High Protein Diet Myths by Viktoras Kulvinskas

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HIGH PROTEIN DIET MYTHS
By Viktoras Kulvinskas

PROTEIN - Perhaps the most predominant food fallacy is the high protein intake (40 to 100 grams daily) usually recommended. Protein in excess of our needs is not utilized by the body. There are several factors that greatly diminish availability of dietary protein. If we use meat as our source of protein, cooking destroys at least one of the essential amino acids needed for building enzymes and healthy tissue. Cooking can destroy 40 to 85 percent of the available protein in most foods.

Most cooked food enters the stomach at a temperature of more than 104 degrees; this heat destroys some of the gastric enzymes needed for digestion. Liquids served at a meal delay protein digestion by reducing the concentration of gastric juices. Serving a concentrated protein food at the same meal with fats, sweets or starches further inhibits digestion because each of these foods requires different digestive juices. When too large a quantity of concentrated food is eaten at a meal, much of it remains undigested. Many people cannot digest meat because of deficiency in pancreatic enzymes, bile and hydrochloric acid.

Practically all pain, pathology and cell destruction is known to be due to high blood acidity which results from excess intake of protein, especially acid-forming animal proteins. However, even vegetable protein such as seed, when eaten to excess can cause toxicity.

Dr. C. L. Elvehjem in "Amino Acid Supplementation of Cereal" warns that twice the daily requirements of certain amino acids in food leads to toxic cell disturbance. Dr. Bieler states that one of the main sources of over-acidity in the body is excess of amino acids which disturbs the nitrogen balance.

"All deaths are due to progressive acid saturation." (See W. Crile, M.D.) The acid condition generated by a high protein diet, destroys body cells, hence new ones will have to be built.

If there is a heavy coating of mucus in the digestive tract and deposits of waste in the blood vessels, protein (amino acids) is poorly absorbed and largely unavailable to the cells. for these reasons much of the protein we eat passes from the body, or is stored in the tissues as waste.

The degree of a person's physiological degeneration can be determined by the amount of protein needed to maintain normal weight. High protein needs indicate that the organs, blood and lymph systems are clogged with mucus. Large protein intake creates an osmotic pressure in the digestive tract high enough to force the amino acids through even badly congested cell walls.

The short term beneficial effects of a high protein diet can be attributed to the following factors. Most people are protein starved. The cells are deficient in protein because the whole interior of the individual from the digestive tract to the finest capillary, as well as cell walls, are coated with extraneous mucus, hardened fats and layers of inorganic mineral deposits which interfere with the transport of amino acids to the interior of the cells.

The intake of high protein foods (especially without starches) increases the osmotic pressure of the amino acids: this sets up the pump mechanism for the increased amino acid transport into the cells. Health improves. Furthermore, there is the stimulating effect one gets from protein, since uric acid, a waste product of protein metabolism, has a structure almost identical to caffeine. Likewise, in the case of individuals who are on a cleansing diet, protein foods stop further detoxification, hence eliminating the feeling of weakness that is associated with cleansing.

Lastly, in disease such as toxemia of pregnancy, which is cleansing "sickness", a high protein diet has been effectively used in stopping or preventing the development of the process of detoxification.

The long-term effect of a high protein diet is always bad. It leads to an accumulation of the waste products of protein metabolism, thus acidifying the body. For example, the human liver and kidneys combined have a limited capacity to excrete only about 8 grains of uric acid in 24 hours. However, one pound of meat can generate as much as 18 grains of uric acid. Hence, some uric acid will be left in the body from any one meat meal that will accumulate to produce the disease of gout, rheumatism or the complications of arthritis.

Very similar statements can be made about the megavitamin-mineral therapy. Here the results can be impressive and immediate. However, the disease still has a dietary basis and unless the individual pursues an improved dietary regime, the junk foods will eventually have their effect. Furthermore, no supplement can supply all the factors that are found in raw, living foods. Likewise, the human body was not structured for a fragmented nutrient intake; vitamins work best not alone, but in conjunction with other vitamins, minerals, enzymes and amino acids as found in food from nature. It is interesting to note that in his studies Dr. Kohler found it to be impossible to create a dietary supplement which utilized all the known dietary factors, equal in benefit and growth rates, to that which one finds in grasses.

The real solution to diet is to clean out the body. This increases the permeability of body linings, skin and cell walls, thus permitting easy transport of nutrients. A detoxified individual can eat very little of simple foods such as sprouted seeds and fruit and maintain excellent health, strength and intellectual acuity.