Can­di­da Khan

When you walk in­to a gym, scroll through so­cial me­dia or watch a fit­ness in­flu­encer, you will hear the mes­sage: “You need more pro­tein.”

What is be­ing sold more of­ten is pro­tein shakes, bars, cook­ies, ce­re­al, cof­fee, pow­der and sup­ple­ments, which keep the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal in­dus­try in busi­ness for life. The mod­ern fit­ness in­dus­try has brain­washed mil­lions of peo­ple to think that build­ing mus­cle and los­ing fat mean more pro­tein in­take from sup­ple­ments.

The truth is that most of us are get­ting suf­fi­cient pro­tein from food. The prob­lem isn’t a lack of pro­tein but the mar­ket­ing that has turned a ba­sic nu­tri­ent in­to a mil­lion-dol­lar ob­ses­sion. Pro­tein is vi­tal for re­pair­ing tis­sues, sup­port­ing im­mune func­tion, pro­duc­ing hor­mones and main­tain­ing mus­cle mass, but the mis­in­for­ma­tion about pro­tein in­take has made peo­ple think that they need to con­sume as much as pos­si­ble. The mes­sage from mar­ket­ing is that reg­u­lar food isn’t enough.

Pro­tein de­fi­cien­cy is rare, and these are every­day foods that have pro­tein that we eat dai­ly:

• Eggs • Chick­en • Fish • Beef • Milk • Yo­gurt • Cheese • Beans • Lentils • Nuts • Seeds • Whole grains

Pro­tein is every­where. When we ob­sess over hit­ting pro­tein tar­gets cre­at­ed by sup­ple­ments, we are go­ing be­yond what our bod­ies ac­tu­al­ly need! Mus­cle seems to be the main tar­get when it comes to pro­tein in­take, but mus­cle grows be­cause of:

1) Re­sis­tance train­ing

2) Re­cov­er­ing prop­er­ly with stretch­ing and hy­dra­tion

3) Suf­fi­cient sleep

4) Suf­fi­cient calo­rie in­take

5) Ad­e­quate pro­tein

Ad­di­tion­al pro­tein doesn’t mag­i­cal­ly be­come mus­cle once your body’s needs are met. The body is more com­plex than we think. Some nu­tri­ents no one is dis­cussing are:

1) Di­etary fi­bre that we don’t con­sume enough of, which sup­ports gut health.

2) Mag­ne­sium, which is es­sen­tial for nerve func­tion and mus­cle con­trac­tions, comes from nuts, seeds, beans, and dark leafy veg­eta­bles.

3) Omega-3 fat­ty acids such as from flaxseed pow­der, salmon and chia seeds.

4) Potas­si­um that reg­u­lates flu­id bal­ance and mus­cle func­tion, from ba­nanas, for ex­am­ple.

When the in­dus­try re­peat­ed­ly tells you that you’re lack­ing some­thing, ask why it is ben­e­fit­ing from this be­lief. Some dan­gers of over­con­sump­tion of pro­tein in­clude kid­ney stress, di­ges­tive is­sues, nu­tri­ent im­bal­ances, a false sense of se­cu­ri­ty, fi­nan­cial drain, and weak­ened eat­ing habits.

To con­clude, the pro­tein ob­ses­sion is to ben­e­fit the pock­ets of sup­ple­ment com­pa­nies. What we need is bet­ter meals. We need bet­ter com­bi­na­tions of food groups with com­plex car­bo­hy­drates, fruits, veg­eta­bles and more. Every­thing we need is on our plate.

Can­di­da Khan, MSc RD al­so known as Di­di is a Reg­is­tered Di­etit­ian Nu­tri­tion­ist.

She is al­so the CEO of Di­di’s Nu­tri­tion Con­sul­tan­cy: didis­nu­tri­tion­con­sul­tan­cy.com