Year: 2003

It’s often been thought that high protein intake isn’t good for ailing kidneys nor healthy kidneys. But, high protein intake is apparently fine for healthy kidneys:

If your kidneys are not healthy, a diet high in protein may speed up the damage to your organs, new research claims.

However, if your kidneys are healthy, eating lots of protein does not seem to hurt them, the study also concludes.

“We now have evidence to suggest that, in individuals with kidney disease there is some reason to suspect a high protein intake could be potentially detrimental,” says study author Dr. Eric L. Knight, a researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “Based on this study, I would say in individuals with normal kidney function, we have no reason to believe that a relatively high protein intake has a harmful effect on the kidneys.”

So, this may be good news for those on the Atkins Diet or similar (assuming your kidneys are ok). Along these same lines, I recall an obese former coworker who stated that he didn’t want to try an increased-protein diet since it could ruin his kidneys. I didn’t have any evidence to the contrary at the time, but I wish that he could hear about this research — his condition worried me.

The researchers also have recommendations for protein limits:

No more than 35 percent of total daily calories should come from protein, the institute also recommends, with a range of 10 percent to 35 percent. […]

I’m not on Atkins, as I find The Zone to be healthier and more well-rounded. And though The Zone may have more protein than the average American diet, it still falls within their recommendations (since it allocates 30% of calories from protein — that “30%” is one of the 30s in the “40-30-30”).