Question

(This is BIOchemistry)

A patient who is diabetic decides to go on the beef jerky diet. She eats almost nothing other than beef jerky and similar dried meat products. She does drink plenty of water and gets vitamin supplements. Describe how her body reacts to the diet. Be sure to list any concerns you might have about the diet and the person's health. (This problem relates to chapters 22, Biosynthesis of amino acids, nucleotides, and related molecules; and chapter 23, hormonal regulation and integration of mammalian metabolism, from the Lehninger Biochemistry textbook).

Answer 1

Recently, effect of high protein diet on the diabetic patient are well studied and provided insight towards protein diet efficacy towards controlling type-2 diabetic. Protein diet led to the improvement in the liver health of diabetic patient via reducing reductions AST, ALT, and GGT. In diabetic patient the fat and Hba1c levels significantly increases. The animal protein diet can reduce liver fat content by 43.6% in type-2 diabetic patient. In the protein fed diabetic patient Hba1c level of liver were reduced by 0.58% Additionally, the insulin sensitivity to the carbohydrate also increases. The high protein diet can results reduction in the carbohydrate:protein:fat ratio i.e., from 55:15:30 to 20:30:50, therefore increases the health of the type-2 diabetic patient. The reduced carbohydrate content is expected to occur due to the reduced sugar absorbance. Now it is believed that protein helps in the reduced absorption of the carbohydrate/sugar. On the other hand, proteins are slowly converted to sugars (50–60% of protein become glucose), therefore capable to maintain low sugar content. Now, more detailed and extensive studies are required gain more confidence on these initial finding.

However, excess protein diet alter the nitrogen metabolism and in the protein fed type-2 diabetic patient nitrogen metabolism significantly enhances. This results in the increase of nitrogenous compound and waste in the blood sample, which includes creatinine, urea, uric acid, etc., and can cause renal disorder or other chronic diseases. As mention in the description (question), drinking plenty of water could be a possibility to reduce/minimise the side effect caused due to the excess protein intake. Additionally, it has been demonstrated that intake of plant protein diets instead of animal protein can also improve the renal function by reducing the creatinine levels.

Please follow following link in support of above description and gain more knowledge.

http://journal.diabetes.org/diabetesspectrum/00v13n3/pg132.htm

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3835583/

http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/53/9/2375

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/high-protein-diets-and-diabetes

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/high-protein-diets/faq-20058207