Why High Protein Equals High Sugar - The Details




Since I've been getting some comments asking for more detail on Why High Protein Equals High Sugar,

I thought I'd give some more detail to this video, since I've been getting some comments asking the process why eating too much protein at any particular meal, converts over to sugar.

Most of you probably have, but in case you haven't, watch my video below to get caught up. But here's the main point of what I said in the video.

If you eat more than 30-35 grams of protein (depending on body weight) per meal, the rest of that protein will convert over into sugar. I'm going to discuss why that's a problem later, but let me tell you how that conversion works.

Different types of protein absorb at different rates.

  • Whey: The gold star of protein, Whey, digests at about 10 grams per hour (g/h).
  • Pea/Vegetable: Pea and other vegetable proteins tend to absorb at around 2 grams per hour.
  • Meat: Cooked meat, depending on the meat, is typically 6-8 g/hr. This depends on how you cook the meat. Slow cooked meat protein absorbs most efficiently, while highly processed, high-temperature cooked meat protein absorbs poorly.


So understanding these numbers and that the most efficient protein digestion is basically 10 grams per hour and taking into account the fastest healthy digestion rate is 3 hours per meal, anything faster than that is a sign of ill digestion health, like leaky gut, Krohn's disease or "gluten intolerance"and you're really not digesting, you're just pooping all your food into your toilet, hence the expression "it went right through me!" But that's a whole other topic I'll get to in another video and blog. So at a rate of 3 hours per meal, and 10 grams per hour digestion on the most efficient protein, that means on average, you can only efficiently digest 30-35 grams of protein per meal of protein. (Keep in mind this will adjust 30% or more based on the size of the human, but for the average 110-170 pound yuma, 30-35 grams of protein per meal maximum is the range. Think about it, Shaquille O'Neal can handle more protein per meal than say, Hayden Pentatierre.

So then the question is, what happens when you eat more than 35 grams of protein at one meal? Because that happens. You eat a big steak. A large burger. Don't even mention Thanksgiving. The key word for my fellow health nerds and geeks is: glyconeogensis (GNG). What this is, is your body's ability to convert non-sugar things into sugar to run your body. So we're at this place where you've eaten the maximum amount of protein your body can digest. Your body has two options here:

  1.  Use that excess protein for energy, by converting it into a fast energy source like sugar. 
  2.  Consider it a waste product and shit or pee it out. 

Here comes the rub: along with this 8-8 ounce steak or your big Thanksgiving dinner, most people have eaten a shit load of carbohydrates with it. Potatoes. Stuffing. Bread. Iced tea. Alcohol. A giant cake or piece of pie. So you've probably reached your glucose capacity already. Your body isn't going to need anymore sugar to run itself. It converts that protein into waste (keep reading, we get to this more later).

But let's assume you didn't do that. You ate a nice meal of an average-sized 8oz steak (56 grams of protein) and broccoli. Thinking you're all low carb and fit. Well, eat ounce of red meat is 4-8 grams of protein. (Per ounce: ground beef = 4 grams protein; top sirloin = 8 grams protein.) As I said before, the digestion rate of meat is around 8 grams per hour, at best. Then you take into account the most efficient digestion rate for the human body, which is 3 hours. At 8 grams multiplied by 3 hours, you get a maximum of 24 grams of protein digested within that meal out of the 56 grams of protein consumed. This leaves another 32 grams of protein just sitting around, doing nothing. So your body immediately uses this GNG to utilize this excess 26 grams of protein. The first thing your body tries to figure out is, "do I need extra sugar" because that's your body's easiest and most efficient energy source. Your blood sugar is relatively low (remember this is the broccoli-steak "healthy meal") because you've been eating a low carb diet. You're on that fit, low carb program. That's why you're eating nothing but steak and low-carb vegetables now. There's a need for sugar. Your body wants sugar. So it converts that excess protein directly over to sugar through a very complicated process called Glyconeogenesis.

The issue here is that it's doing exactly the opposite of what most people are trying trying to accomplish by eating steak and vegetables for your low carb meal: burning excess fat for energy instead of sugar while reducing your sugar cravings. This mistake of eating high protein results in a spike of blood sugar, insulin insensitivity, raised cortisol levels, promotion of gut fat, and increased inflammation.

Now, at the end of this shit storm, you have a massive craving for more sugar, because with an increase of insulin, you've just burnt off all that excess sugar, and now you're in a low blood sugar hypoglycemic spiral, which makes it almost impossible not to eat carbs. Now you're back on the carb gravy train.

Even though you were trying to train your liver to use fat as your energy source by eating low carb, basically you've taken the sugar dildo from both ends. This is if your body's working very efficiently, your liver is perfectly healthy and your digestion is almost running at 100% optimal performance. How many of us do you actually think that is?

Let's assume your body's not a ferrari, but is running more like a Toyota Celica. You have a few dents and the transmission's not running too efficiently. When you eat this supposedly healthy broccoli-steak meal, your liver can't even handle converting that protein into sugar, so it usually treats it as waste product. That creates a lot of toxic bi-product, the majority of which is ammonia. Nitrogen bonds in the protein produce ammonia during digestion. Needless to say, eating or drinking ammonia is bad. So your liver and kidneys have to handle this waste product. Your liver converts that ammonia into uric acid, which is less harmful, and then your kidneys try and filter that uric acid out. High uric acid levels are a cause of many chronic illnesses, such as gout, edema, high blood pressure, heart problems, eye problems and hearing loss. Not to mention tooth decay.

Conclusion: Don't fucking eat more than 30 grams of protein at one sitting, and throughout the day, you shouldn't eat more than 1 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight. Then maybe one day you'll be a ferrari. This is a really vast subject and gets very technical. But if you want to discuss further, let me know down below in the comments. I'll be making more videos about this on youtube. Check out my channel Lovemore Life and remember to subscribe by email to this blog on the upper right hand corner of this page, if you want more in depth information just like this.

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Sifu Marcus Lovemore

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