How Much Protein Should a Person With Diabetes Eat?
Protein itself does not have much of an effect on blood sugar levels, though the food the protein is in may. Typically, people with diabetes don't need any more protein than people who don't have diabetes. There are, however, times when less protein is better.
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Protein and Your Health
Protein is one of three essential macronutrients; the other two are fat and carbohydrate. These are needed in large amounts to maintain health and vital functions.
The body uses protein to build, repair, and maintain most of your body's tissues and organs. Proteins are also necessary for immune system function and help some additional physiological processes as well.
Daily Protein Intake
As long as your kidneys are healthy, about 10% to 35% of your daily calories should come from protein. This is the same amount suggested for a balanced non-diabetic diet. About 45% to 65% of your caloric intake should come from carbohydrates and the rest should come from fat.
Some health experts suggest that it is more accurate to use the standard formula of 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day.
To do the kilogram conversion, divide your weight in pounds by 2.2. For instance, if you weigh 150 pounds, that is equal to 68 kilograms. Multiply that by 0.8 and you get a protein goal of 54 grams.
According to the USDA Dietary Guidelines, it is recommended to eat 5 1/2 ounces of protein-rich food each day. Foods that are high in protein include meat, fish, seafood, chicken, eggs, dairy products, legumes, nuts, and seeds.
For example:
One-half chicken breast has 29 grams of protein
One cup of black beans has 15 grams of protein
An egg has 6 grams of protein
One cup of low-fat milk has 8 grams of protein
A 3-ounce portion of steak has 26 grams of protein
Choosing Proteins
When choosing proteins for a diabetic diet, the concern is more with the fats and carbohydrates that these foods contain.
Some types of carbohydrates, for instance, are quickly converted to glucose, which may lead to a spike. Additionally, the risk of weight gain from high-fat and high-carb foods can lead to less control of blood sugar levels.
The American Diabetes Association recommends eating fish as a protein source at least twice a week. They also recommend limiting red meat and processed meats like ham, bacon, and hot dogs because these tend to be high in saturated fats. Lean meats are a better choice for a balanced diet.
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High-Protein Diets
Switching to a high-protein diet may seem like it should make a difference in blood sugar regulation. However, the protein probably doesn't help much at all, at least for the long term.
Research has shown that increasing protein intake doesn't appear to have any appreciable impact on how your sugar is digested or absorbed. And it doesn't have any long-term effects on your blood sugar or insulin requirements.
This means that if a person with diabetes switches to a high-protein diet, any therapeutic benefit is probably due to the concurrent reduction and closer regulation of carbohydrate consumption, not the protein itself. This is an important basis for a consistent carbohydrate diet, which can help control type 2 diabetes.
That is not to say that high-protein diets are right for everyone. You need to take your personal situation and eating habits into account.
For instance, studies have been done on meals that are high in both fat and protein. In people with type 1 diabetes, their insulin dosage needed to be increased after one of these meals. Due to this, researchers recommend close monitoring of glucose levels.
Diabetic Nephropathy
People who have diabetic nephropathy, which is a kidney disease related to diabetes, often need to eat less protein. In this case, the recommended protein intake is about one gram (or less) per kilogram of body weight.
You will need to work with your healthcare provider to determine how much protein you need each day. Too much protein might be bad for your kidneys, but too little protein could lead to malnutrition and unintended weight loss.
Personalized Protein Intake
Anyone with diabetes can benefit from a personalized protein intake recommendation as well. There are many factors that play a role in a well-balanced diet and your needs may be different from the general recommendations.
It's best to speak with your healthcare provider about your protein needs. You can also discuss it with a certified diabetes educator or a dietitian or nutritionist who specializes in medical nutrition therapy for people with diabetes.
A Word From Verywell
While protein does not seem to directly affect blood glucose levels, the other components of high-protein foods may. Keep this in mind and try to limit your proteins to the daily recommended amount and to foods that are low in fat and carbohydrates.
More plant-based protein may slow kidney function decline in women older than 70 years
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More plant-based protein may slow kidney function decline in women older than 70 years
Older white women who consumed higher quantities of plant-based proteins had a slower yearly decline in eGFR, according to a study conducted in Australia.
These results are similar to an Iranian study that Healio Nephrology recently reported on, which showed substituting red meat with plant-based proteins significantly reduced the risk for developing chronic kidney disease (that study, however, also found an association between meat consumption and incident CKD, whereas this one did not reveal an association between animal protein and eGFR decline).
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“Population studies of individuals without risk factors for renal impairment have identified a progressive reduction in renal function with age, and older women developing CKD face an increased burden of comorbidities,” primary investigator Amélie Bernier-Jean, MD, of the Centre for Kidney Research, Children’s Hospital at Westmead, and the University of Sydney in Australia, and colleagues wrote. “Thus, population-based interventions aimed at reducing the loss of kidney function in this population are attractive.”
Noting that protein restriction may play an important role in slowing kidney function decline — with the current Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes guidelines recommending against protein intake of more than 1.3 g/kg/day for patients with CKD — the researchers contended that “evidence suggests that the origin of protein may be an influential factor for kidney function.”
According to Bernier-Jean and colleagues, this could be due to the fact that while plant-based proteins reduce acidosis, animal proteins contribute to the acid-load which may cause hyperfiltration and proteinuria.
“The evidence for this effect in the general population is mostly theoretical and observational studies are often limited to a baseline assessment of diet even though diet and kidney function are dynamic processes that are better evaluated longitudinally across repeated measurements,” they added.
To elucidate on the effect of plant-based protein compared with animal-based protein on renal function, the researchers administered a food frequency questionnaire to 1,374 white women who had a mean age of 75 years and a mean eGFR of 65.6 mL/min/1.73m2 at baseline (33% with CKD stage 3 or higher).
