Protein leverage hypothesis

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The protein leverage hypothesis states that human beings will prioritize the consumption of protein in food over other dietary components, and will eat until protein needs have been met, regardless of energy content, [1] thus leading to over-consumption of foodstuffs when their protein content is low. [1]

This hypothesis has been put forward as a potential explanation of the obesity epidemic. [2] Empirical tests have provided some evidence to confirm the hypothesis [3] with one study suggesting that this could be a link between ultra-processed foods and the prevalence of obesity in the developed world. [4]

In the 1980s, David Raubenheimer and Stephen Simpson, researchers now at the University of Sydney, began to study appetite and food intake in locusts. By studying responses to artificial diets with differing compositions of protein and carbohydrate, they developed the protein leverage hypothesis. Their experiments showed that those who aren't getting enough protein in their diet will continue to be hungry, even when their overall caloric intake is high. "Protein decoys", such as ultraprocessed savory foods that contain little protein (e.g., barbecue chips), are likely to be attractive and to result in overeating. The hormone FGF21, which is released from the liver, can drive savory-seeking behavior under conditions of low protein intake. However, extremely high protein diets can also have drawbacks. In 2020 Simpson and Raubenheimer published the popular science book Eat Like the Animals: What Nature Teaches Us about the Science of Healthy Eating, which details their experiments. For lifelong health they recommend eating a balanced diet with more fiber and fewer fats and carbohydrates rather than an extremely high protein diet. [5] [6] [7]

In 1995, Australian researcher Susanna Holt developed the concept of satiety value, a measure of how much a given food is likely to satisfy the hunger of someone. High protein foods have been found to have high satiety values, though these are outmatched by potatoes and oats (which have a low glycemic index). Fruits rank similarly to high protein foods (likely due to their high level of dietary fibre). [8]

Related Research Articles

Dieting is the practice of eating food in a regulated way to decrease, maintain, or increase body weight, or to prevent and treat diseases such as diabetes and obesity. As weight loss depends on calorie intake, different kinds of calorie-reduced diets, such as those emphasising particular macronutrients, have been shown to be no more effective than one another. As weight regain is common, diet success is best predicted by long-term adherence. Regardless, the outcome of a diet can vary widely depending on the individual.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nutrition</span> Provision to cells and organisms to support life

Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life. It provides organisms with nutrients, which can be metabolized to create energy and chemical structures. Failure to obtain the required amount of nutrients causes malnutrition. Nutritional science is the study of nutrition, though it typically emphasizes human nutrition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eating</span> Ingestion of food

Eating is the ingestion of food. In biology, this is typically done to provide a heterotrophic organism with energy and nutrients and to allow for growth. Animals and other heterotrophs must eat in order to survive — carnivores eat other animals, herbivores eat plants, omnivores consume a mixture of both plant and animal matter, and detritivores eat detritus. Fungi digest organic matter outside their bodies as opposed to animals that digest their food inside their bodies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Appetite</span> Desire to eat food

Appetite is the desire to eat food items, usually due to hunger. Appealing foods can stimulate appetite even when hunger is absent, although appetite can be greatly reduced by satiety. Appetite exists in all higher life-forms, and serves to regulate adequate energy intake to maintain metabolic needs. It is regulated by a close interplay between the digestive tract, adipose tissue and the brain. Appetite has a relationship with every individual's behavior. Appetitive behaviour also known as approach behaviour, and consummatory behaviour, are the only processes that involve energy intake, whereas all other behaviours affect the release of energy. When stressed, appetite levels may increase and result in an increase of food intake. Decreased desire to eat is termed anorexia, while polyphagia is increased eating. Dysregulation of appetite contributes to ARFID, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, cachexia, overeating, and binge eating disorder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weight loss</span> Reduction of the total body mass

Weight loss, in the context of medicine, health, or physical fitness, refers to a reduction of the total body mass, by a mean loss of fluid, body fat, or lean mass. Weight loss can either occur unintentionally because of malnourishment or an underlying disease, or from a conscious effort to improve an actual or perceived overweight or obese state. "Unexplained" weight loss that is not caused by reduction in calorific intake or increase in exercise is called cachexia and may be a symptom of a serious medical condition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Low-carbohydrate diet</span> Diets restricting carbohydrate consumption

Low-carbohydrate diets restrict carbohydrate consumption relative to the average diet. Foods high in carbohydrates are limited, and replaced with foods containing a higher percentage of fat and protein, as well as low carbohydrate foods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diet (nutrition)</span> Sum of food consumed by an organism

In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. The word diet often implies the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management reasons. Although humans are omnivores, each culture and each person holds some food preferences or some food taboos. This may be due to personal tastes or ethical reasons. Individual dietary choices may be more or less healthy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">High-protein diet</span> A diet high in protein

A high-protein diet is a diet in which 20% or more of the total daily calories come from protein. Many high protein diets are high in saturated fat and restrict intake of carbohydrates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Healthy diet</span> Type of diet

A healthy diet is a diet that maintains or improves overall health. A healthy diet provides the body with essential nutrition: fluid, macronutrients such as protein, micronutrients such as vitamins, and adequate fibre and food energy.

