Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Eating Too Much Protein Makes Pee a Problem Pollutant in the U.S.
Scientific American ^

Posted on 07/30/2022 5:20:07 AM PDT by FarCenter

In the U.S., people eat more protein than they need to. And though it might not be bad for human health, this excess does pose a problem for the country’s waterways. The nation’s wastewater is laden with the leftovers from protein digestion: nitrogen compounds that can feed toxic algal blooms and pollute the air and drinking water. This source of nitrogen pollution even rivals that from fertilizers washed off of fields growing food crops, new research suggests.

When we overconsume protein—whether it comes from lentils, supplements or steak—our body breaks the excess down into urea, a nitrogen-containing compound that exits the body via urine and ultimately ends up in sewage. Maya Almaraz, a biogeochemist at the University of California, Davis, and her colleagues wanted to see how much of this nitrogen is being flushed into the U.S. sewage system because of a protein-heavy diet. The researchers combined population data and previous work on how much excess protein the average American eats and found that the majority of nitrogen pollution present in wastewater—some 67 to 100 percent—is a by-product of what people consume. “We think a lot about sewage nitrogen. We know that’s an issue,” Almaraz says. “But I didn’t know how much of that is actually affected by the choices we’re making way upstream—when we go the grocery store, when we cook a meal and what we end up putting in our bodies.”

...

Their new study, published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, broke down protein requirements by age (adults 50 to 70 years old need the most) for the current U.S. population and projected future populations out to 2055. By midcentury, the country’s population is expected to be larger overall and to have a greater percentage of older people. The researchers calculated the amount of nitrogen that would enter the environment if people ate today’s average American diet and if they instead reduced their protein intake to only what is nutritionally needed. This shift in diet alone could reduce the amount of nitrogen reaching aquatic ecosystems by 12 percent today and by nearly 30 percent in the future, according to the study’s results. Such a change could also help reduce damaging nitrogen pollution while wastewater infrastructure catches up.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: agriculture; atkins; dietandcuisine; ecoterrorism; ecoterrorists; food; gardening; globalwarminghoax; greennewdeal; supply
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101 next last

1 posted on 07/30/2022 5:20:07 AM PDT by FarCenter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: FarCenter

Right on time. Insects are the next food source!


2 posted on 07/30/2022 5:22:04 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FarCenter

Here we go again! I thought Kaiser Klaus and Yuval Noah Harari had this all planned.. “You will eat ze bugs!”


3 posted on 07/30/2022 5:22:17 AM PDT by Shady (The #JihadJunta: "We are now a nation of Men, Not of Laws. You are not as equal as we are...")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FarCenter

More leftist control propaganda.


4 posted on 07/30/2022 5:23:56 AM PDT by joma89 (Buy weapons and ammo, folks, and have the will to use them.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FarCenter

Looks like they’ve pivoted from farting cows destroying the atmosphere to meat-eating humans destroying the waterways with their pee.


5 posted on 07/30/2022 5:27:47 AM PDT by HandBasketHell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FarCenter

Get a life!


6 posted on 07/30/2022 5:28:49 AM PDT by Huskrrrr (Alinsky, you magnificent Bastard, I read your book!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FarCenter

The left has gone buggy a long time ago. They and their WEF can go piss up a rope.


7 posted on 07/30/2022 5:29:06 AM PDT by fishnuts2 (Not rich enough to be a democrat)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Huskrrrr

Amen. What a load of bilge water.


8 posted on 07/30/2022 5:30:06 AM PDT by Tudorfly (All things are possible within the will of God.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: FarCenter

“Ain’t nobody got time fo that!”


9 posted on 07/30/2022 5:30:32 AM PDT by lee martell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: joma89

Well, fear of carbon hasn’t worked completely to control people yet, so I guess they’re going to the next element in the periodic table. If that doesn’t work either, they’ll have to try to demonize oxygen.


10 posted on 07/30/2022 5:30:41 AM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: FarCenter

The end game is the same for the eco fascists; kill the humans. Never the eco fascists, of course; just the great unwashed. At the core of it, the eco fascists hate humanity.


11 posted on 07/30/2022 5:32:08 AM PDT by Flick Lives
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FarCenter
so eliminate plants that make nitrogen??? there goes your Mediterranean diet...
12 posted on 07/30/2022 5:32:10 AM PDT by Sacajaweau ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mad_as_he$$
Insects are the next food source!

But that's just more protein. Peepocalypse not solved!

13 posted on 07/30/2022 5:32:12 AM PDT by Sirius Lee (They intend to murder us. Prep if you want to live and live like you are prepping for eternal life)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: FarCenter

The translation here is you must go on a vegan diet to save the planet, but if you must, we will sell you bugs to eat on the side


14 posted on 07/30/2022 5:32:19 AM PDT by dennisw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FarCenter

Liberalism is a terrible, terrible, debilitating mental disease.
We see classic examples of of it, such as this one, every single day.
There is no co-existing with these morons.
They need to be in mental institutions.
Right now, we have the inmates running the asylum.


15 posted on 07/30/2022 5:32:28 AM PDT by lgjhn23 (Pray for America....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Shady

Where is Vlad Tepes when he’s really needed?


16 posted on 07/30/2022 5:32:44 AM PDT by sheik yerbouty ( Make America and the world a jihad free zone!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: FarCenter
Stupid crap like this fills their time so they can collect paychecks. Maybe look into vote fraud and men demanding that they're women.
17 posted on 07/30/2022 5:32:57 AM PDT by Vision (Elections are one day. Reject "Chicago" vote harvesting. Election Reform Now. Obama is an evildoer.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FarCenter

Talk about stark-raving lunacy, this article is a prime example, right up their with the supposed danger to human and planetary survival of cow farts.


18 posted on 07/30/2022 5:33:09 AM PDT by odawg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FarCenter

Here we go. Climate alarmism is failing so the next boogie man is nitrogen. I hate these people.


19 posted on 07/30/2022 5:33:13 AM PDT by VTenigma (Conspiracy theory is the new "spoiler alert")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FarCenter

Oh well, too bad so sad. We will continue to eat protein regardless of what the “consequences” are. Man has been eating protein for 1000’s of years and the world has survived just fine and will continue to do so for millions more years. Eating bugs is for lossers and the extremely poor- there is no need for a civilized population to resort to primitive eating habits because some socialist/communist moron discovers proteins in the waterways and thinks the world is gonna collapse as a result.


20 posted on 07/30/2022 5:33:47 AM PDT by Bob434 (question)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson