What Are The Dangers Of High Protein After Ketosis?
We all know that protein is a good thing, you need high protein for muscle building, you need protein for bone health, you need protein for your immune system, hormone synthesis, and so on.
That’s why everyone is reckless with protein, and many people promote high-protein diets. However, high-protein diets are not necessarily for everyone or even most people.
Too much protein can cause discomfort
After the low-carbon diet, we eat more meat, and many people are prone to protein overdose. To address this issue, we’ve found that many of our friends experience too much protein intake when they’re ketogenic. The risks that come with this are not just weakness and dizziness but can lead to many other problems.
→ High protein leads to risks such as back pain.
If your body doesn’t need as much protein as it should, the extra protein can put a burden on the kidneys. If you notice pain in your lower back after drinking an extra protein shake, or if you ate a large steak the day before, your kidneys may be causing the pain.
→ Increased metabolic protein waste
The proteins that a person eats are digested in the intestines to form ammonia, which is toxic and needs to be processed by the liver to synthesize urea to be detoxified, and then metabolized by the kidneys and excreted from the body.
This process involves two important organs – the liver and the kidney – and any error on either side will prevent the ammonia from being metabolized smoothly. Understood from this point of view, the disadvantages associated with a high-protein diet become obvious.
Short-term discomforts that may be caused by a high-protein diet：
→ Dizziness
The liver has a limited ability to process ammonia, and when excess ammonia cannot be converted into urea, this toxic ammonia re-enters the bloodstream and poisons the brain, causing dizziness and possibly disrupting the nervous system.
→ Joint pain
A high-protein diet rich in red meat increases the amount of uric acid in the blood, causing joint pain.
→ Bad breath
On the one hand, high-protein diets tend to be very low in carbohydrates, and a person may enter a ketogenic state and develop bad breath. On the other hand, consuming too much protein may leave excess amino acids in the mouth, which combine with anaerobic bacteria in the mouth and may form sulfides, causing bad breath.
→ Dehydration
The body needs water to break down proteins, and when you eat too much protein, you will urinate more. When the body is dehydrated, it will naturally feel thirsty often and may be accompanied by headache symptoms.
→ Fatigue and lethargy
After a big meal, people sometimes feel a sense of emptiness and fatigue, and they become sluggish and lethargic. There may be many reasons for this feeling.
First of all, when the body is trying to digest, it sends out a lot of “energy” to concentrate in the intestines, and when the brain is deprived of energy, the person becomes lethargic, sluggish, and lazy.
Secondly, beef, chicken, and other meat proteins rich in tryptophan, tryptophan can help synthesize serotonin and melatonin, so that people are calm sedate, and drowsy.
Finally, after eating a high-protein meal, the gluconeogenesis process causes fluctuations in blood sugar, which your body sees as a stressor, leading to fluctuations in cortisol and making you feel fatigued.
If you have a meal and experience one or more of these symptoms, you may be eating too much protein and can try reducing the protein in your diet. If it’s just an occasional high-protein meal that’s okay, your body will slowly recover by adjusting your diet after some discomfort. What we want to avoid are the risks that a long-term high-protein diet can bring.
Long-term high protein diet, possible risks
Excessive protein intake can produce serious discomforts such as low back pain, edema, fatigue, foamy urine, and dizziness. Here’s a breakdown of the dangers of too much protein intake over a long period:
→ High protein leads to increased homocysteine
There have been many studies that have found that high protein diets increase homocysteine levels, which may be something to watch out for in the elderly with heart disease.
→ Chronic high protein increases the burden on the kidneys
For people who already have chronic kidney disease, a high-protein diet can add to the damage to the kidneys. If the kidneys themselves have problems, a high-protein diet will increase the burden on the kidneys, which will only make the situation “worse”. But for healthy people, there is no need to worry too much.
A study of more than 1,000 healthy women found that high protein intake did not negatively affect kidney function, but may worsen kidney disease.
Conclusions: High protein intake was not associated with renal function decline in women with normal renal function. However, high total protein intake, particularly high intake of nondairy animal protein, may accelerate renal function decline in women with mild renal insufficiency.
