Are You Eating Too Much Protein? The Science Says It's Time to Rethink the Hype

Smart Health Key 5/12 – Quality, Lean, Unprocessed Protein

Whether you're trying to lose weight, protect your heart, manage your cholesterol, or improve your long-term health, the type of protein you eat matters just as much as how much protein you eat.

Protein is essential for your body—but more protein isn't automatically better, and a protein-heavy diet built around fatty or processed foods can come with serious health risks.

The Smart Health approach is simple: choose quality, lean, unprocessed protein sources as much as possible.

Protein is essential for life. In fact, proteins were the first substances recognized as an essential part of living tissue. They're made up of amino acids—the building blocks your body uses to create and maintain muscle, bone, tissue, enzymes, hormones, neurotransmitters, certain vitamins, and your immune system.

Protein also plays an important role in your body's transport systems, moisture balance, and pH regulation. It can be used as a source of energy too, although it's an expensive form of energy for your body to use.

That's why we need protein.

But here's the important part: more protein is not necessarily better.

Not all protein sources are created equal

Amino acids are divided into three groups:

• Essential amino acids must come from your diet because your body cannot produce them. Inadequate intake can cause classic symptoms of protein deficiency.
  

• Non-essential amino acids are equally important for your body, but your body can produce them itself.
  

• Conditionally essential amino acids are normally produced adequately by your body, but under certain circumstances—such as illness or other stressors—you may not be able to produce enough.

Protein sources can also be divided into animal proteins and plant proteins.

Animal proteins are complete proteins, meaning they provide sufficient quantities of all the essential amino acids needed for protein synthesis and its many functions in the body. They're also valuable sources of nutrients such as iron, zinc, selenium, calcium (particularly from dairy), and B-vitamins.

But the quality of the food that comes with the protein matters.

Lean meat, chicken, fish, eggs, organ meats, and lower-fat dairy are nutrient-dense choices.

As processing of protein increases—and as the fat (and bad type of fat) and salt content increases—the nutritional quality of the food can change dramatically.

A fatty, processed meat product is not nutritionally equivalent to a piece of lean, unprocessed meat.

Processed protein products include sausages (like boerewors, viennas, russians, chipolata, etc.), cold meats, tinned meats, fish cakes, fish fingers, nuggets, and similar products. These should ideally not replace quality, unprocessed protein sources.

This is particularly important for children. When children already have limited food preferences, small appetites, and high nutritional requirements, every food choice needs to deliver as much nutritional value as possible.

Replacing quality protein with foods like Vienna sausages and fish fingers can mean replacing valuable nutrients with excess (bad) fat, salt, and highly processed ingredients.

The problem with high-protein diets

Protein is an essential nutrient, but your body has no storage system for surplus amino acids.

When you consume more protein than your body needs, the excess has to be broken down. The nitrogen-containing waste products are converted into urea and excreted through the kidneys. The extra energy is also stored as fat.

A chronic high protein load can place additional strain on the kidneys and increase the risk of chronic kidney failure/disease (CKD).

High-protein diets have also been associated with an increased risk of osteoporosis and heart disease. And remember this, if you don't have carbs with protein, your body has to use some of the expensive protein for energy and then the amount left to build your muscle is much less.

Adequate protein is important for healthy bones and joints. But too much protein can increase calcium excretion, which can increase the risk of osteoporosis.

High protein intake can also contribute to elevated uric acid levels. The resulting uric acid crystals can accumulate in areas including the kidneys and joints, contributing to gout and joint damage.

And then there's the issue of red meat...

Research from the World Cancer Research Fund indicates that high red meat intake is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer.

The way meat is preserved and cooked also matters. Meat, fish, and chicken that have been preserved with nitrates and nitrites, smoked, salted, or dried—or cooked at very high temperatures, particularly directly over flames—can produce carcinogenic substances.

Yes, this includes our beloved barbequed meat.

We're not saying you can never enjoy a barbeque. We're saying that how often you eat red meat, how much you eat, with what you combine it and how you prepare it all matter.

There's another issue too: meat is often the vehicle for a lot of unnecessary salt and fat.

So while moderate amounts of animal protein can be advantageous, it is absolutely possible to have too much of a good thing.

Protein usually doesn't come alone

One gram of protein provides 17kJ of energy. But protein rarely arrives on your plate by itself.

Fat is often its companion—and fat contains more than double the energy per gram compared with protein.

That means reducing the fat that comes with your protein is one of the most effective ways to reduce your total energy intake, particularly if you're trying to lose weight.

The good news is that South African meat has become significantly leaner over the years. Due to changes in animal breeding, the fat content of red meat has decreased from approximately 32% to about 13% over the last 60 years. This is unfortunately not the case in the USA, where meat contains more marbled fat and extra care has to be taken to NOT consume too much fatty meat.

You can reduce it even further by trimming visible fat before cooking. In some cases, this can bring the fat content below 10% and, with extra-lean mince, to as little as 5%.

Look for cuts where the fat sits outside the muscle, rather than marbled throughout it. Fat that's visible on the outside can be removed. Marbled fat, which sits between the muscle fibres, is much harder to eliminate.

For example:

• Choose loin chops over ribs.

• Choose silverside over brisket.

• Choose shoulder bacon over streaky bacon.

• Choose lean pork and chicken, and remove visible fat/skin before cooking.

