12-14-2008, 02:37 PM
|
 |
Reader
|
� |
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Propecia, CA
Posts: 1,849
|
|
The Myth of the High-Protein Diet
Quote:
Saturday, December 13, 2008
The Myth of the High-Protein Diet
The phrase "low-carbohydrate diet" is a no-no in some circles, because it implies that a diet is high in fat. Often, the euphemism "high-protein diet" is used to avoid the mental image of a stick of butter wrapped in bacon. It's purely a semantic game, because there is no such thing as a diet in which the majority of calories come from protein. The ability of the human body to metabolize protein ends at about 1/3 of calories (1, 2), and the long-term optimum may be lower still. Low-carbohydrate diets (yes, the ones that are highly effective for weight loss and general health) are high-fat diets.
Healthy cultures around the world tend to consume roughly 10 to 20% of calories from protein:
Masai - 19%
Kitava - 10%
Inuit - 20%, according to Stefansson
Kuna - 12%
Sweden - 12%
United States - 15%
Human milk - 6%
The balance comes from fat and carbohydrate. Ask a traditional Inuit. If there's no fat on your meat, you may as well starve. Literally. "Rabbit starvation" was a term coined by American explorers who quickly realized that living on lean game is somewhere between unhealthy and fatal.
|
Whole Health Source: The Myth of the High-Protein Diet
|
Linear Mode