→ Exacerbate liver disease
If the liver is already damaged, consuming large amounts of protein can increase the load on the liver and lead to the accumulation of harmful waste products in the body.
→ Hyperammonemia
When too much protein is eaten, the excess ammonia in the body is not processed effectively and re-enters the bloodstream, causing hyperammonemia.
→ Weight gain
Although protein tends to make people feel full, eating too much of it regularly and taking in a lot of extra calories can still make people gain weight. Moreover, many high-protein foods, such as flavored yogurt, have a lot of extra sugar added for better taste. They constantly stimulate your appetite and make you eat a lot without realizing it, which in the long run will make you slowly gain weight.
→ May lead to osteoporosis
Too much protein intake produces a lot of acids in your body fluids, and these acids need calcium to neutralize them. Some of this calcium comes from the bones, and over time, it may affect the normal growth of bones.
→ Increased risk of cardiovascular disease
In January 2020, a study revealed for the first time that consuming excess protein stimulates macrophage mTOR signaling and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. High protein diets increase cardiovascular risk by activating macrophage mTOR inhibiting mitochondrial autophagy.
→ Rabbit starvation
On a more extreme note, eating only lean meat for a long time may also cause rabbit starvation.
When the Indians of North America could only eat rabbit meat (very lean), they developed a condition of extreme hunger called ‘rabbit starvation’. With rabbit starvation, nausea can occur in as little as 3 days, severe weakness can occur after 12 days, and there may even be a risk of death within a few weeks.
How much protein should you eat?
There has been a great deal of controversy about protein intake, and there are many factors to consider, such as a person’s size, health, muscle mass, exercise level, and digestive function.
According to Harvard Medical School’s recommendation, the daily intake (RDA) of protein is 0.8g/kg (body weight).
For example, for a person weighing 70 kilograms, approximately 56g of protein is needed per day, which is equivalent to about 250 grams of steak. This is the minimum amount needed to stay healthy, and the amount of protein needed or able to be consumed varies for different kinds of people.
→ Generally healthy people
If you are well, all indicators are normal and your kidneys are healthy. But eating too much protein appears uncomfortable, you can reduce the protein appropriately, strictly according to the standard, or reduce.
People who are going ketogenic can eat a small amount of carbohydrates (around 50g, just keep it low carb) and increase fat appropriately. Fats are delicate and lubricating to eat, and foods that don’t have fat (think lean meats) tend to lack a bit of flavor and are so dry on the palate that it’s hard to swallow. Eating more fat isn’t that hard to do – you can eat chicken with the skin on, or opt for pate and fatty meats. But be careful and choose healthy fats.
→ Children and teenagers
Children and teenagers are in a critical period of growth and development, the diet can be appropriate to increase a little protein, but the daily intake is best not to exceed 1.5g / kg body weight.
→ Frequent sports and fitness do strength training
If you often exercise fitness, do high-intensity exercise, muscle fiber tear, and need protein to repair, then you can eat more protein appropriately.
According to the recommendations of an article in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, athletes who do a lot of strength training should consume 1.4-2g/kg (body weight) of protein per day, (or 12% to 15% of their daily calorie intake).
For most athletes, don’t exceed 3g of protein, per kilogram of body weight, per day. We need to keep in mind that excess protein will not only be wasted but may also have negative effects on the body.
→ People with liver or kidney disease
For people with liver or kidney disease, protein intake should be minimized to reduce the burden on the liver and kidneys. It is recommended to consult with your doctor for details on exactly how much to reduce. If you don’t have any problems with your liver and kidneys, eating protein normally is usually not a cause for concern.
It is advisable to supplement protein through food, and there is no need to consume large amounts of supplements. Food sources of good quality protein include eggs, meat, fish, and poultry.
→ Older people without muscle
Muscle is important for older people, but you won’t grow muscle just by eating meat, you also need to do high-intensity strength training. If you’re not doing exercise and tearing muscle fibers, overconsumption of protein is not recommended either. Just eat according to 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight, and even reduce it to 0.6-0.7 grams per kilogram if you have very little muscle mass left. The risk of overdosing on protein is also high in older people.