If removing the fat affects the flavour, use herbs, pepper, spices, marinades, or salad dressings to add flavour—but keep an eye on the total kJ content.

South African mutton and lamb is also significantly lower in fat than older figures based on US meat. Choosing South African meat supports local producers while giving you a product with known nutritional value.

Grass-fed animals also tend to have a more favourable fat composition than animals raised in feeding pens. Venison, for example, contains approximately one-third the fat of other red meats, making it a naturally lean choice.

What about processed meat?

Processed meat generally contains more fat and sodium and has a lower nutritional quality than pure, unprocessed meat.

Wors, sausages, salami, mixed cold meats, meat loaves, patties, and similar products can contain two to three times more fat than ordinary meat. Rather choose pure meat such as cooked beef, silverside, pastrami with the fat removed, cooked ham, or shoulder ham.

If you do choose processed meat, look for lower-fat, lower-sodium options. And remember: beef jerky, biltong, and dry wors aren't "free" foods.

Biltong (especially game and ostrich biltong or beef biltong with the fat removed) is generally a healthier choice than dry wors because it contains substantially less concentrated fat, but both can be high in sodium. Biltong also contains a significant amount of energy, so it still counts towards your overall red meat and total kJ intake.

How much protein do you actually need?

This is where things get interesting. The guideline for adequate protein intake, with an eye on limiting kidney disease, is approximately 0.8g of protein per kilogram of body weight.

The International Meat Secretariat's Symposium on Protein Requirements recommends at least 1.1g/kg body weight for maintaining muscle and bone mass, with 1.2–1.5g/kg recommended for athletes.

For most people, 1–1.5g of protein per kilogram of body weight works out to approximately 20% of your total kJ intake—enough to meet your needs without overdoing it, unless you already have kidney damage.

Rather than consuming huge amounts of protein in one sitting, it's better to spread your intake throughout the day.

A regular, smaller portion of approximately 21–25g of pure protein—which comes from roughly 100g of lean meat, fish, chicken, egg or cheese—three times a day is preferred for better protein retention, particularly in active people and after exercise. However, don't eat more than one whole egg per day and those with high cholesterol should linmit eggs to one egg every second day.

Cancer prevention recommendations also suggest limiting cooked red meat to a maximum of 500g per week.

So, what should you actually eat?

Here's the Smart Health approach to getting enough protein without overdoing it:

1. Spread your protein throughout the day. Include a small portion of protein with each meal rather than consuming most of your daily protein in one enormous serving. This is especially important for people 60+, to help prevent sarcopenia.

2. Keep meat portions moderate. Use smaller portions of lean meat and supplement your meals with plant proteins such as beans, lentils, split peas, and soya, which can actually help to protect you from CKD.

3. Eat more legumes. Aim for at least 2 cups of cooked beans per week, divided into four ½-cup portions. Add beans or lentils to mince dishes, lasagne, stews, curries, salads, or rice dishes. They're an easy way to increase your plant protein intake while reducing your reliance on meat. The Eating for Sustained Energy recipe books, available from www.gifoundation.com shows you how to incorporate legumes into everyday dishes.

4. Choose variety. Eggs, fish, chicken, venison, turkey, beans, lentils, beans and soya all offer different nutritional benefits. Choosing mostly unprocessed protein sources also means you have much more control over how much salt and added fat you're consuming.

5. Don't forget eggs and dairy. Aim for approximately 1 egg every second day, but no more than 1 egg per day if you're healthy, along with at least 2 portions of low-fat dairy per day. Different protein sources are particularly valuable after exercise to support muscle recovery.

6. Consider the source of your meat. Venison and meat from grass-fed, free-ranging animals can offer a more favourable fat composition. With red meat, remove visible fat wherever possible.

7. Pay attention to how you cook your protein. Cooking methods may be one of the most important aspects of protein intake, particularly when it comes to cancer risk. Preserving methods such as pickling, smoking, and salting can be problematic, as can cooking (espeically fatty) meat at very high temperatures. Thus, remove fat from meat before the braai or swap chicken or fish for meat.

For everyday meals, prefer gentler cooking methods such as steaming, stewing, and boiling. Limit frying in fat and cooking directly over high flames.

The bottom line

Your body absolutely needs protein. But you don't need to build every meal around a giant steak, pile your plate with meat, or follow a high-protein diet to be healthy.

The goal isn't to eat as much protein as possible. It's to eat enough of the right kind.

Choose quality, lean, unprocessed protein.

Keep portions moderate and combine with low GI carbs, good fat and veg.

Spread your protein throughout the day.

Include more plant proteins.

Limit processed meat and excessive red meat.

And pay attention to how you prepare your food.

Because when it comes to protein, more isn't automatically better—and quality matters.

That's the Smart Health approach: enough protein to support your body, without turning your diet into a protein overload.

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AUTHOR: ELIZABETH (LIESBET) DELPORT - Registered Dietitian, M.Sc. Dietetics.

Liesbet Delport has over 40 years of experience helping over 10,000 people improve their health through practical, evidence-based nutrition.

After struggling with her own weight as a teenager, Liesbet learned that lasting health isn't about willpower or another restrictive diet. Her approach is simple: people aren't failing, the diets are. She helps people build a balanced, delicious way of eating they can actually follow for life.