Chad Thoughts

I’ve read a few books recently that theorize we should be eating more protein than we’re likely consuming a day. Personally, I felt like I eat a lot of protein. My diet involves eating eggs, peanut butter and seeds (chia, flax, hemp). I feel very comfortable with my food intake. I’m rarely hungry, never feel weak and rarely feel tired outside of my normal sleep times. It also seems like I prepare and buy plenty of food each week for one person. And I’m an active person, burning around 3,000 to 3,500 calories a day. So I calculated what an average day of protein intake was for myself and here’s the results

I rarely snack and sometimes I’ll have an extra egg, so my guess is that I’m eating between 70-75 grams of protein a day. Seems plenty to me for my age.

However, according to these publications I’m reading, I should be eating double that amount! I can’t imagine trying to eat that much more food. Or buy that much more food. Or prepare that much more food. It feels gross to think about eating more food than I already am eating.

I did a little research and it turns out that eating too much protein can cause bodily harm. Kidney issues, heart disease and colon cancers seem to be the worst possible outcomes. But on a lesser scale, weight gain (obviously), digestion issues and dehydration can be more immediate damage. I’ve also read that your body just urinates out excess protein

For now, unless I see more research, I’m going to stick to my current diet. I’m curious how these mega protein consumers will turn out in several years. Besides, it sounds like all the protein mania isn’t even good for our environment.