I ate 160 bags of chicken breast in one month and my kidneys couldn't take it anymore!

Audit expert: Shen Yingjian

Director of the Nutrition Department of Hebei Yanda Hospital

Fat-reducing exercises have become all the rage on the Internet in recent times, with many people following fitness bloggers to start “cutting off the fat around their waists” at home.

Did you do exercise today?

Source: pixabay

Paying attention to physical health is something worthy of recognition, especially now that we are in an era of national fitness. This also shows that human beings have begun to pay attention to their physical condition after their material life is satisfied.
However, there are also some issues that need attention during the fitness process, especially since fitness emphasizes "three parts training and seven parts diet", so diet during fitness is very important.

The harm of long-term single diet intake

A balanced diet is scientific and healthy. On the other hand, a long-term single diet will be harmful. For example, a fitness enthusiast mentioned in a hot Weibo news some time ago, in order to maintain a lower body fat, he ate 160 bags of chicken breasts in a month. The result of the physical examination showed that his urine protein was 2+, which caused kidney damage. The doctor judged that he was suffering from kidney damage because he consumed too much protein, which caused excessive metabolic burden on the kidneys.

A similar case is a young female white-collar worker who was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease during a physical examination because she only took vitamins and protein powder. In fact, it seems that these behaviors are healthy, but they are not.

Source: Weibo screenshot

A long-term low-carb, high-protein diet is unscientific because it can cause abnormal energy metabolism in the body. The main source of energy for the human body is carbohydrates, but in a low-carb, high-protein diet, part of the energy is supplied by protein.

In such a dietary structure, protein is not the main provider of energy for the body. Excessive protein replaces carbohydrates, which will cause excessive gluconeogenesis in the body. Excessive gluconeogenesis will be converted into sugar, which will also cause fat accumulation. The decomposition and synthesis of protein will increase the burden on the liver. The metabolites of protein need to be excreted from the body through the kidneys. Excessive metabolites excreted through the kidneys will also greatly increase the workload of the kidneys. When these tasks far exceed the workload of the liver and kidneys, it will cause damage to the liver and kidney functions and eventually cause the occurrence of diseases. In other words, an unreasonable diet will cause damage to the body, which is neither beneficial nor harmful!

Have you ever "precisely calculated" the energy you consume? Source: pixabay

Therefore, as long as the diet is normal, the body's need for protein can be met. If the protein intake is excessive, it will increase the burden on the body, which is not worth the loss. In order to avoid such incidents of damage to the body due to improper diet, we must learn to eat scientifically and rationally.

What is a reasonable diet structure?

Under normal circumstances, the human body needs to consume the following five types of food to achieve a balanced diet: cereals and potatoes, vegetables and fruits, animal food, dairy products, soy and nuts, salt and oil.

In daily life, humans should have a balanced diet, that is, not lacking any of the nutrients, because only a balanced diet can meet people's normal needs and ensure good health. At present, the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022)" has been released, which is another update after the 2016 pyramid version.

Source: "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022)"

Its core principle is: food diversity and reasonable combination. As can be seen from the picture, it has made a relatively accurate description of the various foods needed by the human body. According to this dietary pagoda, people can eat according to scientific requirements to ensure balanced nutrition.

A careful comparison shows that there are some changes in the requirements for various foods in the 2022 version of the Dietary Guidelines. For example, the amount of milk and dairy products is more than the previous requirement, which is also a very important reminder because milk is an important source of high-quality protein and calcium.

Salad source: pixabay

However, it should be noted that protein intake must be moderate. Many basic and clinical studies have shown that a high-protein diet can cause kidney damage. This is because the decomposed high-protein metabolites are excreted from the body through the kidneys, and a large amount of high-protein metabolites increase the burden on the kidneys, which can easily lead to chronic kidney disease.

Source: "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022)"

It is also not difficult to understand that we should eat seafood at least twice a week. Chinese people eat more meat, with beef, mutton or pork accounting for the vast majority, while seafood is relatively rare. However, the fat content of seafood is relatively lower, and it contains some fatty acids, which is very helpful in protecting the cardiovascular system.

In addition, you don't need to worry about high cholesterol if you eat an egg every day. Scientific research shows that eating an egg every day has higher nutritional benefits. Of course, the 6,000 steps per day remain unchanged, so a reasonable diet must be accompanied by proper exercise to be healthier.

How to control your diet properly when exercising

When we return to the topic of fitness, we must mention "30% exercise, 70% diet", but many people think of dieting or even not eating when they mention fitness, which is very unscientific. However, it is undeniable that fitness does require reasonable diet control. For fitness friends, there are also some tips for reasonable diet control.

You should also control your diet when exercising

Source: pixabay

First, once you have a certain understanding of a reasonable dietary structure, you can calculate the amount of nutrients you need every day, and you need to know the main ingredients of the food you eat every day. This will facilitate the body's accurate intake, and you can calculate the content of the corresponding food according to the amount of nutrients needed daily, so that you can prepare a recipe for yourself.

Second, change the past cooking methods, steaming, boiling, stewing, and blanching can help reduce oil and sugar. Also, check the amount of oil carefully, and do not pour oil directly into the cooking pot or sprinkle it on the food.

Third, eat only enough, don't eat more. When dining out, be strict and replace drinks with milk.

Fourth, listen to the voice of reason. Eat when you feel hungry and stop when you feel full. Try to eat on time and don't give yourself extra meals.

A reasonable diet combined with scientific fitness is a reasonable choice for the human body. Therefore, we must take these two things seriously, but we must also learn to combine the two, so that we can have a healthy body and a healthy life, which is also the lifestyle advocated by this era.