How Much Protein Should You Eat

[Dr Robyn]

This post is in response to a Wall Street Journal article titled How Much Protein Should You Eat Day? Written by Heidi Mitchell. Sent to us by a member. A picture of the article is attached to this post.

Her words are in quotes with my responses following.

“Most dietitians consider these nutrients (protein) a building block of a healthy diet.”
This is true. Most dietitians do believe that. But they are educated in the same industry sponsored way that medical doctors are. Protein is no more important in your diet than healthy carbs and fat. All three are equally important macro nutrients.

“Our bodies are protein-making machines.”
This is true. We make 13 of the 22 amino acids we need all by ourselves. Nine need to come from our food.

“The best source of this is what we call a complete protein.”
This is false. There is nothing “best” about taking in complete proteins. As long as you get all nine amino acids, which you will by eating a variety of plants, there is zero reason to even think about protein.

She goes on to talk about mixing and matching foods. Which is completely unnecessary.

“You have to eat a heck of a lot of food if you get your protein from plants… Meat is just more efficient.”
In this case “efficient” is bad. The whole point is to eat foods that fill you up, keep you feeling full and give you the other nutrients you need. Not to get the protein you need in as small a package as possible and be done eating. That’s how you end up over-eating calories. Not to mention that meat comes with added things like saturated fat and cholesterol that are bad for our health.

“Servings per serving of lean read meat has no more cholesterol than any other land animal.”
Yep. That’s true. Eating all land animals is equally bad for you. Don’t eat any of them.

“Cooked red meat is the most efficient form of protein.”
That isn’t true. Cooked human flesh is more efficient. Good thing we aren’t going for efficiency in this case.

There is a couple of paragraphs about protein deficiency. The data is correct. HOWEVER – if you are ingesting enough calories you are at exactly ZERO risk of protein deficiency. It’s not a thing. To mention it in this article is fanning a nonexistent flame. Poor journalism as far as I’m concerned.

She mentions at the end that extra protein can tax the liver. In fact, only animal protein taxes the liver. Plant proteins do not.

I sent a letter to the editor of the WSJ with many of the thoughts I have included here. I my knowledge it was not published – unfortunately.

WSJ-HowMuchProtein

[Author]

Posts