I Love You, Dr. Weigle! by Janette Blackwell
If you're like me, you're looking for ways to painlessly take off weight and KEEP IT OFF. While eating food you love and generally having a good time.
Which is a lot to ask.
Now researchers at the University of Washington have reported a study, in the July 2005 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, that appears to offer everything we've dreamed of. In my view, Dr. David S. Weigle and his nutrition research team should be crowned with bay leaves, as the ancient Romans did victorious heroes, with flower garlands about their necks. We should then urge our surprised clinical nutritionists to step onto a rose-covered float, as the centerpiece of a parade, with bands led by high-stepping drum majorettes before and after, followed by prancing horses. (If the prancing horses come first, the majorettes have trouble keeping their nice white boots clean. People often neglect these details when planning a parade.)
The parade needs to be in a city -- Seattle comes to mind -- where an educated citizenry understands the benefits of this research. A city whose people have well balanced diets and wish to line the streets and cheer as the nutritionists float by, while all concerned snack on healthful chicken breast kebabs.
At the end of the parade everyone goes home and brushes their teeth.
HIGH-PROTEIN DIET
Remember high-protein diets? The kind where you DIDN'T have to give up carbohydrates? The subjects in Dr. Weigle's University of Washington study had something along those lines. They were all around ten pounds overweight, but they were NOT asked to cut calories. For the first two weeks they ate a standard American diet with 15 percent of calories from protein, 35 percent from fat, and 50 percent from carbohydrates, with enough calories to maintain their weight. For the third and fourth weeks, they got the same number of calories, but were shifted to twice the protein and about half the fat, with the remaining calories coming from healthy carbohydrates, including plenty of fruit, vegetables, and whole grains. They were supposed to eat all the food supplied each day, but, Dr. Weigle said, “They complained about it, because they felt very full on the high protein diet.”
Did you catch that? THEY COMPLAINED ABOUT HAVING TOO MUCH TO EAT.
For the last twelve weeks of the study, participants received the same high-protein fare but were allowed to eat as little or as much as they wanted. They voluntarily cut their calorie intake by about one quarter. They lost an average of eleven pounds in twelve weeks, while reporting that they felt full and satisfied. Dr. Weigle said he was surprised at the way their weight “just cruised down.”
“There's no reason to cut down on carbohydrates or that much on fat,” says Dr. Arne Astrup, head of the Department of Human Nutrition at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen. “Simply increase your protein. That can be done as part of a very healthy diet, including eating all kinds of fruit, vegetables and whole grains.”
Colleen Matthys, a dietitian on the study team, says we can painlessly increase protein in these ways:
1. Add nonfat dairy products. Drink skim milk with meals and use it instead of water to cook oatmeal and for cream soups. Snack on nonfat yogurt and cottage cheese. Use lowfat cheese in recipes and as casserole toppings. Add extra nonfat dry milk to mashed potatoes, puddings, and casseroles. Enjoy milk based fruit drinks, especially those with extra nonfat dry milk.
2. Eat more lentils and beans. These contain both protein and healthy fiber. Edamame, tofu, soy milk, and soy-based meat substitutes are all protein rich. You can add a little soy powder to orange juice to boost protein, as the researchers did.
3. Egg whites are pure protein, with no fat or cholesterol. Hard-boil an egg, remove the yolk and fill the white with guacamole, salsa, or bean dip, or chop and sprinkle egg white on salads. Egg substitutes contain no cholesterol and less fat than regular eggs. Or use one whole egg with extra whites to make fluffy, high-protein omelets or frittatas.
4. Eat more lean meat, poultry without the skin, fish and seafood. Study subjects enjoyed spaghetti sauce and lasagna with additional lean ground beef and ground turkey. Their most popular meal was chicken fajitas.
5. For high-protein recipes from the study, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/health/leanplateclub/proteinrecipes.html (Notice that they're not low in calories but are low in fat.)
IT ISN'T MAGIC
Deep within us is a desire for magical food and herbs. Food that will make us young forever. Food that will enable us to eat like horses and still lose weight.
This isn't it.
If you take in more calories than you use, you'll gain weight, no matter how much protein you eat.
If you lose weight on this diet, it won't be magic either. Reducing the fat keeps down calories; increasing protein makes you feel full for longer, so you use up more calories than you take in. The weight stays off because you're less tempted to snack.
(Dr. Weigle does warn us that boosting protein to 30 percent of calories, about twice that in the average American diet, may not be safe for everyone, since it could overtax kidneys in those with kidney problems, diabetes, or with glucose intolerance.)
A FOREVER LIFESTYLE
Few people want to spend a lifetime on a low-carbohydrate diet. An intelligent eater CAN spend a lifetime on a high-protein diet like this, because it doesn't come crashing down every time you eat a piece of cake or enjoy a festive dinner. After an indulgence, you simply cut back a bit on the calories you take in later -- a matter of common arithmetic and common sense.
It's a forever lifestyle, because it doesn't mean giving up cake and cookies forever. It only asks that you:
Eat a healthy diet with plenty of fruits,vegetables, and whole grains, which diet averages around 30 percent of calories from protein and 20 percent from fat. And that should do it.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE: I am indebted to Sally Squires of the Washington Post's “Lean Plate Club” for much helpful information on this topic. For a summary of Dr. Weigle's research, go to http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/DietNutrition/tb/1431
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Janette Blackwell enjoys helping people uncover the “hidden treasures” of the Internet with her Tastebud Tango newsletter. It will lead you to family-safe sites with bargains and freebies, delicious food and humor, and free expert help of many kinds. Find it all at http://delightfulfood.com/Archives/index.html
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