Not everyone fits into a certain mold or box and the same is true for nutrition. It seems the most popular diets are high in protein. The big name protein diets are Atkins, The Zone and Heller. There are many others, many weight loss centers and gyms promote the high protein diets including the shakes and bars. No doubt about it some of these high protein diets are down right bad and damage the system. How can anyone think that a grease laden breakfast is good for you? Bad as they are my guess is that at least 75% of the population in our area has tried a high protein diet at least once in the last 10 years. What really bothers me about these diets is that no matter how bad, there is initial, temporary weight loss and health risks seem to improve. Cholesterol and blood pressure levels improve. But this all plateaus out in a few months and returns back to its original levels. Sometimes there is great weight loss such as 100 lbs, but whether it is 100 or 20, most likely it was not bodyfat loss. Bodyfat percentage is the key here. Until bodyfat is lost there is no real weight loss, even though it says so on the scales. You’ve seen that commercial “now you’re just a smaller version of the same fat person”. At the same time due to the unbalanced nature of the high protein diet the body is forced to fight for survival. Mother nature has given us the ability for fight or flight and when we are starving the body will find a way for us to survive. One of the first things that happens is that the metabolism slows to conserve fuel, thinking power also decreases. Another big thing is that the body starts to look within itself for fuel reserves. Fat is the last burned on a restrictive, unbalanced or too low calorie diet. This is where arthritis and osteoporosis begin, unless caused by a injury to the area. The body looks to where it has protein stored and that is the bone and muscle, thus begins the rapid plunge into un-necessary early old age and a poorer quality of life, all for a few bad meal choices and lack of balance.

Only about 20% of the population should be on a high protein diet. That would be a 40% complex carbs, 30 protein, 30 fat. Fibrous carbs are a given and consumed at every meal. If you were at the other end of the spectrum the high carb, lower protein, lower fat percentages it would be 75% complex carb, 15% protein, 10% fat. Most folks fall into the mid category which is 55, 25, 20 or somewhere else between the high and low ends. If you are a individual who should be getting more good fats and are restricting your fats, you could be forcing the system to store more fat. This is a typical female problem. Now good fats would be fish, olive oil, egg yokes, flax seed oil, nuts and second choice good fats would be peanut butter, cream cheese, sour cream and bad choices would be mayonnaise, margarine, butter, saturated fat oils. It is not a simple process to determine if you are a high, mid or low. One problem is years of trying every diet that comes along and changing the body over years, another is the false concepts of what is good food and what is not. Now this all probably sounds confusing what should you as the average citizen do, just eat a balanced menu, variety of food and a protein, a complex carb and a veggie, if you do this 4 to 6 times a day you would be a “perfect specimen” in a few years time. Don’t turn it into a restrictive diet, there should be nothing that you “can’t have”. If you eat a balanced diet you can eat anything, that is based most meals being real food and balanced. That allows you to have that bucket o’wings occasionally or enjoy a fancy dessert once or twice a week.