Can You Eat Too Much Protein?
It may seem very exact to attempt to consume 12-15% of all calories in the form of protein each day, and frustrating to try to keep track. The good news is that 12-15% is the amount required for simple maintenance, meaning that you can view it as a sort of minimum. Eating more than this amount is not likely to cause any problems as long as the protein is eaten in conjunction with other healthy foods.
That being said, there are some issues which are continually brought up in relation to high-protein diets, especially diets high in animal-based proteins. It’s very important to note that in all cases, protein is described as a “correlative” figure, not a causative figure. This means that what we know from these studies is that diets high in protein tend to coincide with certain problems, not that diets high in protein cause them.
Also keep in mind that while it is difficult to accidentally consume too much protein from a healthy diet, purposefully consuming massive amounts of protein by reducing carbohydrate intake is linked to more serious conditions. This is especially true since consuming protein at the expense of carbohydrates often leads to a dramatic increase in the amount of fat consumed as well, and high-fat diets are linked with numerous health issues.
