Does Dietary Protein Affect Blood Sugars?

The protein in this can raise your blood sugar



  • Growing children and athletes need more protein.






Steve Parker, M.D.


Filed under Protein

6 responses to “Does Dietary Protein Affect Blood Sugars?

  1. So what is your thinking on this issue??

  2. Jim Jozwiak

    I think Volek and Phinney are the ones who nailed this concept. When eating low-carb, excess protein tends to raise fasting blood sugar and lower blood ketones. I am not a body builder or a serious athlete, but Bernstein’s protein numbers are too high for me when I eat low-carb; I need on the order of 0.75 grams of protein per pound of lean mass. However, when eating what might be construed as a Mediterranean diet, I don’t think protein really matters one way or the other; any effect is swamped by the carbs.

  3. Agree with what Jim wrote above…, I think you need to advise your patients to moderate their protein intake. I’ve cut back my protein consumption to the low end of Phinney/Volek’s recommend range and have been feeling betters with longer sustained periods of low fasting blood sugar and higher blood ketone levels.



    I think it likely that for most people protein does not raise blood sugar – any more than glycerol from fats, which is also a glucose substrate, does – and for others, it may well do so. Also consider that many common proteins can be highly immunogenic foods and there is an immune component to diabetes.

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