Oats are just carbs.
> You can enrich it with bananas or goji berries for extra nutrients.
"extra nutrients" are more carbs.
> it’s healthy
I don't think that a whole meal without a good protein source can be considered "healthy"
> You can enrich it with bananas or goji berries for extra nutrients.
"extra nutrients" are more carbs.
> it’s healthy
I don't think that a whole meal without a good protein source can be considered "healthy"
I never said that oats are unhealthy or that carbs are unhealthy. I said that a meal without protein is not the best idea.
My critique was not directed at a particular food item but at the meal composition as a whole.
> I get protein in lunch and dinner, and I don't need my oatmeal breakfast to be protein heavy.
TFA suggests to eat oatmeal for lunch.
> Oatmeal for lunch doesn't make much sense in isolation.
I agree!
I guess, it is possible to make oatmeal for lunch work if you up the protein and somewhat reduce carbs in breakfast and dinner, but way? I think that it is much easier to just make a habit to include a high protein food item in every meal. There is basically no downsides to eating too much protein and there are a lot of potential problems if you eat too little.
A more nuanced opinion from the Harvard Medical School:
"Can too much protein be harmful?
The short answer is yes. As with most things in life, there can be too much of a good thing and if you eat too much protein, there may be a price to pay. For example, people that eat very high protein diets have a higher risk of kidney stones. Also a high protein diet that contains lots of red meat and higher amounts of saturated fat might lead to a higher risk of heart disease and colon cancer, while another high protein diet rich in plant-based proteins may not carry similar risks." [0]
[0] https://www.health.harvard.edu/diet-and-nutrition/when-it-co...
> However, for the average healthy person (who is not an elite athlete or heavily involved in body building) it's probably best to keep total protein intake to no more than 2 gm/kg of ideal body weight
So, you can increase your protein intake about 2.5 times above RDA without any issues? I would call this "basically no downsides".
Of course, you can carefully design other meals to be more protein-heavy, just because of your weird idea of a having an (almost)no-protein meal.
But it is much easier to make it a habit to include at least one high protein food in every meal.
https://www.health.com/too-much-protein-side-effects-1189485...
#1 literally says
> For people with healthy kidneys, higher protein intake is generally safe.
#2 addresses the issues of some specific diets ("very-low-carb or ketogenic diets") that "may be low in fiber-rich carbohydrates". I did not advocate for "very-low-carb or ketogenic diets". Also, it doesn't say anything about potential harms of protein itself.
#3 "It Can Crowd Out Other Nutrients"
Again, no mention of supposed "harms of too much protein", only harms of "too little everything else". I never suggested to go crazy and stop eating other foods.
#4 deals with "type of protein" that "may be just as important as the amount of protein" and is irrelevant to your argument.
#5
> A very high-protein diet, particularly one high in animal foods, can increase the risk of kidney stones, especially for people with a history of these conditions or those who don’t drink enough water.
Well, just drink enough water then. Also, I was talking about generally healthy people. I am not qualified to discuss diet choices of people "with a history of these conditions".
#6 "Protein Bars and Powders Can Backfire"
I never suggested any of this. Also, this doesn't address supposed harms of protein itself, so it is irrelevant again.
The problem is that your link doesn't really backs up your claims. #1 and #5 deal exclusively with people with various kidney conditions. #2, #3, #4 and #6 deal with issues that are only tangentially related to consuming too much protein.
All research that claims that eating too much protein is harmful is either about people with kidney disease or explores really far-fetched theoretical scenarios.
While harms of consuming too little protein are obvious and self-evident. Every tissue of your body constantly regenerates itself. Generating new tissue is impossible without protein, because protein is what it is made of.
> your unbacked claim
Sure, let's have some links: https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/are-you-getting-enou...
> “We find most adults are not quite getting enough protein,” says Michael Garcia, MD, a UCLA Health clinical nutritionist.
> When you eat that protein also matters — the protein your body needs must be spread throughout the day. “We’re able to store certain nutrients, but we can't do the same thing with protein,” Dr. Garcia says. “And our bodies can only use so much protein in a sitting and a day.”
> “The recommended amount is really the absolute minimum we need to not fall into a deficient state.”
According to a link[0] provided by another commenter[1] in another subthread of this thread, maximum protein intake is about 2.5 times higher than the recommended protein intake (which is really just "the absolute minimum we need to not fall into a deficient state").
And since most people, who don't consciously control their diets, are very likely to eat closer to the lower bound, I think that telling people to "just eat more protein" is more likely to bring them health benefits than telling people to "just eat less protein"
Which is what TFA effectively does: it tells people about "underrated benefits" of replacing one meal a day by a meal that barely has any protein, which is equivalent to telling people to "just eat less protein".
I think that this article is potentially harmful to people who don't know any better, and I'm very surprised that the issue of reducing protein intake is neither addressed by TFA nor by other commenters. And that my attempt at addressing it receives so much pushback.
[0] https://www.health.harvard.edu/diet-and-nutrition/when-it-co...
Having too much protein, especially the amount pushed by certain industries here in the United States, is maybe not healthy, no.