Nutrition
Uncomfortable Truths
Comfortable narratives about plant-based eating often conflict with scientific facts. Research shows that protein is one of the most important levers for metabolic health and liver health.
Nutrition
Comfortable narratives about plant-based eating often conflict with scientific facts. Research shows that protein is one of the most important levers for metabolic health and liver health.
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We advocate for everyone to live and eat as they choose. But we also advocate for facts.
And sometimes facts might hurt one or another of us. Because of course, each of us has our own idea of what is right and what is wrong.
For many, a plant-based diet, perhaps even vegan, with minimal animal suffering and high moral standards feels … intuitively right. Such ideals, not to say utopias, have accompanied humanity for centuries, perhaps millennia.
Of course, it stings a bit when you read academic articles in the world's most prestigious journals that ask, "Why do humans kill animals and why can't we avoid it?"1 There they describe in detail why we kill many, many animals even when we no longer eat any.
Certain eco-narratives feel good, read well, and sell well too. Many media outlets have recognized this, as have many scientists, especially in nutrition.
So you often read about studies in humans or animals (or in the "test tube"!) when they purport to show that animal-based food is terribly unhealthy, that proteins are terrible, or that veganism protects the climate.
Contrary findings are read much less frequently in comparison. But this is not because less is published about them. These data simply don't fit the desired narrative, so they are ignored.
An excellent example of this is protein. How often do we read horror stories about this macronutrient? Yet the data paint a completely different picture. It just needs to be reported more strongly.
For a long time, we've known from animal studies that a relatively high dietary protein content not only keeps you leaner, but especially helps de-fat the liver. A fatty liver is a hallmark of a sick body.
At the same time, we increasingly read that a low protein content in the diet—for example, under veganism—should be particularly beneficial against metabolic disorders like non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Of course, that fits better with a certain narrative.
A large research project from Germany, involving 17 German institutes, wanted to shed light on this with a high-quality human study. The researchers promptly found: tripling the protein content in the diet (from 10 to 30%) can nearly halve the fat content in the liver.2
Despite the same calorie intake, on a low-protein diet … nothing happened. The liver was just as fatty as before the dietary change. And this was on a meal plan full of supposedly healthy foods like bread, rice, potatoes, soy, fruits, and vegetables.
… but the bratwurst is often a proxy for an unhealthy lifestyle.
The next time you read that protein is terrible and fattens the liver, please remember that large epidemiological studies often equate the curried sausage and the salami pizza with lean steak. Obviously that's not going to work.
Dietary protein is for many, perhaps all people, one of the most important levers for a metabolically healthy body. You can certainly enjoy eating enough of it.
