High Animal Protein Diet Raises Risk of Negative Calcium Balance

Within the video above, James DiNicolantonio, Pharm.D., who can also be the coauthor of my guide, “Superfuel: Ketogenic Keys to Unlock the Secrets and techniques of Good Fat, Unhealthy Fat, and Nice Well being,” explains why a food regimen excessive in animal protein might improve your danger of unfavorable calcium steadiness, placing your well being in danger.¹

Unfavourable calcium steadiness happens when your physique loses extra calcium than it absorbs. Nearly all calcium — 99% — is present in your tooth and bones, so your physique compensates for a scarcity of calcium by leaching it out of your bones.

This course of helps preserve vital calcium ranges in your blood, which is essential for important features comparable to muscle contraction, blood clotting and nerve transmission, however can result in weakened bones and an elevated danger of circumstances like osteoporosis.

“Animal meals, like meat, fish, eggs and dairy are probably the most nutrient-dense meals you’ll be able to eat. Nevertheless, there’s one draw back to an animal-based food regimen, and that is the excessive acid load,” DiNicolantonio says. The answer, in response to DiNicolantonio, is to steadiness the acid from animal meals with base.

Carnivore Weight loss plan Linked to Unfavourable Calcium Stability Since 1930

DiNicolantonio cites a examine printed in 1930,² which particulars Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson’s journey of consuming solely meat for a 12 months.³ Over 12 intervals of recorded knowledge, “calcium steadiness was unfavorable each single time,” DiNicolantonio says. “All this proves is that since 1930 now we have recognized that consuming an all-meat food regimen — a carnivore food regimen — results in unfavorable calcium steadiness.”⁴

One other instance included 10 wholesome members who consumed a strict low-carb food regimen for 2 weeks, then one other carb-restricted food regimen for 4 weeks that was excessive in animal protein.

This led to a lower in calcium steadiness, with the researchers concluding, “Consumption of an LCHP [low-carbohydrate high-protein] food regimen for six weeks delivers a marked acid load to the kidney, will increase the danger for stone formation, decreases estimated calcium steadiness, and will improve the danger for bone loss.”⁵

The members had been nonetheless in constructive calcium steadiness on this case, nevertheless, which DiNicolantonio says is simply as a result of they had been consuming greater than 800 milligrams (mg) of calcium a day:⁶

“Chances are you’ll not go in unfavorable calcium steadiness when you’re consuming over 800 milligrams of calcium and also you’re consuming a multivitamin, which probably incorporates vitamin D, which will increase the absorption of calcium, you could not go in unfavorable steadiness. Nevertheless it nonetheless elevated the propensity by considerably growing the urinary calcium stage by about 100 milligram a day.

… so when you’re on a carnivore food regimen you probably need to eat someplace round 16 ounces of milk or three slices of cheddar cheese or a combination of the 2 to provide you about 600 milligrams of calcium as a result of then you definately’ll get about one other 81 milligrams of calcium from consuming 1.5 kilos of meat — which is what most individuals do eat on an animal-based or carnivore food regimen — round 1.5 kilos, possibly 2 kilos, of meat per day.”

Different analysis, printed in Calcified Tissue Worldwide, discovered that when acid ranges had been larger, resulting from elevated dietary protein consumption, folks had extra acid of their our bodies and misplaced extra calcium of their urine.⁷ In the meantime, analysis reveals high-protein diets could cause elevated calcium loss in urine, or calciuria.

In a examine of 39 premenopausal ladies who lowered their protein consumption to U.S. really useful dietary allowance ranges, acid excretion, calciuria and bone resorption had been diminished, suggesting that decrease protein consumption may scale back bone loss.⁸ However as DiNicolantonio mentioned:⁹

“Now do not confuse this — I’m not recommending nor do I feel it’s good to eat a low-protein food regimen. The article actually, and what I do, is I eat a excessive animal protein food regimen. I simply offset it with base, as a result of we all know low-protein diets aren’t good for bone well being. So, you need to have a great protein consumption.”

The Downside With a Excessive Acid Load in Your Physique

Diets excessive in animal proteins can produce extra acid in your physique. To neutralize the surplus acid, your physique makes use of alkaline minerals, primarily calcium. This calcium is commonly mobilized out of your bones, resulting in a lower in bone density over time. Excessive acid ranges additionally improve calcium excretion via urine, additional depleting your physique’s calcium reserves, which might exacerbate bone loss. DiNicolantonio explains:

“Once we eat animal meals it varieties numerous hydrogen ions (H+) or acid within the physique, which should be balanced with base (citrate or bicarbonate). If we do not steadiness the acid with base, then the physique should strip connective tissue and muscle to type ammonia in order that the kidneys can remove the acid.

Moreover, producing ammonia to remove the acid is detrimental to the kidneys. Moreover, the physique will want extra positively charged ions (like sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium) to remove the negatively charged sulfate that comes from animal meals (animal meals include numerous sulfur-containing amino acids).

