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View Full Version : How much protein is too much for low carb diets?


peacelover
01-31-2008, 12:40 PM
I have doing well on my numbers (5.3 A1C) since diagnosis (June 2007) using a low carb diet. My carbs all come from veggies, fruits, whole grains, beans. I've also began the "cholesterol down" diet which uses:
garlic, flaxseed, oats, beans, soy protein, apple, almonds, plant sterols, and fiber to lower cholesterol without the use of meds. (I have had a terrible time on both statins I have tried and will not use them again). I read some information that high protein is bad for diabetics because of the kidney risk. So what do you eat if you are low carb, low fat and low cholesterol? How much protein is too much? I was taking in about 70 grams a day on a 1400 calorie diet. I'm at my gaol weight now so I was going to increase to around an 1800 calorie diet. Any ideas? Thank you!

BlueSky
01-31-2008, 01:12 PM
.... How much protein is too much? I was taking in about 70 grams a day on a 1400 calorie diet. I'm at my gaol weight now so I was going to increase to around an 1800 calorie diet. Any ideas? Thank you!
You need about 1 gram of protein per Kg of body weight every day. If you are already getting this, there is no need to eat more protein. It is an expensive and inefficient source of calories. If you need more calories, get them from fat rather than protein. The easiest way to do this would be to switch your source of protein from soy to meat, eggs, full cream milk etc. You will get a lot more fat with the protein you eat.

A low-fat and low-carb diet doesn't make sense. You have to get your calories from somewhere. A sensible low-carb diet replaces calories from carbohydrate with calories from fat. The notion that fat increases cholesterol is an urban myth. And based on recent studies (the Vytorin on in particular), it doesn't look like cholesterol causes heart disease anyway.