America’s Obsession with Protein

One of the most common questions I get has to do with protein. There has been a lot of conflicting information and people remain extremely confused about how much protein to intake. One common thing we can agree upon is that in the last century we increased our meat intake in exponential quantities. We know meat is meant to be a side dish, although in America it has changed into a main dish. We also know that producing meat is very hard on the environment. The resources it takes to feed livestock is astounding. Think about all the feed it takes to get a cow to grow to adulthood. The grains in the feed cost time, money,  land, and takes vast amounts of water to produce those grains.

For all purposes, I want you to think of all cheese, egg, and dairy as animal protein. Put it all in the same category as chicken, fish, pork or beef. There is one thing we do know, cholesterol is only produced in animal products. We also know that our body makes all the cholesterol it needs and increased cholesterol in the body can lead to heart disease. However, we also know our body needs protein for many, many body functions. Some of the reasons you need protein for is to make and repair cells, enzymes, and hormones. If we are weight training, exercising and building muscles we often need extra protein to rebuild our muscles. Knowing both of these things, about cholesterol and the bodies need for protein we can see that we must find a balance somehow.

We know that we need certain amino acids in our diets. It is said there are certain amino acids we must ingest because our body does not make them, these are called essential amino acids. We can get these aminos from meat but we are also discovering certain plant proteins also contain these essential amino acids. It is believed that some plants- quinoa, buckwheat, hemp seed, chia, soy, seitan, and spirulina, among others provide the essential amino acids our body requires we get through food.

We know eating too much animal products can be dangerous because it increases the cholesterol in the body but there may be other reasons to curb excessive animal product consumption. There is growing research that shows that animal protein, especially the protein casein, has been linked to proliferation of cancer. I was shocked when I heard this too. If you are like me you are probably very skeptical in accepting this information. I will provide some links at the bottom so you can look at the studies yourself. I do not choose to blindly believe any study, I know studies are often flawed and data can often be twisted. From the years of studying this topic, however, I have seemed to noticed the tendency of the evidence supports plant based diets and highlight many health problems from over-consuming animal products.

According to the book “The China Study”, in America we consume about 15% of our calories from protein, we should aim for 10%, which is about 50-60 grams of protein a day. I am a strong advocate for moderation. If you take away one thing from this article, I think it would be to shift meat to a side dish. Also, opt to skip the animal products more often. However, I do not recommend drastic changes. If we slowly cut down the animal protein, we can add in some of the plant proteins I mentioned, and still meet our protein requirements. Not only will this help our cholesterol levels but it will also help the ease the strain on our natural resources as well.

Studies to review:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4166373/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/diet-high-in-meat-proteins-raises-cancer-risk-for-middle-aged-people/