If you don’t get sufficient positively charged ions in your food regimen, then the physique will strip bone for these alkaline minerals. Moreover, a excessive acid load within the physique prompts osteoclasts to interrupt down bone and it lowers the pH within the interstitial fluid (the fluid that surrounds our cells), which might trigger insulin resistance. In different phrases, when you do not steadiness the acid from animal meals with base you’ll be able to trigger:

• Kidney injury
• Insulin resistance
• Bone breakdown
• Mineral loss
• Kidney stones”

Metabolic Acidosis Drives Continual Illness

Metabolic acidosis occurs when your physique produces an excessive amount of acid or your kidneys aren’t eradicating sufficient acid out of your physique. Excessive consumption of animal protein can improve the manufacturing of sulfuric acid because of the metabolism of sulfur-containing amino acids present in meat, poultry and fish. In line with DiNicolantonio:¹⁰

“Metabolic acidosis is a continual situation that many individuals within the Western world have however don’t understand it … A standard wholesome physique has quite a few buffering programs to fight acid accumulation.

Nevertheless, in case your buffering capability is diminished or can not meet the acid load, then harms can ensue comparable to a breakdown of muscle, connective tissue and bone … Animal protein is the biggest supply of dietary acid as it’s excessive within the sulfur-containing amino acids methionine and cysteine, which results in the formation of sulfuric acid and hydrogen ions within the physique.”

Even low-grade metabolic acidosis can result in:¹¹

Kind 2 diabetes	Insulin resistance12	Elevated gluconeogenesis
Hypertension	Bone loss	Osteoporosis and osteopenia
Sarcopenia	Muscle loss	Gout
Fibromyalgia	Declines in kidney operate	Dehydration
Decreased train efficiency	Kidney stones	Mineral deficiencies

DiNicolantonio factors out that the typical western food regimen results in a web acid excretion of fifty to 100 milliequivalents (mEq) per day (milliequivalent measures the focus of ions in an answer). Nevertheless, “The kidneys of a wholesome individual can solely excrete 40-70 mEq of acid per day earlier than acid is retained within the physique,” he says. “Most Individuals are consuming diets that produce this a lot acid or extra per day.”¹³

Additional, “Animal-based or carnivore diets sometimes present 150-250 mEq of acid per day, which implies that these kinds of diets result in important acid retention until exogenous bicarbonate forming substances are being consumed (bicarbonate mineral waters or dietary supplements, fruits or greens).”¹⁴

The best way to Stability Dietary Acid With Base

What you eat impacts your physique’s acid base steadiness, and sustaining a food regimen that balances acid and alkaline meals may help defend your well being.

“Animal protein, significantly, meat, eggs and cheese, is what results in the formation of huge quantities of acid within the physique,” DiNicolantonio says. “Vegetables and fruit are excessive in natural anions like citrate, malate and gluconate, which get transformed to bicarbonate within the physique. Bicarbonate is the bottom in our physique that neutralizes the acid.”¹⁵

Whereas I do not advocate vegan or vegetarian diets, together with extra vegetables and fruit, that are alkaline, may help counteract acid load. DiNicolantonio says, “I personally attempt to neutralize the acid from my food regimen by calculating how a lot acid goes to be produced from the meals I eat.” For instance:

mEq of Acid per 3.5 oz
Parmesan cheese: 34.2	Different cheeses: 18-29	Egg yolks: 23.4
Processed meats: 10 to 13.2	Fish: 10.8	Rooster: 8.7
Pork: 7.9	Beef: 7.8	Grains: 3.7 to six.5

Alkaline Meals (Unfavourable mEq of Acid per 3.5 oz)
Broccoli: -1.2	Apples: -2.2	Lemon juice: -2.5
Potatoes/cauliflower: -4.0	Zucchini: -4.4	Carrots/celery: -5.0
Bananas: -5.5	Spinach: -14	Raisins: -21

As a rule, protein ought to make up about 15% of your each day energy. Extra particularly, most adults want about 0.8 grams of protein per pound of perfect physique weight (the burden you’d ideally be, not essentially the burden you at the moment are), or for Europeans, roughly 1.76 grams of protein per kilo.

For instance, in case your perfect weight is 135 kilos, your protein requirement can be 108 grams. Divided into two meals, that may be 54 grams per meal. For reference, there’s roughly 7 grams of protein in every ounce of steak, so a 5-ounce steak would offer you 35 grams of high-quality protein. For kids, the typical quantity per meal is round 5 to 10 grams, whereas younger adults sometimes can get away with 20 grams per meal.

For many normal-weight adults, 30 grams per meal is admittedly the minimal you want to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. The bottom line is to steadiness the acid load from animal meals in your food regimen with pure compounds that assist neutralize the acid. Along with vegetables and fruit, DiNicolantonio recommends:¹⁶

• Sodium citrate — 5 grams (g) suppresses 60 mEq of acid. Needs to be taken with meals.
• Potassium citrate — 3 g suppresses 30 mEq of acid. Sometimes, not more than 3 g is taken with every meal.
• Bicarbonate mineral waters (low in sulfate) — 1 mEq of bicarbonate inhibits 1 mEq of acid. “Sometimes, the bicarbonate ranges are pretty low and shouldn’t have an effect on abdomen pH. There’s a gradual accumulation of bicarbonate within the physique when consuming bicarbonate mineral waters and it is a higher choice than sodium or potassium bicarbonate dietary supplements.”

You could find extra particulars in DiNicolantonio’s video overview of acid base steadiness.¹⁷