by Arman Mirkazemi · posted 3 months ago

How much protein in your food is enough?

Check out any fitness product, magazine or blog and everyone's taking about increasing protein intake. Every second recipe is advertised as healthy simply because it's 'high protein', packed with energy. But how much protein is enough and are there any side effects to consuming too much?

It's true that protein is one of the major building blocks to the human body. In fact a 76kg man has about 12kg of protein in his body. Second to water, there's no other substance that makes up more of our physical body! It is found in every single cell, both as a structural measure and in a functional manner (your hormones and enzymes are proteins). So there's no doubt we need it.

What you probably don't realise is that protein is found in every single unrefined plant and animal food – every single one - as it is the building block to life. This means that it is very hard in this day and age to not get enough protein, so long as you have enough food.

In the developing countries this is not the case and children who simply do not get enough food (sometimes not any at all) are at high risk of developing a condition known as Kwashiorkor. Think of the typical picture of a starving child with a bloated stomach – that's Kwashiorkor. And yes, while I admit that's from not getting enough protein, it is mainly from just not getting enough food in general.

Have you seen Kwashiorkor in your local community? If you live in the US, Australia, UK or another similarly developed country, it's highly likely you haven't, and hence it's highly unlikely that anyone in your community has protein deficiency.

Sometimes people confuse anaemia and general tiredness with protein deficiency, but in fact these symptoms are due to deficiencies of other nutrients that are often bundled with animal proteins e.g. vitamin B12 and iron. Treating a person with these symptoms with high protein foods like meat does help reverse these symptoms, but the symptoms themselves are not caused by a lack of protein in the diet.

So how much protein do we need?

The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend adults consume between 46g to 56g of protein each day – roughly 10 to 35% of your daily calorie intake – for optimum health.[1]

What does an optimum protein consumption for an adult look like?

1 cup of cow's milk (i.e. your normal 'dairy' milk) has roughly 8g of protein
1 cup of soy milk has roughly 7g of protein
A 3 ounce (~100g) lean steak has 23g of protein
A cup of mushrooms have 3g protein
A cup of brown rice has 4.5g protein
A cup of lentils have 17.9g protein
Half a cup of cooked spinach has 5.3g protein
A potato has 2.5g of protein

What if I want to become a body builder?

The recommendations by the CDC are for general health. If you want to pack on some serious muscle, then you'll need to be eating a heck of a lot of food, which means more protein as well. General rule of thumb is to stick to a maximum of 35% of calorie intake from protein: up to 350g for a person eating 4000 calories a day. My personal recommendation is to try get your increased protein requirements from whole foods, but I know many body builders find it hard in general to eat that much food through the day and often resort to protein shakes. Over time you will find what works for you, but do keep whole foods in mind when you can.

Are there any health hazards to eating more protein?

In the short-term, no. Long-term effects are currently highly debated with some studies showing that diets high in protein may be associated with higher rates of heart disease, potentially osteoporosis and cancer (particularly protein sourced diets from animal foods like eggs, meat and dairy including whey). [3] Having said that, more research is needed to confirm all these associations once and for all.

High protein diets are also associated with causing or worsening kidney problems and liver disease. If you have either of these conditions it is important you discuss significant dietary changes with your doctor.[4]

Do you need to eat certain foods together to get whole proteins?

You've probably heard that there are both complete and incomplete proteins in food. This classification is based on how closely the amino acid make-up of the food-protein resembles the proteins in our body. Complete proteins are classified as proteins which have all of the essential amino acids in them. Complete proteins tend to be animal proteins however Quinoa is the only plant-source of complete protein.

All other protein foods are classified as 'incomplete' proteins because they are missing one or more essential amino acids. But not to worry – all of the essential amino acids can be found in plant foods, you just need to eat more than one whole food in your diet! In the past we were always told that vegetarians must eat meals that have foods with complimentary amino acids (that is, food combinations that together give you all the amino acids you need). Some common examples were brown rice and lentils, toast and baked beans etc.

These days we know that this planning is not required as the body is able to do the combining of amino acids you eat on a daily basis (i.e. not just in one meal) so long as you eat a range of whole foods.[1] So don't let protein deficiency scares stop you from taking the plunge to trying a few vegetarian dishes now and then.