Protein: The importance of consuming enough, how much you should have, and great food sources to get it from.
We all know that protein is a necessary part of a healthy diet
But you may not know how much to be having, from what sources to get it, and whether consuming too much will negatively effect your health.
As long as you don’t have kidney disease or another related medical issue, a high protein diet is not damaging!
Here’s the evidence:
• A study conducted by Antonio et al., 2016, looked at men who were training and consuming up to 3g per kg of bodyweight (which is a massive amount) for a year, and found no harmful effects on blood lipids or liver and kidney function. (1) Another study by the same lab (Antonio et al., 2015) looked at both healthy trained men and women consuming 3.4g per kg of bodyweight, and there was no evidence of any negative effects. There were positive body composition changes though! (2)
It would be very difficult to consume 3g of protein per kg of bodyweight, let alone reach a level of protein consumption that’s considered toxic.
So, you can be confident that increasing your protein intake isn’t going to negatively effect your health – quite the opposite!
Carbone and Pasiakos (2019) concluded that you can have well above the recommended daily intake and there are no negative effects on any of the areas that high protein intake is often blamed for (reduced bone density, kidney damage, inflammation, heart issues and cancer risk). (3)
If you’re not getting enough protein, this is where there are negative effects. It can negatively impact your immune system, skin/hair, neurotransmitters (mood/emotions), cardiovascular functioning, absorption and transport of nutrients and hormones. (3) (5)
If there is a focus on ‘I shouldn’t each too much protein’ and there are guidelines/advice recommending a low daily intake, it may be leading people away from the nutritionally protein dense foods that are are essential for optimal health (and fitness).
And protein aside, as I mentioned in the blog post (Approaching Your Nutrition With Optimism: Fats Are Good?), we have to look at the overall ‘food matrix’ (the whole food rather than individual nutrients). There are other health- and fitness- promoting nutrients in a lot of these protein dense foods too.
When you increase your intake of protein while strength training, you get greater strength and muscle mass gains, it will help you maintain muscle mass if you’re eating less, and will assist in reducing muscle loss when ageing! (3)
I’ve discussed how important muscle mass is here (More Muscle, More Health?) and here (Should I Be Doing Cardio Or Strength Training?), and a high protein intake (especially if you’re ageing) is a very important piece of the puzzle.
If you’re ageing, your body goes through changes that make it more difficult for you to digest and use the protein you’ve consumed, so it’s even more important to place an emphasis on increasing your intake.
It’s also important to emphasise increasing your intake if you’re injured or sick. Due to muscle disuse, and other issues like body-wide inflammation that pop up during these times of injury or sickness, you’re more susceptible to losing muscle mass and strength. Your body also requires more protein for the healing/immune response. (8)
If that isn’t enough good stuff, high protein diets can help you feel fuller and ‘burn more calories’ (4)
So, now you know, when you reach for the protein dense food, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be eating ‘too much protein’ and experience negative effects. Instead, you’ll be ensuring you get enough of an essential nutrient for great health and fitness!
There’s many, but here are a few examples:
• Eggs
• Beef
• Chicken
• Turkey
• Pork
• Fish
• Protein powders
Dairy products
Animal-based protein sources are superior because they are considered complete proteins, are easily digested, and have high bioavailability (your body can access and use the nutrients more effectively). For example, the proteins found in milk, whey, eggs and beef have the highest ‘protein score’. A high protein score reflects the protein’s ‘quality’ and your body’s ability to effectively use the nutrient. (9)
You can still get a good amount of protein from non-animal products, but you will just have to eat a larger quantity to get enough. Higher quantities of non-animal protein is found in foods like:
• Kidney, pinto, black, soy beans
• Dry Seaweed
• Tofu
• Chickpeas
• Lentils
• Nuts & Seeds
If you primarily get your protein from these kinds of foods, a few animal sources in there would be great to balance out missing amino acids and cover your bases for other missing nutrients!
This will vary considerably for the individual but, to keep things simple, and provide a general recommendation, having about 25g-40g of protein from a high quality source with each meal (eg. 3 to 4 meals evenly distributed throughout the day) will probably do the trick for most! (5,6,9)
If you want to work it out specifically for your weight, it’s worth shooting for 1-2g of protein per kg of bodyweight daily.
*Post-strength training workout: I usually encourage a big dose (40g) of a high quality, high ‘leucine’ (an important amino acid for your muscles), rapidly digesting protein source (eg. whey protein shake or eggs) after your strength training workout (a great time to get in a large dose).
A popular method is using the palm of your hand to measure serving sizes. An animal based protein that is roughly the size of your palm will be about 20-30g of protein. If you’re trying to get your protein from non-animal based sources, it would be a significantly greater amount than this and would vary depending on the food source.
The current recommended dietary allowance is 0.8g of protein per kg of bodyweight each day.
However! This is the minimum amount, and if you’re doing some strength training/exercise, and/or you’re ageing/sick, it’s not enough:
For example, elderly adults (55-77) who consumed 0.8g per kg of bodyweight per day lost muscle mass over 14 weeks. Men and women aged 70-79 lost muscle mass over 3 years when they consumed less than 0.8g per kg of bodyweight per day. And if you’re a healthy adult who is performing intense exercise daily and consuming 1g per kg of bodyweight per day, it’s not enough! (5) (9)
You won’t be eating too much protein if you increase your intake to having 25g to 40g of protein from a high quality source with each meal throughout the day. Instead, you’ll be ensuring you support your essential bodily functions, and you’ll be building and maintaining as much muscle as possible which is vital for your long term health and fitness.
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