High Protein Stymies Hunger
New research illustrates how protein helps keep hunger at bay. Julie Steenhuysen of Reuters reports:
1. Kasiske, B.L., J.D. Lakatua, J.Z. Ma, and T.A. Louis. 1998. A meta-analysis of the effects of dietary protein restriction on the rate of decline of renal function. Am. J. Kidney Dis. 31 (6): 954-61; Holm, E.A., and K. Solling. 1996. Dietary protein restriction and progression of chronic renal insufficiency: a review of literature. J. Intern. Med. 239 (2): 99-104.
2. Brenner, B.M., T.W. Meyer, and T.H. Hostetter. 1982. Dietary protein intake and the progressive nature of kidney disease: the role of the hemodynamically mediated glomerular injury in the pathogensis of progressive glomerular sclerosis in aging, renal ablation and intrinsic renal disease. N. Eng. J. Med. 307 (11): 652-59.
3. Clark, B. 2000. Biology of renal aging in humans. Adv. Ren. Replace. Ther. 7 (1): 11-21.
4. Rosman, J.B. 1995. Protein restriction in diet therapy in chronic kidney insufficiency. Ther. Umsch. 52 (8): 515-18; Zeller, K.R. 1991. Low-protein diets in renal disease. Diabetes care 14 (9): 856-66.
5. Fouque, D., P. Wang, M. Laville, and J.P. Boissel. 2000. Low protein diets delay end-stage renal disease in non-diabetic adults with chronic renal failure. Nephrol. Dial. Transplant 15 (12): 1986-92.
The study, which will appear in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, looked at the effectiveness of different nutrients at suppressing ghrelin, a hormone secreted by the stomach that stimulates appetite.Now, please don’t use this as an excuse to consume excess amounts of protein. Dr. Fuhrman gives one huge reason why that isn’t a good idea. Check it out:
"Suppression of ghrelin is one of the ways that you lose your appetite as you begin to eat and become sated," said Dr. David Cummings of the University of Washington in Seattle, who worked on the study.
The researchers gave 16 people three different beverages, each with varying levels of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. They took blood samples before the first beverage, then every 20 minutes for six hours afterward, measuring ghrelin levels in each sample.
"The interesting findings were that fats suppress ghrelin quite poorly," Cummings said in a telephone interview. They fared the poorest overall.
"Proteins were the best suppressor of ghrelin in terms of the combination of the depth and duration of suppression," he said. "That is truly satisfying because high proteins are essentially common to almost all of the popular diets."
To make matters even worse, you pay an extra penalty from a diet so high in fat and protein to generate a chronic ketosis. Besides the increased cancer risk, your kidneys are placed under greater stress and will age more rapidly. It can take many, many years for such damage to be detected by blood tests. By the time the blood reflects the abnormality, irreversible damage may have already occurred. Blood tests that monitor kidney function typically do not begin to detect problems until more than 90 percent of the kidneys have been destroyed.Protein is truly misunderstood. Just read Bodybuilding Diet, Bad Idea.
Protein is metabolized in the liver, and the nitrogenous wastes generated are broken down and then excreted by the kidney. These wastes must be eliminated for the body to maintain normal purity and a stable state of equilibrium. Most doctors are taught in medial school that a high-protein diet ages the kidney.1 What has been accepted as the normal age-related loss in renal function may really be a cumulative injury secondary to the heavy pressure imposed on the kidney by our high-protein eating habits.2
By the eighth decade of life, Americans lost about 30 percent of their kidney function.3 Many people develop kidney problems at young ages under the high-protein stress. Low-protein diets are routinely used to treat patients with liver and kidney failure.4 A recent multitrial analysis showed that reducing protein intake for patients with kidney disease decreased kidney-related death by about 40 percent.5
1. Kasiske, B.L., J.D. Lakatua, J.Z. Ma, and T.A. Louis. 1998. A meta-analysis of the effects of dietary protein restriction on the rate of decline of renal function. Am. J. Kidney Dis. 31 (6): 954-61; Holm, E.A., and K. Solling. 1996. Dietary protein restriction and progression of chronic renal insufficiency: a review of literature. J. Intern. Med. 239 (2): 99-104.
2. Brenner, B.M., T.W. Meyer, and T.H. Hostetter. 1982. Dietary protein intake and the progressive nature of kidney disease: the role of the hemodynamically mediated glomerular injury in the pathogensis of progressive glomerular sclerosis in aging, renal ablation and intrinsic renal disease. N. Eng. J. Med. 307 (11): 652-59.
3. Clark, B. 2000. Biology of renal aging in humans. Adv. Ren. Replace. Ther. 7 (1): 11-21.
4. Rosman, J.B. 1995. Protein restriction in diet therapy in chronic kidney insufficiency. Ther. Umsch. 52 (8): 515-18; Zeller, K.R. 1991. Low-protein diets in renal disease. Diabetes care 14 (9): 856-66.
5. Fouque, D., P. Wang, M. Laville, and J.P. Boissel. 2000. Low protein diets delay end-stage renal disease in non-diabetic adults with chronic renal failure. Nephrol. Dial. Transplant 15 (12): 1986-92.
