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Barbell Medicine Podcast

Barbell Medicine Podcast

The Protein Scaries: What the Research Says About Your Kidneys, Cancer, Bones, and Body Fat

Jul 24, 2026 · 33m

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About this episode

Every couple of years a new headline warns that the protein you eat is quietly hurting you. This year the target is your kidneys. Before that it was cancer, then your bones, then the claim that your body can only use twenty or thirty grams of protein at a meal. In this episode, Dr. Jordan Feigenbaum goes through the actual studies behind each scare: the kidney trials, the 2014 IGF-1 and cancer paper that started the panic, the acid-ash bone hypothesis, and the per-meal "cap." Each fear starts from a real mechanism, and each one was run straight to a frightening conclusion the clinical outcomes never supported. The take home is simple. For a healthy adult, protein is not the lever people…