Erin O'Hara: naturopath and wellness expert unpacks the protein craze

The health and wellness sphere has recently been shining a light on the importance of protein - but are we eating too much?

Protein is important for health, fitness and energy, but one expert has issued a warning about consuming too much - or not enough.

Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara explains why it's important to find the right balance.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News talks'b Erin.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
O'Hara is with us now to talk well being. Good morning,
good morning. Now, if there's one thing that a middle
aged woman hears these days, it's eat your protein. Eat
your protein. And not just middle aged women, We're all
talking about eating more protein. I know that if you
go to the gym a lot and you work out
a lot, you're probably quite obsessed about how much protein
you're eating. Are we over doing the protein talk or

(00:34):
not eating enough of it?

Speaker 3 (00:35):
I think we're really in that protein mania boom where
everyone talks about eating protein, getting more protein into their diet.
Especially if you're on any sort of social media Instagram, TikTok, Facebook,
it's always promotein eat more protein. And with the diet culture,
there's always that sort of one sort of thing that

(00:57):
we're doing, and it's really in the limelight is protein
at the moment. And I've got mixed views on this.
I'm actually, as you know, a big fan of protein diets. However,
it's about how to create that balance. I think that
some people have that view of their eating lots of protein.
I ask them, Okay, what do you have for breakfast,
and they'll say, oh, I have one egg. I have

(01:18):
a nice high protein breakfast. And I'm like, wow, one
egg is not really technically a high protein breakfast. But
I think that's where there is still a misconception of
how much protein people are eating.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Because you might have a certain amount of chicken. Certain
you know, grams of chicken, but actually that doesn't equate
to the amount of protein in it, does it.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
And that's the thing is that people quite often will
eat too small a portion that they actually won't hit
their amount of protein that they need. And if you're
unsure how much protein does your body need, it's really
different depending on the size of you. So usually a
good guy just to get an adequate amount of protein
for your body is a point eight to one point

(02:02):
two grams of protein per kilo of body weight. So,
knowing what your weight is, then work that out in grams,
which is easy conversion. So if you just go for
one for one, if you're sixty kilos at minimum, trying
to get sixty grams of protein. Now, one egg a
day is a day, so one egg has six point
five grams of protein.

Speaker 4 (02:24):
So you're weight a lot of eggs if you're going
for eggs, And that's where generally with this low protein diet,
it's usually more someone who tends to be a bit
more vegetarian or vegan, and they have to really work.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
To get the protein in. If you are a meat
eater or doing a carnivoric diet, you're probably going the
other extreme. Quite often, if people just eating meat and
following that sort of meat only diet, they're usually eating
excessive amounts of protein. And that's where we've got this
sort of both ends of the spectrum of people either
not eating enough protein or the people who are becoming

(02:59):
so fixated on protein that I would actually classify them
as eating too much protein.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
And is there a danger of eating too much protein?

Speaker 3 (03:06):
It is. It's actually quite hard to process, and a
lot of the extract protein gets processed through our kidneys.
Your kidneys can work harder. If you're doing extreme high protein,
you're at a higher risk of getting things like kidney stones. Also,
quite often we'll be switching out the protein for other
nutrients in our diet, so that might mean that we're

(03:27):
actually missing some other nutrients, particularly fiber, and that's why
when people go onto these meat only sort of diets,
constipation is super common because we need that ruffage and
that fiber to kind of brush through the gut and
keep the bow moving. Also, sometimes if you're not actually
active enough and you're going on a high protein diet,

(03:48):
you're still gain weight. Like at the end of the day,
calories are calories, so it's not just eat protein and
you're going to suddenly lose weight. Doesn't work the magic
like that. How do we find that balance of macro nutrients? Yeah,
macro nutrients if you don't know what that is. That's
the balance of protein, carbo hydrate, foods, and fats. And

(04:08):
we want to get a good, beautiful balance across the day,
so we can't just eat protein. And that's whe're looking
at your dinner plates. I always go with just a
general guide of like half a plate of vegetables, quarter
of the plate protein, and maybe half a cup of
carbohydrate with a tablespoon of fats. And it's a good
little balance, and that's a good way to kind of

(04:29):
structure if you're really not sure how to get the
dinner plate looking balanced. And that's where we don't just
want half a plate of meat and no veggies, like
we want to keep that balance in the meal plan
and that will help you get your macronutrient balance, which
is then making sure you're getting all your nutrients or
your fiber and all the good stuff their body needs.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Love it. Thank you so much. Erin We'll talk next week.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.