High-protein diet OK

By JEN KELLY, medical reporter
30jan03

TRENDY high-protein diets favoured by the Hollywood celebrity set have been given the nod by the CSIRO.

Stars like Jennifer Aniston, Calista Flockhart, Lara Flynn Boyle, Cher and Robbie Williams have attributed their diet success to high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets.

CSIRO researchers found a diet with moderate levels of protein and carbohydrate prompted faster weight loss than a diet high in carbohydrate and low in protein.

They believe that may be because high-protein foods, like meat, are more filling and stave off hunger pangs. The study was funded by Meat and Livestock Australia.

CSIRO senior research dietitian Dr Manny Noakes said until now, diet books on the subject had been based on conjecture and hearsay.


"We're excited by these findings that demonstrate in a scientific manner that the high-protein, low-fat approach to weight loss certainly offers an edge to conventional diets," she said.

The CSIRO study found eating 34 per cent protein and 46 per cent carbohydrate prompted faster weight loss than a diet of 17 per cent protein and 63 per cent carbohydrate.

Karen Inge, a consultant dietitian with the Victorian Institute of Sport, said the diet approved by the CSIRO fitted within normal healthy guidelines.

People wanting to lose weight should get 25 to 35 per cent of energy from protein, 45 to 50 per cent from carbohydrate, and the rest from fat, she said.

"Forty-six per cent is not low-carbohydrate," she said.

"Carbohydrate is nearly at 50 per cent, so that's moderate and it's fine."

Ms Inge said it was crucial to realise many of the diets favoured by some Hollywood stars were far lower in carbohydrates than the CSIRO diet.

"Most of them have not been eating bread or potatoes, no rice, no pasta, and a lot of those diets they can't maintain," she said. "What's important is having enough carbohydrate to give energy, and also for bowel health."

For 12 weeks, researchers studied 100 overweight and obese women with syndrome X, also known as metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance syndrome, or beer gut syndrome.

Up to one-in-four Australians have it.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/co...255E662,00.html

Seems as if I only hear about whole grain carbs here and in the LC diet books, but never in the media. Saying you should get 40-50% of your calories from carbs is not the same as saying you should get it from complex, unrefined carbs, is it? If you go out and eat all potatoes, white rice and wonder bread to fill that slot you're not going to get the same effect as with whole grain cereals, pastas and brown rice.

Bah!

Thanks for the arcicle thoug, glad to see there is some good news for a change. Shan't let that pass unnoticed! Now I just have to go look up who CSIRO is.

Are wholegrain foods better because they have lower carbs per 100g? because they have a lower GI? or for some other reason that I'm not aware of?

Whole grains should be slightly better than refined grains because they'll be slightly harder to digest, i.e. a lower glycemic index, and what miniscule nutrition grains offer will not have been thrown away. Think of a sugar cube in a spinach wrapper.

Once the damage is done, though, and you're trying to recover from insulin resistance, I would think you'd be just fooling yourself thinking that whole grains are healthy.

Perhaps not in the quantities popular medicine suggests, but I certainly wouldn't eliminate them from my diet for any extended period, whereas I wouldn't worry much about going without white flour or white rice for the rest of my life!

Whole grains have a lower Glycemic Index, so they give a much more gradual insulin spike, they are higher in nutrition and offer MUCH more fiber than refined carbs. There are also a number of studies that suggest that they are protective for Type 2 Diabetes. Whole grains also contain a variety of phytochemical antioxidants that may help prevent cell damage that can lead to cancer.

I'm not so inclined to shrug them off as "Sugar wrapped in spinach"

Here are a few links:

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/71/4/921

Even those who tout a high carb diet feel whole grains are far better:

http://www.drgreene.com/21_990.html

This article was particularly interesting to me, being a Somersizer and eating some carbs, but only the whole grain variety.

http://news.foot.com/news/211.html

Excerpt: "Let's look at the facts. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Guide Pyramid, the average person should eat 6 to 11 servings of grain on a daily basis. However, according to the Nurses' Health Study, women who ate the most whole grain foods reduced heart disease risk by about one third. The catch is this: they only ate about 2.5 servings a day compared to the Pyramid's suggested 6 to 11! "

There are many more studies suggesting the fiber in whole grains protects us against disease, cancer in particular.

In 2001, a study was published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association titled "The role of whole grains in disease prevention." The authors conducted a meta-analysis on the subject by reviewing the available scientific literature on whole grains and cancer risk. The findings were as follows:

Out of 45 studies on whole grains and cancer, 43 showed whole grain intake to provide significant protection from several cancers. Specifically, a protective association was seen in 9 out of 10 mentions of studies on colorectal cancers and polyps, 7 out of 7 mentions of gastric cancer, 6 out of 6 mentions of other digestive tract cancers, 7 out of 7 mentions of hormone-related cancers (breast cancer, prostate cancer, ovarian cancer and uterine cancer,) 4 out of 4 mentions of pancreatic cancer, and 10 out of 11 mentions of other cancers.

The Iowa Women's Health Study, published in the March 1999 issue of the American Journal of Public Health by David Jacobs found a lower risk of dying for women who consumed whole grains and a higher risk for those who consumed refined grain products (89:322). Risk of dying from cancer, heart disease, and overall death risk was improved for those who ate whole grains.

I am on the Suzanne Somers low carb plan. In comparison to Atkins you might think it rather high carb, but I have lost weight rapidly, as with the Atkins plan (12 pounds in the first two weeks), and I am much more comfortable knowing I am not eliminating any food group and am eating ina way I can continue for life. I have one whole grain meal every day, without fats or proteins, according to the food combining theories Suzanne subscribes to. Thus far it's worked well for me and certainly it's worked well for many others, to the tune of losing in the triple digits for many. This is much lower carb than anything the Surgeon General recommends, and has plenty of "experts" claiming it's dangerous, just as they do with Atkins. I suspect that in the long run it may be slower than more restrictive ways of eating, but it gets to the same place and I prefer it because it's so easy.

Mamabeek, would you mind telling me your average daily intake of carbs?

I aim for about 90g a day on my WOE as I want to avoid Ketosis.

The Somersizing program does not have us counting carbs, but I can tell you what I have in terms of a carb meal. Generally I will have one carb meal per day, for breakfast, or sometimes lunch, but never for dinner. Breakfast might be a bowl (2 servings) of Hi-Lo cereal with about 1/4 cup of skim milk. That would be roughly 28grams of carbs. Those are the only grain based carbs I'd eat that day, but because I eat fruits and veggies on this plan, that is not my total carb count. I don't know how much I get from the fresh foods, and I do my best to make sure I eat LOTS of (low GI)veggies and at least one fruit serving each day.

A lunch carb meal would be something like brown rice (or some combo of wild/brown/red/black rice) cooked in fat free chicken broth with veggies tossed in. The rice part of the meal would be about 35-38 grams of carbs. Once again, that's the only grain based carb I'd eat all day.

My WOE is very relaxed, so I am not monitoring my urine for ketones etc. I have lost weight fairly rapidly this way though. If I stall I simply cut back a bit on the fruit and carbs (eat a carbs meal every other day and allow myself just one fruit snack each day) and I seem to take off again. So far, in the 5 weeks I've beein doing this, I have never stalled in both pounds and inches (even when I have stopped losing pounds I still saw better measurements), and I have not gained at all.

Now you have me curious though... I'll have to go hunting up the carbs for my veggies and fruits and see what my daily intake really is!