In the last years, more and more people have abused high-protein diets in order to achieve weight loss very quickly.
Proteins are in fact known to minimize the decrease of the basal metabolic rate and lean body mass loss. Moreover, proteins have a great satiety index: these are briefly the main aspects that contribuite to the success of high-protein diets.
Looking at the statistics, the proportion of energy from proteins is increasing, even here in Italy and above all amongst young people: and that’s without considering supplements intake.
But, when an excess protein intake is really excessive?
In the 30s an important scientific study was published about the excessive consumption of proteins by early explorers. It was clear that extreme protein diet was leading to a condition in which symptoms included nausea and diarrhea followed by death within 2 to 3 weeks.
This syndrome was explained as the inability of the human liver to break down large loads of proteins.
A similar condition was described by Charles Darwin in one of his books.
So it seems there is a threshold that our organism can tolerate, and when this is over stepped the consequences can be very serious.
When it comes to high-protein diets, often people are unaware of the many long-term potential risks, as liver and kidney damage, expecially among people at risk, but nowadays there are no studies that describe in details what could happen to our organism.
The issue is very complicated and before taking up an high-protein regime it would be advisable to always consult an expert in Nutrition.

 

[cml_media_alt id='1531']Cinzia Scarcelli - 10[/cml_media_alt]

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