Social media is full of people urging you to eat more protein, including via supplements<\/a> such as protein shakes. Food companies have also started highlighting protein content on food packages to promote sales.<\/p>\n But is all the extra protein giving us any benefit \u2013 and can you have too much protein?<\/p>\n Protein\u2019s important \u2013 but many eat more than they need<\/p>\n Eating enough protein is important. It helps form muscle tissue, enzymes and hormones and it plays a role in immune function. It can also give you energy.<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s healthy eating guidelines, penned by experts and backed by government, recommend we get 15\u201325 per cent of our daily energy needs from protein.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Fish, eggs, yoghurt, cheese and beans all have high protein content (Getty)<\/p>\n The recommended daily intake of protein for adults is 0.84 grams per kilogram of body weight<\/a> for men and 0.75 grams per kilogram of body weight for women<\/p>\n This is about 76 grams per day for a 90 kilogram man or 53 grams per day for a 70 kilogram woman. (It\u2019s a bit more if you\u2019re over 70 or a child, though).<\/p>\n Most Australian adults are already eating plenty of protein.<\/p>\n Even so, many people still go out of their way to add even more protein to their diet.<\/p>\n For people working to increase muscle mass through resistance training, such as lifting weights, a protein intake up to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day (that\u2019s 144 grams a day for a 90 kilogram person) can help with increasing muscle strength and size.<\/p>\n But research shows there is no additional muscle gain benefit from eating any more than that.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Those looking to increase muscle mass through exercises like weight lifting should ingest up to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day (Getty)<\/p>\n For most of us, there\u2019s no benefit in consuming protein above the recommended level.<\/p>\n In fact, having too much protein can cause problems.<\/p>\n What happens when I eat too much protein?<\/p>\n Excess protein is not all simply excreted from the body in urine or faeces. It stays in the body and has various effects.<\/p>\n Protein is a source of energy, so eating more protein means taking in more energy.<\/p>\n When we consume more energy than we need, our body converts any excess into fatty tissue for storage.<\/p>\n About the author<\/p>\n Margaret Murray is a Senior Lecturer, Nutrition, at Swinburne University of Technology. This article was originally published by The Conversation and is republished under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n There are some health conditions where excess protein intake should be avoided. For example, people with chronic kidney disease should closely monitor their protein intake, under the supervision of a dietitian, to avoid damage to the kidneys.<\/p>\n There is also a condition called protein poisoning, which is where you eat too many proteins without getting enough fats, carbohydrates and other nutrients.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also known as \u201crabbit starvation\u201d, a term often linked to early 20th century explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, in reference to the fact that those who subsisted on a diet of mainly rabbits (which are famously lean) quickly fell dangerously ill.<\/p>\n Where you get your protein from matters<\/p>\n We can get protein in our diets from plant sources (such as beans, lentils, wholegrains) and animal sources (such as eggs, dairy, meat or fish).<\/p>\n A high intake of protein from animal sources has been associated with an increased risk of premature death among older Australians (especially death from cancer).<\/p>\n High animal protein intake is also associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Eating a lot of animal protein has been linked to certain health conditions (Getty Images\/iStock)<\/p>\n On the other hand, consuming more plant sources of protein is associated with:<\/p>\n a lower risk of dying from cancera reduced risk of type 2 diabetes andimproved blood cholesterol levels.<\/p>\n Many animal sources of protein are also relatively high in fat, particularly saturated fat.<\/p>\n A high intake of saturated fat contributes to increased risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease. Many Australians already eat more saturated fat than we need.<\/p>\n![\"Fish,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/newFile-5.jpg\")
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