Disclaimer: I'm not an MD
>1. Since starting a Paleo diet, most of my calories come from red meat,
>chicken and fish. I do have some vegetables and an occasional piece of
>fruit. Am I risking my kidneys or anything for that matter by eating so much
>protein?
I think that this is a hotly contested question. Clearly, too much protein
will impair your kidney function, but if you have healthy kidneys then you
can handle quite a bit. The problem is, I do not think it has been
clinically proven how much you can handle. If you have a kidney disease or
other problem, then excess protein is *clearly* dangerous.
When I was placed on a cholesterol lowering diet to combat the 10W-40 which
I had for blood, here was my prescribed daily diet:
Food # servings calories protein carb fat
Dairy 2 180 16 24 0
Vegetable 4 100 8 20 0
Fruit 4 240 0 60 0
Bread 9 720 27 135 9
Lean Meat 4 220 28 0 12
Fat Free Meat 3 165 21 0 0
Fat 3 135 0 0 15
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------
Total: 1760 100 239 36
To give you an idea of the serving sizes: 1 fat is 1 teaspoon of oil, 1
serving of meat is 1 ounce of chicken breast, 1 dairy is 1 cup of skim
milk, 1 bread is 1 slice of bread, etc. If using cheese for dairy, then a
fat is deducted.
Now using a database, I had tracked what I ate, and the protein came in a
bit lower. For example, most vegetables have less that 2 grams protein per
serving, but we will use the 100 grams per day as a reference.
This amount, 100 gm/day is well in excess of the USRDA requirements for a
6' 3" man at 2xx pounds :-) I was told that to go above this was
dangerous. But realistically, the protein input here is about a large
chicken breast with 2 ounces of cheese (7 meats + 2 dairy) And in fact, it
broke my metabolism and I lost quite a bit of muscle. But I was eating
healthy! :-!
Realize that the recommended RDA levels are for a bed ridden person, that
is, the minimum to survive.
I now try to eat 200 grams of protein/day and I seem to be doing very well.
A registered dietician would tell me that I am killing myself and a lot of
MD's would as well. My current MD has no such problem, he is a body
boulder. If he punched me I'd crumple like tin. :-)
So I can tell you - from experience and not clinical research - that 200
mg/day is not a problem for someone with healthy kidneys. In fact, I have
been known to go higher (240-250) without trouble.
But the actual maximum safe level has not been determined that I know of.
James at Penn State
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