Tips For Weight Loss

Last month a group of researchers from Tufts University published a fascinating article in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Their objective was to determine how changes in intake of protein foods, glycemic load (GL) of carbohydrates, and the interrelationship between the two influence long-term weight gains.  The GL of food is a number that estimates how much the food will raise a person’s blood glucose level after eating it. Glycemic load accounts for how much carbohydrate is in the food and how much each gram of carbohydrate in the food raises blood glucose levels.

They followed a group of over 120,000 men and women for 16 to 24 years whilst adjusting for body mass index and lifestyle changes such as smoking, physical activity, television watching and sleep duration.

Protein

• Meat, chicken (with skin) and regular cheese were positively associated with long-term weight gain
• No association for milk, legumes, peanuts, eggs
• Yogurt, peanut butter, nuts, chicken (without skin), low-fat cheese and seafood were associated with weight loss

Glycemic Load

• Increases in GL were associated with weight gain

Protein & Glycemic Load Synergy

• Changes in GL of carbohydrates affect the usual weight changing effects of protein foods; for example, increased cheese intake was associated with weight gain when GL increased, with weight stability when GL did not change, and with weight loss when GL decreased.

“Our study adds to growing new research that counting calories is not the most effective strategy for long-term weight management and prevention,” said senior author Dariush Mozaffarian. “Some foods help prevent weight gain, others make it worse.  Most interestingly, the combination of foods seems to make a big difference.  Our findings suggest we should not only emphasize specific protein-rich foods like fish, nuts, and yogurt to prevent weight gain, but also focus on avoiding refined grains, starches, and sugars in order to maximize the benefits of these healthful protein-rich foods, create new benefits for other foods like eggs and cheese, and reduce the weight gain associated with meats.”