the way, that are anti-cancer, not that I’m even a milk proponent…), and thus extrapolated that all protein is bad for us. There are so many glaring faults with that study: misrepresentation of data, lack of data and broad assumptions. But I guess if I conducted a huge study over a 20-year period of time, I’d be tempted to fudge data to make it seem like the study was worthwhile, too. I highly recommend you read this very comprehensive response to the study, especially if you’re like me, and everyone around you seems to be citing the China Study as the reason they’re now depriving their kids of their much needed protein. There is no dearth of “research” out there to convince you that you shouldn’t eat too much meat. There’s the saturated fat “issue”, the cholesterol “problem”, the matter of the antibiotics and pesticides in meat (totally valid), and of course the detriment that conventional factory farming has on the earth (also heinous). Beyond that, though, I also get this question a lot: “But isn’t eating too much protein bad for you?” I want to clear that up for you all. On one side of the meat debate are Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Dean Ornish and others in the low protein camp, and on the high protein team, there are all of our favorites: Cordain, Wolf, Eades, and many others. They could literally hash this debate out until the cows come home (ha ha!), but in my opinion, the truth is that they’re all sort of right. Sort of. Hear me out. Some of us are more well-suited for a lower protein, higher carb diet than others. It depends on our genetics and what blood sugar damage we’ve done to our bodies through the years. But others absolutely thrive on a higher protein/fat and lower carb diet, much like most of our ancestors did. The reason all of the researchers and authors on both sides of the argument may be seeing results from their patients and research subjects is probably because all of their diets omit processed foods and refined sugars, which (along with grains of course) are the banes of industrialized society. They all tout vegetables as being incredibly important, which they are, and they all encourage people not to overeat. So whether you eat a lot of protein or not, if you’re coming off of the standard American diet to any of the cleaner, whole foods, low sugar, higher nutrient diets, you’re probably going to see some improvements in your health. That does NOT mean, though, that you will attain optimal health. I am part of Paleo Plan because I believe that for most people, a higher protein, grainless, dairy-less diet is the way to go. I obviously don’t think that a “high” protein diet is bad for you, since the Paleo diet falls into this category.” -Nelly, Paleo Plan (http://www.paleoplan.com/2011/04-20/meat-is-not-the-devil/) In my recent post, “Meat Is Not The Devil“, I talked about all of the reasons this country is terrified of eating meat. I’m surprised the American Heart Association doesn’t have a warning system in grocery stores about red meat like airports have alerts about terrorism. “According to our doctored, biased research today, there is an amber alert on beef. Fill your grocery carts with anything but red meat... Anything.” It’s ironic to me that while we are made to feel guilty and almost sinful for eating a steak, not many Americans are afraid of Big Gulps (I witnessed one guy carrying one up a 15 minute hike in Kentucky. I mean I guess he needed something to keep him hydrated for that long, arduous trek…). Whenever people find out I’m a nutritionist, their most pressing, food-related questions inevitably emerge. Among those questions, there has never been one about how many gluten-filled crackers are too many. Or if having brown rice every day is too much. Or if the sugar-laced, fat-free yogurt they eat every day is actually bad for them. No, I don’t ever get those questions – the ones people should be asking. What I get is this: “You don’t eat grains and dairy? So you eat a lot of meat? Isn’t that much protein bad for your kidneys???” Seriously guys, come ON. My MEAT, that most basic, prehistoric food, is bad for my kidneys, but your daily 64 oz Gatorade is good for yours? And your pastry for breakfast and your Snickers for lunch? And the nutrient-less bun that you add to your meat? What exactly is a high protein diet? A lot of studies out there define high protein as around 30% of the diet. Cordain, in his protein debate with T. Colin Campbell (pdf) (which I HIGHLY suggest you read) states that “high protein” is 20-29% of the daily calories and “very high protein” is 30-39% of daily calories. What does that mean? Alright, most Americans are eating around 15% of their daily calories as protein. That means if you’re an average American eating 2,000 calories per day (yeah, right – the average is more like 3-4,000), you’re getting around 75 grams of protein per day (or 300 calories’ worth). On a high protein diet, that same person would be getting anywhere from 100-145 grams per day. On a very high protein diet (30-39%), that person would be eating from 150-195 grams. See