I understand that all the carbs I'm eating are bad
Not all carbs are bad. All refined carbs are bad.
Starch is not that bad if you have high activity and you are young.
There are also some beneficial substances that come exclusively with carbs like policosanol and there might be some that are not detected yet. This is not to say carbs per se are good, but they might come with good friends.
I feel like eating as much protein as most people on paleo appear to take in can't be healthy
I started to look everything related to this and it looks like it isn't unhealthy for people with healthy kidney. I am still in the middle of research and do not have formed opinion yet, but so far, it looks like protein toxicity is myth.
On low carb high protein diet body upregulates enzymes of urea cycle:
Omnivorous, or generalist species, consume a variety of plant and animal foods that frequently change in relative proportion. These species possess the digestive and metabolic plasticity to adapt to a wide variation in dietary macronutrient proportions
(1,2). For example, omnivorous species such as chickens, Japanese quail, rats, pigs and humans are capable of up- or
down-regulating enzymes for amino acid catabolism and are able to utilize diets with either a very low or very high protein content (3–7) .... Analogous to the poor metabolic adaptations by faunivores, it might be expected that carbohydrate specialists would have a poor capacity to adapt to high protein diets
Glucose prevents adaptation:
The reduction in urea synthesis by glucose, i.e. its nitrogen sparing effect, is accomplished by two different mechanisms: A hepatic component (reduction of the hepatic nitrogen clearance) and a peripheral component (reduced substrate availability mediated by the insulin response).
and glucagon enhace it
the hyperglucagonaemia may be a compensatory mechanism by which the cirrhotic liver to some extent reestablishes its capacity to produce urea.
The potential issues concentrate around kidney and liver.
On the blogspace, some folks think that excess protein is toxic, like Jaminet or Carbsane and some that its a myth like Eades or Sisson.
On related note, I don't think that protein powders are healthy on the long run. They are good to replace nutrient deficiencies in specific situations. The reason is industrial pollution and high temperatures used which denature proteins and thus some of the biological roles of peptides that we got via digestion might be lost [this part is uncertain tho, its my opinion that it might happen].
