Hi Theresa,
I agree with you — that article is very misleading. The author is a good example of how a little education can be a bad thing. Consider these bogus claims, for example:
Eating too much protein may also increase your chances of kidney stones, as well as your risk of osteoporosis. (When protein is digested, it releases acid that is neutralized by calcium, which is pulled from your bones.)
Really? I don't think so. Consider this information from the National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse:
Kidney stones can form when substances in the urine—such as calcium, oxalate, and phosphorus—become highly concentrated.
Diet for Kidney Stone Prevention
Strangely, I don't see protein in that list, nor does that site suggest reducing protein intake in order to prevent the formation of kidney stones.
Regarding the misleading scare tactic claim about protein pulling calcium from bones to cause osteoporosis, the fact of the matter is that whenever we take in more calcium than we need, the bones are used as a convenient place to store some of that surplus until it is needed. So yes, if our daily intake happens to fall short of our calcium needs, then the surplus calcium stored in our bones is available to help meet that need. But the point is, the digestive system doesn't indiscriminately rob calcium from the bones as a matter of routine, just so it can digest protein. That only happens if we neglect our calcium intake, and our diet is calcium-deficient. And if we neglect our calcium intake, it doesn't really matter whether we use some of the calcium to digest protein or not, because in the long run, we are going to be in trouble. The problem in that scenario is not protein, it's inadequate calcium intake.
And you can bet that the subjects for the study that was cited as proof of her claim were cherry picked from data by looking at women who had broken their forearm, and reverse-engineering the data. They probably all had osteoporosis, and their protein intake was irrelevant. But of course that's just a guess, and I could be all wet, but I'll bet a GF cookie that if the truth be told, that's how that study was done.
The bottom line is, as long as our diet contains an adequate amount of fat, it's impossible to eat too much protein. That was conclusively proven over 75 years ago.
Eskimos Prove An All Meat Diet Provides Excellent Health
Tex
I am glad Tex put the Eskimo link in his post. If he hadn't, I was going to ask him to. It's a long read, but very interesting. I have read the other parts of it, too.