Viance Nutrition ~ Health Tips viance Death by Protein? A new study says that a high-protein diet will kill you, but boatloads of carbs are fine. Sound suspect? Youre right. Jim Stoppani goes behind the headlines to bring you the real story! Too much protein is as bad as smoking. Meat and cheese cause early death. High-protein diet linked to aging, cancer, and diabetes. Now we cant eat protein. What can we eat? If youve been able to avoid the barrage of headlines like this that have seemingly taken over the Internet in the last week, consider yourself lucky. It never ceases to amaze me how one single study, once its attached to a memorable hook, can seem like breaking news that every outlet in the world needs to cover without the slightest bit of scrutiny. Now every time you order a double chicken breast with veggies on the side, you run the risk of receiving a snide remark about how all that protein you eat is going to kill you. Many of you have asked me through social media about my take on the study that provoked these stories, and youd better believe I have one. Read on for some ammo to fire back at your friends and family as they butter their fifth piece of white bread to go with their pasta dinner. Running the Numbers The study that everyone is talking about is an epidemiological study from the University of Southern California. An epidemiological study means that they did not actually perform a study in a lab, but simply looked at factors in life to make associations or correlations. The researchers did some further research in mice and yeast to support their hypothesis, but that is a far leap to connect to humans. So I will focus solely on the epidemiological study in humans. In this particular study, the researchers took data from a pre-existing survey known as NHANES III, one of the largest national surveys of health and nutrition done in the United States, assessing about 6,300 people over the age of 50 years old. The authors of the original study collected a wide range of data about their subjects and followed them for 18 years, even analyzing their death rates and cause of death. Armed with this raw data, the authors of the new study separated the subjects into three different groups: 1. High protein: People who consumed 20 percent or more of their daily calories from protein. 2. Low protein: People who consumed 10 percent or less of their daily calories from protein. 3. A middle group between the low and high groups. They reported that, among subjects aged 50-65, people who consumed a high-protein diet, mainly from animal protein, were 75 percent more likely to have died over the next 18 years than people consuming a low-protein diet. These unfortunate individuals also had a fourfold greater risk of dying from cancer, as well as a greater risk of dying from diabetes. On the other hand, in people 65 and older, there was no greater risk of death or death from cancer from eating a high-protein diet. In fact, it seemed that the higher-protein diet in people over 65 decreased the risk of overall death and death from cancer while the low-protein diet increased their risk of death. However, there was still a greater risk of dying from diabetes in all ages eating a higher-protein diet. A Logical Leap Armed with this data, the scientists leapt to the conclusion that anyone age 50-65 should consume a very low-protein diet, where protein represents as low as 10 percent of total daily calories or less. If you consumed 3,000 calories per day, that would equate to 75 grams of protein total per day. If you were down at 2,000 calories per day, that would be just 50 grams! On the other hand, researchers also suggested that people over the age of 65 should consume a high-protein diet, since there is a relationship between higher protein intake and reduced death rates in older people. Thats right: little to no protein for 15 years, and then you should suddenly go back on a high-protein diet at age 65. This, researchers suggest, will prevent muscle loss, frailty with aging, and death. If the study were the extent of what the researchers said, perhaps the article youre reading wouldnt even be necessary. However, the lead researcher, Dr. Valter Longo, went on to state in a much-quoted interview afterward that eating a higher-protein diet is as bad for middle-aged peoples health as smoking cigarettes. That quotable statement has helped fuel the hundreds of stories about this story, and it makes a rebuttal necessary. Luckily, its not difficult to do. Read the full article at: bbcom.me/1nnUqWc
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 15:30:05 +0000