Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Is Eating Too Much Protein Powder Unhealthy?

Episode Date: June 19, 2019

Protein powders and drinks are more popular than ever for good reason: They’re convenient, tasty, affordable, and in most cases, well-digested, well-absorbed, and rich in essential amino acids vital to gaining and preserving muscle and strength. They also make eating a high-protein diet a cinch. A few meals per day with a protein shake or two thrown into the mix gets the job done, regardless of how much protein you need to eat. Now, while we know that protein powder isn’t harmful per se, is eating too much harmful? And if so, how much can you eat every day before it becomes a problem? Well, according to some people, if you drink too many protein shakes, you’re asking for all sorts of trouble, ranging from an upset stomach to severe digestive disorders, nutritional deficiencies, and even kidney damage. Others say such claims are nonsense because protein powder is just dried food, and therefore doesn’t fundamentally affect the body any differently than other forms of protein like chicken, eggs, or milk. Who’s right? Well, the short story is this: There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with drinking a couple protein shakes per day. Getting a large portion of your daily calories from protein, however, is probably a bad idea. And in this podcast, you’ll learn why. By the end, you’re going to understand why people think eating too much protein powder is bad for you, what science has to say about it, and the upper limit of how much protein powder you should eat every day. Let’s get started. Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

Protein powders are popular for a good reason. They are convenient. They are affordable. They are tasty. And in most cases, they are well digested. They are well absorbed. And they're also rich in essential amino acids, which are vital for gaining muscle and strength. Protein powders also make it easy to follow a high-protein diet, which is also vital for maximizing muscle and strength gain. Because if you eat just a few servings of food protein per

day, supplemented with a few servings of protein powder per day, you can eat as much protein as you need fairly easily. Now, while protein powder isn't harmful per se, is eating too much harmful? powder isn't harmful per se, is eating too much harmful? And if so, how much is too much? Well, according to some people, if you eat too much protein powder every day, you are asking for all kinds of problems ranging from digestive issues to nutrient deficiencies to even something as extreme as kidney damage. On the other hand, many people say that's nonsense. They say that protein powder is just dried food and doesn't fundamentally affect the body any differently than other forms of protein like chicken, beef, eggs, or milk. Who is right? Well, I am Mike Matthews from Legion Athletics, and here is the long story short. There's nothing wrong with drinking a couple protein shakes per day. However, I do not recommend that you get the majority of your daily

protein from powders. And I'm going to explain why. This is where I would normally plug a sponsor to pay the bills, but I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead, I'm just going to quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my 100% natural post-workout supplement recharge. Recharge helps you gain muscle and strength faster and recover better from your workouts. And it's also naturally sweetened and flavored, and it contains no artificial food dyes, fillers, or other unnecessary junk. All that is why it has over 700 reviews on Amazon with a four and a half star average, and another 200 on my website, also with a four and a half star average. So if you want to be able to push harder in the gym, train more frequently, and get more out of your workouts,

then you want to head over to www.legionathletics.com and pick up a bottle of Recharge today. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code podcast at checkout and you will save 10% on your entire order. And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100% money back guarantee that works like

this. You either love my stuff or you get your money back, period. You don't have to return the products. You don't have to fill out forms. You don't have to jump through any other hoops or go through any other shenanigans. So you really can't lose here. Head over to www.lesionathletics.com now, place your order, and see for yourself why my supplements have thousands of rave reviews all over the internet. And if for whatever reason, they're just not for you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot. All righty, that is enough shameless plugging for now at least. Let's get to the show. is enough shameless plugging for now at least. Let's get to the show. First, let's quickly touch on why you should even consider supplementing with protein powder. While there's nothing inherently better about the protein that you could get from a powder versus food from the

perspective of gaining muscle or strength or just maintaining your health, a protein powder is very convenient and it makes following a high protein diet easier. And specifically, I'm talking about eating anywhere from 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day, which is what you need to maximize muscle and strength gain. A number of studies, including meta-analyses and literature reviews, have established this beyond the shadow of a doubt at this point. The weight of the evidence is very clear. Now, a slight exception to that is in the case of people who are very overweight or obese, in which case that might have them eating a lot

more protein than is necessary. And for those people, I recommend setting protein intake somewhere around 30 to 40% of their daily calories. Now, the first thing you need to understand about protein powders is your body processes them in the same way that it processes the protein contained in beef, peas, broccoli, or anything else. So the idea that protein powders are somehow uniquely harmful to the body is pure fiction. That said, there have been a number of scandals over the last couple of years that have given many people pause, like the Consumer Reports revelation that a number of popular brands of protein powder, including BSN, Muscle Milk, MuscleTech, and GNC contained high levels of arsenic,

muscle milk, muscle tech, and GNC contained high levels of arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. Now, theoretically, if you were to eat enough of those protein powders every day, those heavy metals could accumulate in your body and could increase the risk of kidney damage and other health problems. And while the absolute risk of that may have been overstated by sensationalist media sources, it does highlight an important reality when it comes to supplementation. And that is that when you take supplements, you are putting your health and well-being in the hands of the company that you are buying products from. And you often don't really know what you're getting and what you're ingesting. And that's why before you buy supplements from any company, including mine, you should dig in and you should find out how long the company has

