Obesity an ecologic problem? "The Protein Leverage Hypothesis" in science 2.0

loganrandy69
loganrandy69 Posts: 24 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Very interesting (and long!) read.

Long story short, more protein is good. But some science behind it that might make your viewpoint shift...

Replies

  • tincanonastring
    tincanonastring Posts: 3,944 Member
    Do you have a link or anything?
  • AlabasterVerve
    AlabasterVerve Posts: 3,171 Member
    Here's the link if anyone else needs it: science20.com/deconstructing_obesity/the_protein_leverage_hypothesis-156539
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    Seven excess calories per day...yikes.
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
    It's an interesting hypothesis for sure, and lines up with some of the things we already understand.

    To wit: our bodies need at least 15% of our calories to come from protein. In our obesogenic society, carbohydrates and fats are more readily available than protein, and in order to get the protein we need we eat more food. We become overweight as a result, but that's a compromise our bodies make in order to get sufficient protein - the relative costs of obesity being lower than the costs of having low levels of protein.

    Not understanding the state of research, it does seem to me that a lot of validation would be needed. Much of the article sounds like speculation or "just so" stories to me. It seems to me that the validation would not be incredibly difficult to do, however.
  • loganrandy69
    loganrandy69 Posts: 24 Member
    Thanks AlabasterVerve, I posted on my way to lunch and forgot to link! Sorry all!

    Jruzer, yes, it would need to be tested in humans for more validation as the theory is based off of animal research - but it does help line up a lot of the things we know anecdotally about protein's role in our own diet.

  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    There's a salt leverage parallel where junk food sodium content is being reduced leading to greater consumption.
  • cat_lady77
    cat_lady77 Posts: 203 Member
    That's so interesting!!! Science can be pretty cool.
  • blackcoffeeandcherrypie
    blackcoffeeandcherrypie Posts: 486 Member
    Very interesting, thanks
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
    I've seen the same theory also tied to a similar increase in weight in wild animals. The thought is that as the atmosphere has been increasing in CO2, plants have been producing more starch (greenhouse research shows increased CO2 increases plant size, but as nitrogen can still be limited, the plants increase sugar creation rather than increasing protein). With an increase in plant's starch to protein content ratios, animals are responding by having to eat more calories to reach sufficient protein.

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