Specific dynamic action (SDA), also known as thermic effect of food (TEF) or dietary induced thermogenesis (DIT), is the amount of energy expenditure above the basal metabolic rate due to the cost of processing food for use and storage. Heat production by brown adipose tissue which is activated after consumption of a meal is an additional component of dietary induced thermogenesis. The thermic effect of food is one of the components of metabolism along with resting metabolic rate and the exercise component. A commonly used estimate of the thermic effect of food is about 10% of one's caloric intake, though the effect varies substantially for different food components. For example, dietary fat is very easy to process and has very little thermic effect, while protein is hard to process and has a much larger thermic effect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Very-low-calorie diet</span> Diet with very or extremely low daily food energy consumption

A very-low-calorie diet (VLCD), also known as semistarvation diet and crash diet, is a type of diet with very or extremely low daily food energy consumption. VLCDs are defined as a diet of 800 kilocalories (3,300 kJ) per day or less. Modern medically supervised VLCDs use total meal replacements, with regulated formulations in Europe and Canada which contain the recommended daily requirements for vitamins, minerals, trace elements, fatty acids, protein and electrolyte balance. Carbohydrates may be entirely absent, or substituted for a portion of the protein; this choice has important metabolic effects. Medically supervised VLCDs have specific therapeutic applications for rapid weight loss, such as in morbid obesity or before a bariatric surgery, using formulated, nutritionally complete liquid meals containing 800 kilocalories or less per day for a maximum of 12 weeks.

A diabetic diet is a diet that is used by people with diabetes mellitus or high blood sugar to minimize symptoms and dangerous complications of long-term elevations in blood sugar.

Fibre supplements are considered to be a form of a subgroup of functional dietary fibre, and in the United States are defined by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). According to the IOM, functional fibre "consists of isolated, non-digestible carbohydrates that have beneficial physiological effects in humans".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weight management</span> Techniques for maintaining body weight

Weight management refers to behaviors, techniques, and physiological processes that contribute to a person's ability to attain and maintain a healthy weight. Most weight management techniques encompass long-term lifestyle strategies that promote healthy eating and daily physical activity. Moreover, weight management involves developing meaningful ways to track weight over time and to identify the ideal body weights for different individuals.

Research into food choice investigates how people select the food they eat. An interdisciplinary topic, food choice comprises psychological and sociological aspects, economic issues and sensory aspects.

Ingestive behaviors encompass all eating and drinking behaviors. These actions are influenced by physiological regulatory mechanisms; these mechanisms exist to control and establish homeostasis within the human body. Disruptions in these ingestive regulatory mechanisms can result in eating disorders such as obesity, anorexia, and bulimia.

Satiety value is the degree at which food gives a human the sense of food gratification, the exact contrast feeling of hunger. The concept of the Satiety Value and Satiety Index was developed by Australian researcher and doctor, Susanna Holt. Highest satiety value is expected when the food that remains in the stomach for a longer period produces greatest functional activity of the organ. Limiting the food intake after reaching the satiety value helps reduce obesity problems.

Hedonic hunger or hedonic hyperphagia is the "drive to eat to obtain pleasure in the absence of an energy deficit". Particular foods may have a high "hedonic rating" or individuals may have increased susceptibility to environmental food cues. Weight loss programs may aim to control or to compensate for hedonic hunger. Therapeutic interventions may influence hedonic eating behavior.

Expected satiety is the amount of relief from hunger that is expected from a particular food. It is closely associated with expected satiation which refers to the immediate fullness that a food is expected to generate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyperpalatable food</span> Food that triggers the brains reward system

Hyperpalatable food (HPF) combines high levels of fat, sugar, sodium, and/or carbohydrates to trigger the brain's reward system, encouraging excessive eating. The concept of hyperpalatability is foundational to ultra-processed foods, which are usually engineered to have enjoyable qualities of sweetness, saltiness, or richness. Hyperpalatable foods can stimulate the release of metabolic, stress, and appetite hormones that play a role in cravings and may interfere with the body's ability to regulate appetite and satiety.

References

  1. 1 2 Bekelman, Traci A.; Santamaría-Ulloa, Carolina; Dufour, Darna L.; Marín-Arias, Lilliam; Dengo, Ana Laura (2017-05-06). "Using the protein leverage hypothesis to understand socioeconomic variation in obesity". American Journal of Human Biology. 29 (3): e22953. doi:10.1002/ajhb.22953. ISSN   1520-6300. PMID   28121382.
  2. ↑ Simpson, S. J.; Raubenheimer, D. (May 2005). "Obesity: the protein leverage hypothesis". Obesity Reviews. 6 (2): 133–142. doi:10.1111/j.1467-789X.2005.00178.x. ISSN   1467-7881. PMID   15836464.
  3. ↑ Martinez-Cordero, Claudia; Kuzawa, Christopher W.; Sloboda, Deborah M.; Stewart, Joanna; Simpson, Stephen J.; Raubenheimer, David (October 2012). "Testing the Protein Leverage Hypothesis in a free-living human population". Appetite. 59 (2): 312–315. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2012.05.013. ISSN   1095-8304. PMID   22634200.
  4. ↑ "It's Not Just Salt, Sugar, Fat: Study Finds Ultra-Processed Foods Drive Weight Gain". NPR.org. Retrieved 2019-05-17.
  5. ↑ Vernimmen, Tim (1 May 2023). "Like hungry locusts, humans can easily be tricked into overeating". Knowable Magazine | Annual Reviews. doi: 10.1146/knowable-050123-1 . Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  6. ↑ Raubenheimer, David; Simpson, Stephen J. (17 July 2016). "Nutritional Ecology and Human Health". Annual Review of Nutrition. 36 (1): 603–626. doi: 10.1146/annurev-nutr-071715-051118 . ISSN   0199-9885. PMID   27296501.
  7. ↑ Raubenheimer, David (2020). Eat like the animals : what nature teaches us about the science of healthy eating. Sydney, NSW: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN   978-1460758694.
  8. ↑ Skarnulis, Leanna (September 25, 2009). "Satiety: The New Diet Weapon". WebMD. Retrieved 9 May 2023.


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