The questionnaire, which measured participants’ usual eating and drinking habits during the previous 12 months, was completed at baseline and again at 5 and 10 years (eGFR was also measured at these times).
The mean total protein intake throughout the study was 75.2 g/day (1.15 g/kg of weight/day), with the researchers noting that at baseline, 18% of participants consumed less than the 57 g of protein/day recommended for women aged 70 years or older with a normal kidney function (34% had a high protein intake at baseline).
For all three assessments, the mean animal protein intake was 51.4 g/day (0.75 g/kg/day) and the mean plant protein intake was 28.9 g/day (0.40 g/kg/day).
Observing an average decline in eGFR of 0.64 mL/min/1.73 m2 per year, the researchers found higher intakes of plant-sourced protein were associated with slower declines in eGFR. Specifically, each 10 g of plant protein led to a reduction of 0.12 mL/min/1.73m2 in yearly eGFR decline. This reduction in eGFR decline was primarily associated with fruit-, vegetable- and nut-derived proteins.
According to the researchers, these results demonstrate a beneficial association between plant-based protein and eGFR.
“A patient-centered approach to dietary advice with a focus on the promotion of plant sources of dietary protein rather than restriction may be considered,” they wrote. “Importantly, from a public health point of view, encouraging high intake of fruits, vegetables and nuts may prevent or slow renal deterioration in older women in addition to their benefit on other organ systems.”
Is a High Protein Diet Really Bad for Your Kidneys?
If there’s one thing popular opinion is good at, it’s scaring you off of doing healthy things. If it’s not mid-20th century doctors warning that lifting weights would lead to heart problems and low sex drive, or modern “experts” saying kids shouldn’t lift weights, or the fear of anyone squatting deep, or women being told that strength will make them bulky… the list goes on. Today we want to look at perhaps the most common aspect of dieting seen among athletes: the high protein diet.
Editor’s note: The content on BarBend is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. The opinions and articles on this site are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. If you are suffering or suspect you may be suffering from any illness or medical condition, please seek advice from a medical professional. It’s always a good idea to talk to your doctor before making any large changes to your diet or training protocol, and regular check-ups can be helpful in this regard.
“If it makes you look, feel, and perform great, there has to be something wrong with it. Isn’t it bad for your kidneys? Yeah. High protein diets are bad for your kidneys. All these idiots lifting weights and chugging protein shakes are destroying their bodies. Armed with this information, I can avoid diet and exercise and feel good about it.”
Let’s unpack this a little.
But What Is a High Protein Diet, Exactly?
If we’re going to start talking smack about high protein diets, we need to define what we mean, and people are generally bad at doing that. Sometimes it’s defined as percentage of total calories, sometimes it’s grams per pound of bodyweight, and the cutoffs are always arbitrary and vary by researcher, field, or consensus.
The RDI suggests 0.36 grams per pound of bodyweight, or 0.8 grams per kilogram. Anyone who’s been in the strength game for a while will be more familiar with another number: 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight, every day. Two hundred grams for a two-hundred-pound person.
We’re not trying to say that is the optimal amount of protein to consume — many get by just fine on much less — but that’s the number we hear thrown around the most.
[Can you absorb more than 30 grams of protein at once? Check out our article.]
Is a High Protein Diet Bad for the Kidneys?
This idea gained steam after some studies were published in the late 1980s and early 1990s that showed the more protein people consumed, the greater their glomerular filtration rate (GFR), a marker for waste filtration in the kidneys.(1) Scientists claimed that increased GFR meant the kidneys were experiencing undue stress.
But later studies showed that it wasn’t the case for folks with healthy kidneys.(2)(3)
There’s also research that specifically looked at athletes. A crossover study of resistance-trained males found that guys who ate 3 grams per kilogram of bodyweight (almost 1.5 grams per pound) had no harmful effects on kidney or liver function.(4) Another study of bodybuilders consuming upwards of 1.3 grams per pound bodyweight also had no problems with the way their kidneys cleared creatinine, urea, and albumin.(5)
So, problem solved, right?
[Learn more: 4 Science Based Protein Rules for Athletes.]
I Noticed You Said “Not For Healthy Kidneys”
Eating a high protein diet probably isn’t bad for you, but doing so with unhealthy kidneys probably is. Restricted protein diets are often recommended for people with kidney damage, as it may slow its progression.(6)
Or as biochemist and nutritionist Dr. Trevor Kashey puts it: running isn’t bad for you, but running with a broken leg is.
“But that doesn’t mean running will break your leg,” he adds. “Just because something may make a condition worse, doesn’t mean it caused it. High protein won’t cause kidney problems unless you have a kidney problem, in which cast it might make it worse.”
The bummer is that some kidney problems, like chronic kidney disease (CKD) are progressive and asymptomatic, so by the time you feel like something is wrong damage has been done. And your high protein consumption may have worsened it.
“Kidney problems rarely happen in isolation — patients are usually already overweight, diabetic, have high blood pressure, or other more readily noticeable health problems,” says Kashey. “It’s true that a very small percentage of people have genetic issues related to kidney function, so yearly physicals, even as a young person, are a good idea.”
Wrapping Up
There’s a lot more to the equation when it comes to protein: how much should you have, how often should you eat it, does the amino acid profile matter, and so on. When it comes to whether or not that recommendation for 1 gram per pound of bodyweight is bad for the kidneys, the answer is no, but not an emphatic no.
It’s irresponsible to say that there’s no way it could ever be detrimental to kidney function, but if you’re healthy — and you’ve been getting regular check-ups to prove it — high protein likely shouldn’t be an issue.
Featured image via @proportionalplate on Instagram.
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