been around for. You should look into the reputation online. You should see if they've been caught lying or cheating in the past, because if they've done it before, they will do it again. You should look into who creates the formulations for these companies and what the backgrounds of these people are. And can you even find out? Often you can't. Often there is no scientific advisory board like I have comprised of experts, scientists, credible authorities who create these products. Often the formulations are just supplied by manufacturers. They're just off the shelf, mediocre or worse products that are cheap to produce and allow for high margins. You should also look into who owns the

company, who runs it, what are they all about? Go check out their social media. Are they into just flaunting their trinkets? Are they douchebags? If so, not good signs. You should also look into what is in the products, ingredient by ingredient. Why are those ingredients included? Are they included at proper dosages backed up by peer-reviewed, well-designed, well-executed research, or are they just chosen at random? And they are often chosen at random. Anyway, my point with that tangent is that protein powder is not inherently unhealthy, but you don't always know what you're getting. If you are getting a protein powder from a shady company who doesn't care about your health, doesn't care about what's in the product, only cares about the numbers, then yes, it can be unhealthy. For example, I get emailed several

times per week from Chinese suppliers of protein powder that could cut my costs in half, but would also mean that I have to look the other way in terms of quality because these suppliers are notorious for selling low quality tainted protein powders. But I'm just not willing to do that. So I pay for very expensive protein that comes out of Ireland, the stuff that I myself would want and that I do use every day. Ireland, the stuff that I myself would want and that I do use every day. And does that mean I make less money? Yes, it does. But I would rather make less money than harm people. Oh, what a concept. Okay. So now let's get to the core question here, which is how much protein powder is too much? Well, as with anything, if you take supplementation too far, there are negative side effects. And in the case of protein supplementation, obviously that they are very high in protein and low in carbs and low in fat. They're just mostly protein. And while that is great for your

macros, what many people don't necessarily realize is that food sources of protein are also rich sources of nutrition. For example, eggs are one of the more nutrient-dense foods you can eat. Legumes are chock full of prebiotic fiber and minerals. And meat contains a number of beneficial compounds like carnitine, CoQ10, iron, creatine, all of which are not present in protein powder. And so what that means is if you are getting all or most of your protein every day from powders, so let's say somewhere around 30 to 40% of your total calories are coming from powders. And if the rest of your calories are not very nutrient dense, you are likely to develop some nutritional holes or gaps or deficiencies over time.

Now, to the other point of GI distress, if you eat too much protein powder in one sitting, you are likely to experience gas, bloating, and cramping. And the reason for this is protein powders are digested faster than foods. And so what can happen is when you chug down a bunch of protein powder, some of the protein molecules can make their way into the large intestine, undigested or only partially digested, and that results in GI issues. And this problem is rather unique to protein powder because of how easy it is to eat. Foods that require chewing are harder to over consume than something you just drink. If you think about the process of eating a couple chicken breasts versus drinking a couple chicken breasts of protein, the first one might take a

couple minutes. The latter takes a couple seconds. And you see that protein powder can place a very large and immediate demand on your digestive system. So my recommendation then is to get no more than 20% of your daily calories from protein powders, which means that yes, you're going to have to eat some of your protein as well. That's kind of the point. And I also recommend not having more than maybe 40 or 50 grams of protein from a powder in one sitting. Hey there, it is Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful. And if you did, and don't mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes or wherever you're listening from. This not only convinces people this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review

of it on iTunes or wherever you're listening from. This not only convinces people that they should check the show out, it also increases its search visibility and thus helps more people find their way to me and learn how to build their best bodies ever too. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then just subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss out on any of the new goodies. Lastly, if you didn't like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at muscleforlife.com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback, so please do reach out. All right, that's it. Thanks again for listening to this episode, and I hope to hear from you soon. And lastly, this episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I'm not big on promoting stuff

that I don't personally use and believe in, so instead, I'm going to just quickly tell you about something of mine. Specifically, my 100% natural post-workout supplement Recharge. Recharge helps you gain muscle and strength faster and recover better from your workouts. And it's also naturally sweetened and flavored, and it contains no artificial food dyes, fillers, or other unnecessary junk. All that is why it has over 700 reviews on Amazon with a four and a half star average and another 200 on my website, also with a four and a half star average. So if you want to be able to push harder in the gym, train more frequently, and get more

out of your workouts, then you want to head over to www.legionathletics.com and pick up a bottle of Recharge today. athletics.com and pick up a bottle of recharge today. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code podcast at checkout, and you will save 10% on your entire order. And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100% money back guarantee that works like this. You either love my stuff or you get your money back, period. You don't have to return the products. You don't have to fill out forms. You don't have to jump through any other hoops or go through any other shenanigans. So you really can't lose here. Head over to www.lesionathletics.com now, place your order and see for yourself why my supplements have thousands of rave reviews all over the

internet. And if for whatever reason, they're just not for you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot.