For most healthy people, a high-protein diet is generally not harmful, especially over a short period of time. This type of diet may help you lose weight by making you feel fuller longer. However, long-term intake of excessive protein can harm health and cause disease.

Let’s talk about protein first. Protein is an indispensable nutrient for human health. It is essential for muscle contraction, oxygen acquisition, and the main component of enzymes and hormones. An important by-product of protein metabolism is nitrogen, which is synthesized into urea in the liver and then excreted through the kidneys.

In real life, the harm of long-term high-protein diet mainly includes the following aspects:

1. Affects kidney function

Intake of foods with high protein content Too much will affect kidney function. This is because the nitrogen in protein can be excreted in the urine. However, when the protein intake is too high, the kidney function cannot be overloaded, so some nitrogen will be stored. There are some effects on the body and kidney function.

2. Increase the risk of cardiovascular disease

Most people who like to eat a high-protein diet like to eat meat, which is high in fat, especially saturated fat. Excessive intake of meat is associated with cardiovascular disease. risk.

3. Problems with the glycemic index (GI)

The recommended daily fiber intake for the human body is 25 to 35 grams. If there is too much protein, it may even replace grains, beans, and vegetables. Fruits and other substances will cause insufficient fiber and symptoms such as constipation and edema.

Protein can be converted into fat and sugar in the body. Long-term protein intake, high protein and high fat can easily cause hyperglycemia.

4. Cause bad breath

Eating high-protein foods frequently can easily lead to bad breath. This is because the ingredients in high-protein foods can produce macrolide gases, causing A pungent smell appears in the mouth, and bad breath caused by a high-protein diet is difficult to deal with. Even rinsing the mouth and brushing teeth have no significant effect. This pungent smell comes from the body.

5. Gain weight

A high-protein diet can help lose weight in the short term, but in the long term it can lead to weight gain and cause aging of the face and internal organs. A long-term study of 7,000 adults found that if these people were divided into two groups, those who ate mainly protein and those who only consumed moderate amounts of protein, 90% of the former weighed more than the latter.

6. Cause constipation

High-protein diets often cause constipation. This is because high-protein diets cannot promote gastrointestinal motility. To promote gastrointestinal motility, It is necessary to consume more foods with high fiber content in daily life. A high-protein diet will eventually reduce the intake of fiber, so gastrointestinal defecation will be affected, and constipation is expected, so everyone should pay attention.

7. Other hazards

A high-protein diet will increase the excretion of calcium in the urine, causing calcium loss, which is not conducive to bone health.

Approximately how much protein should you consume?

There is no fixed answer to protein intake, but there can be an average reference. You can usually use the palm of your hand as a standard to know the average amount of protein you should eat. Generally, people who are larger and heavier will have larger palms. If such people want to be healthy, they need more protein.

If calculated according to the average, the daily protein intake of healthy people can refer to a formula, which is weight (kg) * 1.2, that is, if your weight is 60 kilograms, then your daily protein intake The average protein intake is 72 grams, which can be distributed in the three meals of breakfast, lunch and dinner in a ratio of 2:4:4, that is, 14.4 grams for breakfast and 28.8 grams for lunch and dinner.

Of course, we also need to consider the loss of intake, health problems, exercise and body shape. If you are tall, you should increase your intake appropriately. At the same time, if you have health problems and strenuous exercise, you should also increase your intake. Protein intake should be increased.

For healthy people with little activity, the protein intake should be between 0.8 and 1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight.

For people who exercise a lot and engage in physical work, the protein intake should be between 1.2 and 1.8 grams per kilogram of body weight. In order to avoid risks, the protein intake should be as low as 2 grams per kilogram of body weight.