Following on from my calcium post with a quick bit of mythbusting. Have you heard that eating high protein (usually meat/animal sources) causes the calcium to be leached from your bones which causes weak bones?
I actually hadn’t heard this before MNU. But a quick google search and there’s actually a lot of bullshit espousing this online 🤯. The apparent theory is that too much protein is overly acidic. Whereas calcium has an alkaline effect in the body. So you eat a lot of protein and your body needs to “neutralise” it, which it does by taking the calcium from the stores in your bones!
There is absolutely ZERO evidence of this. Zero!
In fact evidence favours more, not less protein! One study concluded: higher rather than lower protein intakes were associated with lower bone loss. Another: It is difficult to sustain a case, either evidential or deductive, for overall skeletal harm related either to protein intake or to animal protein. Indeed, the balance of evidence seems to indicate the opposite.
So don’t worry about protein negatively effecting you’re bone health.
NB. One possible issue with very high protein is if (only if) you don’t also consume enough vegetables then it can increase your risk of colon cancer. High protein plus high fibre/vegetables is what to aim for.
References: Mac Nutrition Uni, Tucker et al 2001, Heaney 2001
(Reposted from Instagram)
