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Protein mania: the rich world’s new diet obsession
Why we obsess about protein
We can only understand the intensity of our protein obsession as a part of a broader set of dietary battles.
- A 1950s study, based on Mediterranean populations, showed that a healthy diet consists of lots of carbohydrates with limited quantities of saturated fat.
- But the modern supermarket interpreted the low-fat diet as high-sugar and high-refined-carbohydrates, which led to our current epidemic of diet-related ill-health.
- Protein is the one safe thing the population feel they can still put their faith in.
The tendency to think about what we consume in terms of nutrients, rather than real whole ingredients, means making the same old mistakes about nutrition in a new way.
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Key Ideas
Protein Intake
Protein intake is considered a no-brainer. As obesity rates have doubled over the last 20 years, this is what we have been told to eat. It is common knowledge that we have to avoid sugar, refined o...
Protein is Essential
A high-protein diet is essential for us to help our body grow and repair. We have been told to eat approximately 55 gm of protein daily for males, and 45 gm for females, based on average weights.
Not eating enough of protein can also have side effects like hair loss.
Health Fad
The protein supplement market had a valuation of USD 12.4 billion in 2016.
The way protein is packed in everything from candy bars to ‘high protein’ versions of staple products, it is becoming clear that it is an ongoing health fad. Many experts believe that products with ‘inflated protein’ are a waste of money.
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Key Ideas
Documented uses of the keto diet
Doctors have been prescribing ketogenic diets to treat epilepsy for nearly a century, and increasingly believe it holds promise for people with Type 2 diabetes.
But the older keto regi...
The Ketogenesis process
It supplies energy under circumstances such as fasting or caloric restriction to certain organs (e.g. the brain, heart, and skeletal muscle).
In ketogenesis, our livers start to break down fat into a usable energy source called ketones. Ketones can stand in for glucose as fuel for the body when there’s a glucose shortage.
Once ketogenesis kicks in and ketone levels are elevated, the body is in a state called “ketosis,” during which it’s burning stored fat.
The Keto diet
That means eating mainly meats, eggs, cheese, fish, nuts, butter, oils, and vegetables while avoiding sugar, bread and other grains, beans, and even fruit.
3
Key Ideas
A ketogenic diet...
... is predominantly made up of high-fat foods , including butter, oils, meat, fish, eggs and cheese, and very low-carb vegetables such as cauliflower and leafy greens.
Th...
Ketosis discovery
Keto was developed as a clinical tool.
In 1911, doctors noticed that children with epilepsy stopped having seizures after 2 days of absolute fasting, when their bodies would have been forced into ketosis.
Scientists later noted that ketosis could be achieved through a low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diet without the risk of infection and mortality rates associated with absolute fasting
Keto popularity
Most newcomers are drawn to keto for its potential weight loss benefits, and, while it remains a topic of debate among nutritional scientists, its proponents typically gloss over the unknowns.
The real driving force behind keto’s popularity is our myopic focus on weight as the sole determinant of health.