High Protein and Heart Health

Diets like the Atkin’s diet and keto diet require you to eat lots and lots of protein, which can be effective at helping you lose weight but can also put your heart health at risk – if they are not handled properly.

A recent study at the University of Eastern Finland discovered that men who subscribed to a high protein diet increased their risk of developing heart failure by as much as 33 percent. Researchers studied 2,500 men with ages ranging between 42-60 over the course of 5 years. Participants were required to record their food intake in a food log over a 22-year period.  That time span resulted in 334 cases of heart failure. Analysis of the diets of the heart failure victims showed that they were eating high protein diets.

It turns out, your heart isn’t put at risk just by eating protein. The type of protein you consume is an even greater determiner of your overall heart health. The participants who received the majority of your protein from animal sources had a 43 percent increased risk of heart failure in comparison to those who ate the least amount of protein. Participants who received the majority of their protein from dairy sources had a 49 percent increased risk, and those who received the majority of their protein from plant sources were at a 17 percent increased risk for heart failure.

Surprisingly or unsurprisingly depending on your knowledge, protein derived from eggs and fish did not show signs of increasing participants’ risk for heart failure.

Another way high protein diets endanger your heart is that they restrict the type of foods that you eat, which subsequently restricts the vitamins ad nutrients your body is receiving. Many of these nutrients play a vital role in protecting your heart and need to be supplemented if you’re subscribing to a high protein diet.