An extra portion of protein - important or a load of rubbish?
Two classics from the youth consultation: "Mr Brügel, you absolutely have to explain to my mum that the energy powder is not a problem!" Or: "Mr Brügel, you must forbid my son to drink these protein shakes once and for all!". Who is right?
The fact is that you don't need additional protein intake to perform well in sport or build up a good set of muscles. At least not if, like us here in Germany, you have access to a very wide variety of foods.
The German Nutrition Society has relatively clear recommendations on how many grams of protein we should consume. For the average person, this is 0.8 grams per kilogramme of body weight, i.e. around 55 to 60 grams of protein for a 70 kg man. If you are going through puberty and are also doing a lot of muscle training, then you may need a little more. But even this requirement can easily, really easily, be covered with protein from your everyday diet.
What you should perhaps know: Our body cannot store protein. So if you think you need to consume a large amount of protein after training, for example, this has no real effect because we don't store this protein, but break it down and excrete it in our urine.
But is it harmful to consume such powders? Fortunately, there is a fairly wide tolerance range. If you stay within this range, there is no harm at first. But the whole thing is not completely harmless. On the one hand, because many products, especially inexpensive ones, do contain impurities. Some of them contain hormone/steroid residues. And the fact is that if you supply your body with too much protein over a long period of time, it can put a strain on the kidneys. It can also be a trigger factor for the development of type II diabetes.
And, last point: it's just unnecessarily expensive. It's a huge market, in the US 5 to 10 billion a year is spent on these products. And, again, it's simply not necessary because we can regulate our protein intake wonderfully through our diet.
Further interesting tips
Do you need to see a doctor?
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Blood sampling
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