Excess protein is affecting you and you don't even realize it.
Your cells are, and they are paying the consequences.
How much protein should I eat per day?
This is one of the questions that has generated and continues to generate the most debate regarding nutrition, leading both athletes and people with health problems to a total lack of knowledge, following official recommendations, which are neither adequate nor healthy.
The daily amount of protein needed is subject to many variables, and these should always be taken into account when making a nutritional approach.
According to official recommendations, You should consume 0.8 g of protein per kg of body weight per day , but this amount may vary depending on the body's metabolic activity (age, exercise, intellectual performance, illness, etc.).
I have been able to verify through hundreds of analyses that the vast majority of people are exceeding the amount of protein, and, unlike carbohydrates and fats (which can accumulate in glycogen or triglycerides), protein cannot accumulate, and the excess generates a health problem.
I was able to verify in each of the cases how this situation was generating a negative and harmful impact on them, given that the amount was greater than what the cells were needing, since it could not accumulate.
All that amount of Protein that we don't need generates a greater production of toxic substances or that can behave as toxic (ammonia, urea, uric acid, phosphoric acid, sulfuric acid, etc.) as a consequence of their metabolism, and this excess (which is not useful for our internal functions) generates an increase in oxidative stress (free radicals), and damage to the entire organism.
Remember, the more free radicals you have, the more toxins and cell damage you will suffer.
It is important to contribute Protein from different sources (not just animal) , since those of animal origin are the ones that generate the greatest amount of acidic waste, as they contain a greater amount of sulfur-containing amino acids (methionine, cysteine), which generate a greater amount of sulfuric and phosphoric acid when metabolized (negatively impacting the cell level).
You should look for the perfect ratio between animal/vegetable protein, since it will not only help you obtain the amino acids your body needs, but also minimize the substances produced by its own catabolism, which behave as toxic substances.
When you consume excessive amounts of protein (especially animal protein), the amount of acids generated during amino acid metabolism can exceed the kidneys' capacity to eliminate them. This can lead to a net acid load in the body, meaning there are more acids circulating than the body can efficiently remove.
I have shown you a series of substances that can cause damage to the body as a result of protein processing, but I would like to refer specifically to one of them, since it is not taken into consideration, and I'm sure it will surprise you because you will not have heard or read about it.
“Hydrogen ions.”
When you consume protein, the body breaks down the amino acids that make it up through a process called “amino acid catabolism.” During this process, some amino acids release hydrogen atoms and ammonium ions.
These hydrogen atoms released during amino acid metabolism combine with bicarbonate in the body's acid-base balance system. This forms carbonic acid, which then breaks down into hydrogen and bicarbonate ions.
“Hydrogen ions are acidic, so the more there are in the body, the greater the toxic and harmful load will be.
And although our body is wise and every second of our existence is doing its best to maintain an acid-base balance (through the kidneys and lungs working together to regulate hydrogen concentration), excess protein will generate a greater metabolic disturbance, causing our organs and regulatory systems to work much harder than they should.
Therefore, moderating the amount of protein consumed in grams will help prevent these regulatory systems from having to work overtime.
I would like to explain another complication regarding excess protein, and that is related to the impact on liver enzymes, and in general to the impairment or decrease in liver function.
The liver plays a fundamental role in protein metabolism and amino acid breakdown, so a high protein load can negatively affect liver enzymes, as I will show you below:
When we consume an excessive amount of protein, our liver must process and metabolize a greater number of amino acids, and this process can increase the metabolic load on the liver, requiring additional effort from the enzymes to do their job.
This situation means that other functions it has to perform may be affected or interrupted, leading not only to an increase in toxic load (as we have seen previously), but also to a decrease in metabolic functions in that organ (due to the liver stress generated by the excess of proteins).
What could this situation lead to?
This excessive workload on the liver to process and eliminate such a large amount of protein could disrupt other processes that must be carried out simultaneously in that organ (glucose production, detoxification, lipid metabolism, etc.), so imagine what could happen at an organic level (problems with glycogen production and degradation, problems with triglyceride production, etc.) if we consume more grams of protein than we need.
Did you know that one of the most important vitamins for the human body is vitamin B6?
Did you know that quite a few people are experiencing problems with a deficiency/insufficiency in this vitamin, leading to health problems and poor athletic performance?
Do you want to know where the most B6 is spent?
In transamination and deamination, a process that occurs at the hepatic level, as a consequence of protein intake, the more protein you take, the more B6 you will use up.
It's curious, isn't it, that this excess of protein not only leads directly to everything I've explained, but can also indirectly lead to a decrease in a vital vitamin for hundreds of processes and metabolic pathways fundamental to health… (synthesis of neurotransmitters, hemoglobin, metabolism of carbohydrates and lipids, immunity, etc.)
It is important that you keep in mind all of this that I have explained to you, since all those grams of protein that you do not need will generate a greater increase in internal toxins, greater oxidative stress due to excess free radicals, as well as general damage to the entire organism.
I recommend not exceeding 0.8g/kg/day for sedentary people, 1.2g for amateur athletes, and 1.5g for high-performance athletes. Anything more than these amounts (no matter how much some people insist on believing that more is better) will only lead to a negative impact.
Over the years, I have observed how many people who took too much protein with the intention of gaining muscle mass were being negatively affected, preventing a proper anabolic (building) process from taking place.
It is a biochemical reality: the more oxidative molecules your body has, the more difficulty you will have in growing (generating an anabolic state), because these substances cause damage at the cellular level, and there will be a tendency to generate catabolism (destruction).
The more substances (like the ones I've mentioned) your body has, the harder it will be to gain muscle mass.
This is what I have been able to see throughout my clinical experience (both therapeutic and sports-related), and how people who reduced that excessive amount of daily protein to a logical and optimal level achieved better results.
And the same thing happens at a pathological or dysfunctional level. If your body is experiencing a problem and is trying to repair, regenerate, and restore order where there is disorder, this excess of protein/amino acids and toxic byproducts of these substances will only worsen the situation, preventing the health alteration from being restored and adding even more damage as a consequence of this excess protein that serves no purpose and is burdening and damaging at the cellular level.
Remember what I'm about to tell you:
More protein doesn't necessarily mean better results (neither in sports nor in therapy), and this isn't just Dani Ciscar saying it; it's something that tests and analyses reflecting the reality of the situation have shown and continue to show every day.
This topic is very broad and complex; I would need to write a book to explain everything in depth and with greater complexity, but I hope this brief summary can help you understand the most important aspects of protein intake.
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