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“Dietary protein-derived amino acids have a purpose, and that purpose is not carbs.”
At a reasonable level of dietary intake, protein is used for the maintenance of organs & tissues. Lean body mass. It’s functional. Protein isn’t stored in any appreciable capacity, and most excess is either oxidized or stored as glycogen. Theoretically, about 50-60% of protein-derived amino acids can be converted into glucose, mathematically, but it’s not what you think…
“At a reasonable level of dietary intake.” A recent publication took a look at this (). They set out to determine how much protein is converted to glucose under “optimal gluconeogenic conditions.” That is, the subjects were 12 hours fasted, which is a physiologically relevant, optimal condition. They were then given 4 eggs (~23 g protein) that were labeled with two stable isotopes (15N & 13C, derived from hens fed isotope-enriched diets!). Throughout the entire study duration, the subjects were infused with a third isotope, 2H-glucose. By collecting and analyzing the enrichment of isotopically-labeled metabolites like expired CO2, urea, and glucose, the researchers were able to determine the fate of those 23 grams of protein.
Some of the dietary protein-derived amino acids were used for protein synthesis, others were oxidized. But blood glucose levels did not change. Nor did the rate of gluconeogenesis.
Over the course of 8 hours, their livers cranked out ~50 grams of glucose, and about 4 of it came from the protein. 8% of the blood glucose produced under “optimal gluconeogenic conditions” came from dietary protein. 8%. And it wasn’t enough to elevate blood glucose levels.
It could be argued that since only about a third of liver glucose production after an overnight fast comes from gluconeogenesis (the rest from glycogenolysis), 25% of the gluconeogenesis-derived glucose came from dietary protein. My response: it still doesn’t matter because blood glucose levels didn’t change!
23 grams = ~0.3 g/kg for a 80 kg person.
Do you even lift, bro?
How about 2 g/kg?
Thank you, Conn and Newburgh, for doing this study prior to the existence of Institutional Review Boards (). Best. Study. Ever. They were going off of the hypothesis that half of dietary protein can be turned into glucose and this should cause profound hyperglycemia if they were to give something ridiculous like 160 grams of protein… right? …because that would be the same as 80 grams as glucose. In the figure below, line #1 is blood glucose after 80 grams of glucose. Line #2 is 160 grams of protein (theoretically equivalent to 80 grams of glucose).
They repeated this ad nauseum, with a variety of different sources of carbohydrate and protein (up to 1.3 pounds of lean beef in one experiment!), but the picture didn’t change.
What if your metabolism is “broken?” Type 2 diabetic patients from given a half a pound of steak (~50 grams of protein) (closed circles) or water (open circles) first thing in the morning:
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