the chart at the bottom to see what that really means in terms of food consumption. Here’s why a “high protein diet” isn’t bad for you. As a disclaimer, let me say that yes, if you have already been diagnosed with kidney disease (likely from eating a high-glycemic, meat-deficient diet all your life), then you don’t want to eat a high protein diet (20+% of calories). Everyone else is in the clear, though. As they have been for 2.5 million years. Minimum Protein Requirement Now that we have that squared away, let’s talk about what our minimum requirements and maximum tolerances are for protein. Our trusty government has decided that a 19-70 year old man can get away with eating 56 g of protein per day. For an active, average man on a 2500 calorie diet, that’s about 9% of the diet. They actually think men might even thrive on that amount, never mind the fact that a 19 year old has incredibly different needs than a 70 year old… That’s about the same percentage that T. Colin Campbell advocates, along with many vegan-types: 10%. Sounds terrible. Maximum Protein Intake On the other hand, there’s this syndrome called rabbit starvation. It’s something that might happen to you if you were stranded in the woods for a week, living off of only very lean animals like rabbits and squirrels. That is, if you didn’t die first because you couldn’t figure out how to kill them (I’d surely die). If you did somehow overcome that little hurdle and manage to massacre a whole lot of the scrawny morsels, after a week or so you’d have an intense hunger for fat, and then diarrhea, nausea, cramping and eventually death. When your diet is so full of protein and so devoid of carbs and fat, that’s what happens. When your liver is overloaded with protein, it can no longer make urea (a waste product from protein that’s excreted in the urine), and ammonia leaks into your bloodstream – not good. While this actually happened quite a bit during meager winters even a hundred years ago, it doesn’t happen too often these days. Not in America, at least. Our liver’s upper limit of protein intake is about 200-300 grams per day, or about 35-40% of caloric intake (1,4). Rabbits are about 85% protein and 15% fat. The Paleo diet, however, should be roughly 30% protein, 40% carbs, and 30% fat (with some give and take with the carbs and fat). That keeps you safe from developing the rabbit syndrome because you have ample fat and carbs in your diet to balance things out, and it keeps you below the upper limits of protein intake. So yes, the Paleo diet has a higher protein percentage than the 15% in the American diet, but we see where that gets people. So00, it turns out that it’s not your kidneys you need to worry about with eating too much protein, but your liver! What about your kidneys, though? Are those terrifying news stories about too much protein causing kidney damage all wrong? Yes, mostly. Your Kidneys Can Handle It The studies that have been done on the kidneys to scare you away from eating “too much” protein have been done on people who already have kidney disease. Look it up. Go to www.pubmed.com and try to find a study that provides evidence that eating a high protein diet will adversely affect a person with normally functioning kidneys. What they’re finding (and admitting now) is that people with normal kidney function do just fine on a high protein diet (5,6). As the National Kidney Foundation states themselves, (not a high protein diet, but) “diabetes is the leading cause of kidney disease.” Let’s just let that sink in for a second. Once again, we’re seeing the irony in my cookie and cracker-fiending, Big Gulp-slurping friends’ questions about my meat. As it turns out, they should be WAY more worried about their own diet harming their kidneys, since we all know that diabetes is caused by a high-glycemic, sugar-filled diet. Which the Paleo diet is NOT. So the next time someone asks me if I’m going to die of protein overload due to my outlandish consumption of meat, I will assure them that I’m not eating too many rabbits, so my liver is fine, thank you. And I’m not eating any refined grains or sugar, ahem, so my kidneys will be alright, too… Protein Content in Common Foods To put things in perspective, here’s a list of common foods complete with their protein content. You can find this and more at the USDA Food Database. Meat and Eggs Beef (6 oz.) – 54 grams Turkey, breast (6 oz.)– 51.4 grams Pork Chop (6 oz.)-49 grams Hamburger (6 oz.) – 48.6 grams Tuna (6 oz.) – 40.1 grams Chicken, breast (6 oz.) – 37.8 grams Salmon (6 oz.) – 33.6 grams Egg (1 large) – 6.3 grams Dairy Cottage cheese (1 cup) – 28.1 grams Yogurt, low fat (1 cup) – 10.7 grams Skim milk (1 cup) – 8.3 grams Whole milk (1 cup) – 8 grams Nuts, Seeds and Legumes Soymilk (6 oz.) – 6.7 grams Tofu (6 oz.) – 13.8 grams Peanut Butter (2 Tbsp.) – 8.1 grams Almond Butter (2 Tbsp.) – 7 grams Lentils (1/2 cup) – 9 grams Sesame Seeds (1 oz.) – 7.5 grams Black Beans (1/2 cup) – 7.5 grams Fruit Banana (medium)-1.2 grams - Nelly, Paleo Plan (http://www.paleoplan.com/2011/04-22/meat-is-not-the-devil-high-protein/)
