BBs' poor, helpless kidneys

R

Ruhl

New Member
Is anyone worried about what their kidneys might be like at, say, age 50 or 60 if you continue eating a high protein diet for much of your life? Many old people have slight kidney damage without living a life of high protein intake.

It may still be documented in the near future that consistant high protein intake for decades could be more harmful to the kidneys than was previously thought, could it not?
 
Well, yes and no.

How high is high protein? 200g/day? 2000g/day?

Protein intake must be viewed in context too. Other risk factors for kidney damage must also be taken into account.

Read somewhere that insufficient hydration was more harmful than sufficient hydration and higher than recommended levels of protein.

I really wouldn't worry about a high protein intake as long as I am taking 1g protein per pound of bodyweight. That's about as much as we need really, if the rest of one's calories are made up of carbs and fat. And even if you embarked on a PSMF, the rule of thumb is 1.5g protein per kg of bodyweight... that's not too much to preserve lean mass now, is it? :p

Now, you see some ridiculous amounts of protein being taken by misguided individuals. These are the sort who will also take toxic doses of drugs since they feel that if some is good, more is better.

Such reckless behaviour usually, greatly increases your predisposition to all sorts of diseases... I would be worrying for more than the kidneys then.

Don't let's worry about the poor helpless kidneys. There are better things in life to be stressed about. All this worrying certainly isn't good for health :D

Godspeed, and happy HSTing :)
 
Is there any research that says taking in tons of protein is harmful in healthy individuals? I know lots of guys that weigh around 180 or 200 that take in 400 grams of protein per day. Dindn't our ancesters that lived in cold climates go months without eating anything execpt what they could hunt, which if it is wild game, is lean protein? They would have to take in a lot of grams a day to make their caloric requierment.
 
I wuldn't sweat it, Ruhl. You know what blows kidneys? High blood pressure is number one on the list, by a country mile. Far behind comes alcohol and drug abuse, familial diseases (like polycystic kidney disease, which has a genetic component), cancer, and a lot of other nasty little things. High protein intake (meaning <1.2G/lb of BW/day) isn't one of them. Is it possible that someday a study will show that protein supplementation was bad for all of us? *Maybe*, but not probable. The current evidence just doesn't support an association. There are are so many other things to worry about, like musculoskeltal injury.

With all respect, I have to ask Bryan's question again- do you have some kind of kidney problem or is there kidney disease in your family that's causing you to be so concerned about this?
Jake
 
I've heard the only 2 things you have to worry about are getting enough fats and calcium for bones with the excessive protein. Fats from fish oils are good, and calcium from leafy greens like cabbage are a must have as well. We all learn as we go.

If you calculate the requirements for your weight, instead of taking lets say, 200 grams of supps plus, then you'll do a lot better.

Stretch
 
kidneys' weren't designed to consume "low" levels of protein.

humans always ate high protein diets until the advent of agriculture a few thousand years ago.
 
Eskimos. High fat, high protein, few carbs. The one thing i'm uncertain of is if there is an average population difference in life span. Check it out if you're interested and post back. I'm working on another problem right now.
 
1) the inuit eat a moderate protein diet, not actually extremely high

2) just because our ancestors ate a high protein diet does it actually mean that we are suited to eat huge amounts of protien over a very long time period (we also live a lot longer than our ancestors)

3) of course there is always potential for protein to cause something in the kidneys, research is always evolving and changing. is it worth worrying about ? of course not. Because there are greater risks on your kidneys, a number of hwich can be out of your control anyway, also what happens when tomorrow they discover that eating chicken can increase risk of kidney damage (for example). We can only go off the currently available data, and this shows that increasing protein intake does not seem to cause any dangerous changes to kidney function.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]what happens when tomorrow they discover that eating chicken can increase risk of kidney damage
Click to expand...

As long as they don't discover that about cottage cheese ;)
Jake
 
"Not as long as you start out with normal kidney function. There are several key studies that stand out in laying this myth to rest. One study was done in Israel a few years back. It compared people who ate lots of protein to people who had been vegetarians for an average of about thirteen years and who ate minimal amounts of protein. The only protein they got was vegetable protein. Researchers did careful cross matching so they had a perfect match in terms of age and sex in the two groups. When they compared the normal decline in kidney function that naturally occurs in people as they age, the researchers found no difference between the heavy-protein eaters and the low-protein eaters.

There have also been several studies out of Germany from a group of researchers who studied body builders, who tend to eat lots of protein to build muscle. Those researchers discovered that higher protein diets do not cause deterioration, but they actually enhance kidney function. The protein itself makes the kidneys function more efficiently.

The only time high-protein diets can affect kidney function is if you have impaired kidney function to begin with. If you do have a kidney problem-and most people who have one know they have one-it doesn't mean you shouldn't eat any protein. If you do, you'll become protein-malnourished. What it does mean is you have to be very careful to eat only the exact amount allowed. You can't go over it. But for the vast majority of us who have normal kidney function, eating protein doesn't hurt our kidneys at all."
cut and pasted that from eatprotein.com
:D
 
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