Pros and Cons of Protein - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. Four to five pros and cons of protein. You know I cannot think of many cons for protein protein, except as a sports nutritionist, many times my athletes, especially male athletes, come in and they are over emphasizing protein. They are eating a very high protein diet, more than they need. And when you eat a more protein than you need those extra calories are just converted into energy and protein is not an efficient energy source. We do not want the body to be using extra protein that we eat for energy. We want the right amount to be used for building and repairing muscle tissue. That being said, the pros of protein, I mentioned in my 5 simple steps for weightloss, is make sure every single meal has some lean protein in it. Protein does several things: One, it gives you satiety. Protein takes longer to empty from your stomach and digest so that meal is going to last you longer than if you just have a quick bagel for breakfast with no protein, for example, because just the carbohydrates going to be out of your stomach in just an hour, you are going to be hungry sooner, ok. So protein has good satiety. The other thing protein has is it increases your metabolic rate a little bit more than carbohydrate does. There is something called the thermo dynamic effect of food. Your body temperature actually rises a little bit because your body is working to digest food after you eat and protein has a higher thermo dynamic effect. Something that the Atkins', the South Beach Diet, many diet plans that initially say that this high protein diet, that is one of the reasons why. Let's get your metabolism up, if you are cutting back calories you are not hungry. So, but what we we want to do is make sure that the protein we eat is lean. We want cuts of beef or pork that are loin. Loin, like sirloin or tender loin, is always going to be lean compared to a rib cut or a rib-eye cut or a t-bone cut for example. Make sure if you have ground beef it is ground buffalo or seven percent lean ground beef, or try ground turkey or ground chicken. Be careful though because even ground chicken can be high in fat if your butcher has ground the skin in as well. Try to choose fish, two or three times a week. Not only do you get the protein, but if you eat fatty fish, like salmon or tuna, you get Omega 3 fatty acids which are really good for heart and brain health as well. So those are my pros and cons of protein. Lots of pros, biggest con is people who overdo protein and forget that the body's main energy fuel is whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
