TOO MUCH PROTEIN?

In Nomi Shannon's newsletter last week the usual question rears its head again "How will I get enough protein on a raw food diet?" She says its usually the first question people ask. We are obsessed with protein... Here is Nomi's response with lots of information for you!

Most of us have been raised with the notion that a lot of protein is good for us. The meat and dairy industries depend on that attitude. But, ponder this for a moment: What is the most perfect food for a human being when it needs it most,as a newborn infant? You guessed it - it is mother's milk. There is no other time in the life of a person when growth will be so dramatic.The infant will triple or quadruple in size in its first year and needs more protein to grow on than at any other time in its entire life span. And just how much protein is in mothers milk? The answer may surprise you. The amount of protein in mother's milk is 2.5 to 3.5 per cent ( compare that to the amount of protein in cow milk at 30 per cent). A baby cow needs to gain hundreds of pounds of mass in its first year, while it's relatively small brain does not need to grow very much, quite obviously different than the needs of a human baby.
If the amazing growth in the first year of life is beautifully served by the amount of protein in mothers milk, why would any human being ever need more? The answer is, he/she does not need more protein than that. One of the biggest mistakes in a SAD (Standard American Diet) is the consumption of too much protein. One of the saddest and most dramatic effects of a high protein diet is a negative calcium balance leading to osteoporosis. Habitual consumption of high protein forces the calcium in the body to act as a buffer to the high acid state created in the digestion of protein. The current medical advice to consume more and more calcium in the form of milk products, oyster shell calcium and over the counter digestive aids such as Tums cannot reverse the calcium loss in the bones due to excess protein consumption. Excess protein robs our bones of the very substance they need to maintain their strength. Osteoporosis is not a disease due to calcium deficiency; it is due to a lifelong consumption of too much protein.

BET YOU DIDN`T KNOW ALL OF THAT, DID YOU?