Yesterday I received a particularly nasty e-mail from an extremely irate visitor. It wasn’t anything I haven’t seen a zillion times before — the e-mail contained accusations of misleading the general public; it called me a liar (several times), and it used “UltimateFatBurner.com” in conjunction with the word “bullsh*t” several times.<\/p>\n
Frankly, e-mails like this aren’t that uncommon. Sometimes, people get a little defensive when you “burst their\u00a0bubbles” and explain — however gently, that what they believe has no basis in fact. So why am I bringing it up? Well…<\/p>\n
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My first inclination upon reading this complete load of tripe was to simply delete it. The e-mail address did not appear to be genuine\u00a0and I have a hard time taking\u00a0criticism from anyone who does not have the strength of\u00a0conviction to post his\/her\u00a0real name and e-mail address to such comments. And since this seemed like more of a rant than anything else, it did not seem worthwhile to address any of the issues outlined since it\u00a0seemed highly unlikely that I could\u00a0dissuade this individual from her various conclusions. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Within a few moments however, I got to reflecting upon the discussions Elissa and I have had about critical thinking — specifically,\u00a0the relative\u00a0lack of it — especially when it pertains to diet products. This irate e-mail was a fantastic example of “non-critical” thinking. For instance…<\/p>\n
When this person found that I disagreed with her preconceived notions\u00a0of several elements of nutrition and diet advice\u00a0and a couple of products to boot, she responded by calling me a liar. Again, not a big deal here — this happens often enough. What baffles me is that…<\/p>\n
a) She seems to be willing to accept the word of those who support her position, despite the fact that these people’s positions are not supported by any real, scientific evidence.<\/p>\n
b) She seems to be\u00a0unable to comprehend that for either myself or Elissa\u00a0to be able to\u00a0make an authoritative statement about something,\u00a0we need something other than “fairy dust” or “communications with the dead” to base\u00a0our assumptions.<\/p>\n
In other words, when either Elissa or I make statements on this web site, you’ll see the appropriate clinical reference that backs up our conclusion. Neither I or Elissa expect you to believe\u00a0what we say\u00a0just because we’re the people behind\u00a0the words on UltimateFatBurner.com. The clinical references\u00a0are there so you can verify for yourself that we’re not simply pulling this stuff out of thin air.<\/p>\n
One of\u00a0my statements\u00a0that so\u00a0enraged my guest was…<\/p>\n
“A high protein diet is dangerous? There’s isn’t a single medical study indicating this the case.”<\/p>\n
Again I was called a liar, and told there were hundreds of studies demonstrating a high protein diet (she didn’t define what constituted “high” exactly)\u00a0is extremely dangerous (my visitor didn’t actually point me to these mysterious studies, however. Apparently using the word “studies” in a sentence is enough to validate any claim!).<\/p>\n
But here’s the thing…<\/p>\n
I didn’t come to the conclusion I did just to be obstinate and to ruin some-one’s day. Like everyone else, I too had heard that consuming too much protein was dangerous — but I’d never seen any actual proof. If the comment came from a registered dietitian or nutritionist, that seemed to be enough for most people.<\/p>\n
Anyhow, when I did the research, I didn’t find any evidence that an increased protein intake posed any dangers to “normal” individuals not suffering from renal disease. In fact, I found the contrary (see Nutr Metab (Lond). 2005 Sep 20;2:25<\/a>)…<\/p>\n “…we find no significant evidence for a detrimental effect of high protein intakes on kidney function in healthy persons after centuries of a high protein Western diet.”<\/p>\n One review (Contrib Nephrol. 2007;155:102-12<\/a>) proposed…<\/p>\n “… that the concept that protein restricted diets decrease the risk of developing kidney disease in the general population is not supported by the scientific literature.<\/p>\n This one, which investigates a higher level of protein intake for athletes\u00a0(see Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2006 Dec;31(6):647-54<\/a>) indicated…<\/p>\n “…that higher protein diets have quite consistently been shown to result in greater weight loss, greater fat loss, and preservation of lean mass as compared with “lower” protein diets.”\u00a0<\/p>\n There was no mention of decreased kidney function or other less beneficial results.<\/p>\n