How many times have you considered shedding a few pounds? And how many times did that plan involve cutting out starchy items such as potatoes? Staying away from carbohydrates, while filling up with a protein rich diet might satisfy your hunger. But, take a step back and consider for a minute what you’re risking. Yes, that’s your health.
As you read on, you will understand how a diet exclusively filled with protein can have the opposite effect of what you intended. Not only does a high protein diet overturn fitness goals into making you put on more weight, it also has other unfavorable side effects.
Would you like to know what they are? Read on.
1. Protein Is Replacing Your Muscle:
Seems farfetched? There is a direct co-relation to high protein diet and a reduction in muscle mass. We all require a crucial amount of protein, but beyond that, its excess is converted to sugar and later fat. Now, a protein rich diet lacks carbohydrates, which translates to lesser energy, lesser activity and fewer demands on the muscles. As you don’t burn calories, your lean muscle mass is at a risk of shrinking.
Muscles require glucose from carbohydrates to function normally, particularly for high-intensity activities (1). So does the brain. Having considerably lesser energy coupled with increasing weight from the extra protein is surely detrimental to your health. It makes you both fat and tired.
2. Makes Blood More Acidic:
Too much protein in the diet forces the body to derive its fuel by breaking down proteins and fats. Hence, ketones are produced, as certain parts of the body like the brain cannot use fats as fuel. Now, there are certain internal mechanisms to control ketone production, but a high protein diet results in ketoacidosis. It is a condition that ultimately leads to kidney damage and even death (2).
In the short term, it makes the blood too acidic and results in bad breath.
3. Gives Kidney Stones:
Protein rich diets are proven to cause kidney stones and various other kidney problems (3). The kidneys filter proteins, which puts the organs under immense stress when on a high protein diet. Such situations were found to deteriorate kidney function in the long term. Those with renal abnormalities were observed to have faster deterioration in kidney function if a protein rich diet was taken.
According to researchers, protein from animal sources is more harmful than the same from plant sources. This is because animal protein contains purines, which indirectly lead to the formation of kidney stones.
4. Causes Bone Loss:
High protein content in your body causes the calcium to leech from your bones (4). Alternately, calcium is also lost through the urine and excreted via the kidneys much like proteins. Urinary calcium loss increased by 55% in individuals who had a high protein and low carbohydrate diet.
5. Constipation:
Excess protein has an adverse effect on the intestines. Restricting yourself from eating any food group directly removes the benefits of the said group. Here, a high protein diet restricts you from having enough fiber. This causes major constipation issues along with other intestinal irritations.
The most popular sources of protein diet such as meat, fish, dairy and eggs do not contain fiber. However, plant sources like vegetables, fruits, and grains have good fiber content.
6. Heart Diseases:
A typical protein rich diet is high in bad cholesterol and saturated fat as most of this diet features meat sources. This contributes to the development of high LDL cholesterol levels in the cardiovascular system (5). Perhaps one might have minimized their carbohydrate intake, still the fat percentage in their body is at an all time high. Anyone on a protein rich diet is placing their heart at risk.
7. Nutritional Deficiencies:
With absolute focus on a high protein diet, or maybe for love for a certain type of food, you might have been missing out on eating many vitamin-filled foods. It is important to know that our body needs glucose and other nutrients to generate high performance. This holds particularly true for body builders, whose efforts to create muscle sometimes makes them ignore the importance of a strong immune system.
Research says enough proteins, along with glucose, fatty acids, and vitamins, are absolutely essential for wound healing (6).
8. Aggravates Neuropathy:
High protein diets play a role in worsening diabetes. Few of the symptoms of diabetes include cardiovascular disease, renal impairment and diabetic neuropathy. Diabetics on a diet that induces ketoacedois are at a risk of aggravating their existing symptoms (7).
9. Gallbladder Conditions:
Excess protein in the diet leads to many issues with the gallbladder, such as gallstones, cholestasis, and gallbladder inflammation. When unchecked, it can result in the removal of the gallbladder. Again, only those who have more of high-meat foods are at a risk of contracting these conditions. Comparatively, vegetarian sources of protein fare better.
10. Cancer Risk:
Recent studies have hinted at the possibility that excess protein may be adding fuel to cancer cell growth. A lack of fiber and carbohydrates in the diet, coupled with consumption of red meat is a contributing factor towards developing colorectal cancer. Besides, the cooking processes used in cooking meat were also found to add certain carcinogens to the food. Adding fiber containing foodstuff was found to correct the problem.
Considering the unseemly health implications of sticking to a single food group, one must consider the pros and cons of changing their diet drastically. As this post teaches us, a high protein diet has many side effects, the least of which is weight gain.
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