Eat More, Weigh Less

When I was in medical school, we were taught that most impotence began in your brain—psychological. We now know it usually begins in your arteries—physiological.

When you go on a high-protein diet, you may get less blood flow to your most important organs. When you get less blood flow to your brain, you may feel more tired and you think less clearly. (Think about a time when you had a rich Thanksgiving feast, and how you felt afterwards.) When you get less blood flow to your heart, you increase your risk of chest pain or heart attack. And when you get less blood flow to your sexual organs, your sexual potency decreases.

In contrast, whole foods such as fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans contain literally thousands of other substances that are protective, having anti-aging, anti-cancer, and anti-heart disease properties. These include fiber, isoflavones, carotenoids, bioflavinoids, retinols, lycopene, geninstein, and the list goes on.

There is a large body of scientific evidence from epidemiological studies, animal research, and randomized controlled trials in humans showing that high-protein foods, particularly excessive animal protein, dramatically increase the risk of breast cancer, prostate cancer, heart disease, and many other illnesses. In the short run, they may also cause kidney problems, loss of calcium in the bones, and an unhealthy metabolic state called ketosis in many people.

Telling people that pork rinds and sausage are good for you is a great way to sell books, but it is irresponsible and dangerous for those who follow that advice. I would like to be able to tell you that these are health foods, but they’re not.

For example, a recent study by Richard Fleming, M.D., published in the peer-reviewed journal Angiology, examined blood flow to the heart in those who followed a high-protein diet or who followed a low-fat, whole foods diet.6 After a year, blood flow to the heart became measurably worse in those on a high-protein diet but improved significantly in those on a low-fat, whole foods diet.

When people follow a high-fat, high-protein diet to lose weight, they may mortgage their health in the process.

To the best of my knowledge, none of the high-protein diet authors has ever published any studies in any peer-reviewed journals documenting that their approach can help people lose weight safely, keep it off, and improve their health.

I am a scientist because the whole point of science is to say, “Prove it!” Just as Tom Cruise as Jerry Maguire said, “Show me the money!” a scientist says, “Show me the data!” To have something published in a peer-reviewed journal, you have to convince a “jury of your peers”—other well-regarded scientists—that what you say has facts to back it up.

A cover story in Time magazine described the controversy over diets low in carbohydrates, but the lead article the same week in the Journal of the American Medical Association talked about the benefits of diets high in fiber and complex carbohydrates.