High Protein, Low Carb Diet?

You may have heard that to increase muscle and to slim down you need to increase your protein intake. When I first heard that I thought ... wait a minute ... the same thing that is going to make you bigger is supposed to make you smaller? I asked the trainer this question and he looked at me dumbfounded but it left me to thinking ... "besides sounding absurd, will this method actually be safe?".

Although most of us know we require a certain quantity of protein daily to be healthy and thanks to disinformation to this effect, a lot of people view the daily consumption of high-protein foods specifically meat and dairy as highly beneficial. However, judging from the failure of most, if not all the people I have personally known attempting to lose weight on a high-protein, low carb diet, it may be time to reexamine our ideas about protein.

From what I have seen (upwards of six cases I have been able to observe among friends, family and co-workers) it will be safe to answer the question heading this article with a simple No!

Not only is a diet high in protein NOT the best at any time for losing weight, according to many naturopaths, such a diet may even be detrimental to one's overall health.

Due to its complexity, excessive protein coupled with fatty foods are the most difficult foods to digest and tend to leave one tired day in and day out. Moreover the common putrefaction of protein while being digested creates many acids in the body and has been known to lay the foundation for cancer.

This is not to say that proteins and fats must be avoided, quite the contrary. What should be the goal in consuming these foods should be taking in exactly what the body needs and that's it. The Max Planck institute has proven that, considering that the body recycles most of its protein for its own needs, 25g of protein a day is plenty.

According to T.C. Fry, a well known Naturopath and pioneer in drugless healing, there are several cultures such as the Caribbeans, who subsist on a Manioc-based (root-vegetable) diet and get about 12 g of protein a day. Quite similarly, an aboriginal tribe living in the Mountains of Hagen was discovered to subsist on about 80-90 % of their diet being Sweet Potatoes, the rest mostly leafy veggies, bananas and the like.

As an example, most people in Nigeria hardly ever consume milk or cheese (they are too expensive) and families strictly ration the consumption of animal flesh to about the size of a medium size lemon per person, every other day. All these groups of people, with their root vegetable diets are obviously in great health, accomplishing great physical work.

Mother's milk, which for a time is a baby's perfect food, has about 1-2 % protein content. (Only fruits and veggies resemble it in their composition) Any reasonable person will be able to reason that a growing baby needs more protein than a full-grown adult, yet human babies, just like with our distant cousins: the Apes in the wild, do just fine on breast milk.

Now, considering all the factors above, when it involves the right diet for losing weight, I would recommend a mucus-less or mucus-poor (raw and cooked fruits and veggies) over every other mere fad in the quest of attaining fitness and health. Of course, if the consumption of animal flesh must be continued, I would also advise that it be done at a minimal quantity and just one kind of animal flesh every so often.

In my opinion, consumption of fresh home-made salads, mono-meals of fruits, snacks on dried fruits like dates, a few nuts and maybe even a short juice fast, as a choice for a diet (in addition to some form of exercise) will be the most effective path to attaining healthy and safe weight loss.

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