About this episode

Dr. Jordan Feigenbaum discusses the misconceptions surrounding protein consumption and its effects on health.

Every couple of years a new headline warns that the protein you eat is quietly hurting you. This year the target is your kidneys. Before that it was cancer, then your bones, then the claim that your body can only use twenty or thirty grams of protein at a meal. In this episode, Dr. Jordan Feigenbaum goes through the actual studies behind each scare: the kidney trials, the 2014 IGF-1 and cancer paper that started the panic, the acid-ash bone hypothesis, and the per-meal "cap." Each fear starts from a real mechanism, and each one was run straight to a frightening conclusion the clinical outcomes never supported. The take home is simple. For a healthy adult, protein is not the lever people think it is, and where a real signal exists (processed and red meat, or a kidney that is already diseased) it tracks the whole dietary pattern more than the protein number. The two things that actually decide your health here are whether you eat mostly real food and whether you train. Timestamps 00:00 The protein scare cycle 01:23 The four fears 01:59 Kidneys: healthy kidneys under higher protein 06:22 Kidney disease: does cutting protein help? 09:38 Red meat and the dietary pattern, not protein…

People in this episode

Host: Barbell Medicine

Guest: Dr. Jordan Feigenbaum

Topics covered

• protein consumption
• kidney health
• cancer research
• bone health
• dietary patterns
• muscle aging
• red meat

Keywords

• protein
• kidneys
• cancer
• bones
• diet

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: 2014 IGF-1 and cancer paper, acid-ash bone hypothesis

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