With the high prevalence of eating disorders, many have suggested that we should reframe the way we view dieting. Instead of placing restrictions, they recommend prioritizing the inclusion of beneficial whole foods and trusting that the rest will sort itself out. I certainly understand the rationale behind this approach, but I think we have to be a bit more specific. Not all foods that are generally considered healthy produce the satiety needed to naturally reduce consumption of sugars, refined carbohydrates, and saturated fats. For instance, there is strong evidence that high protein consumption achieves this, and it’s an exciting area of ongoing research.
During college I worked in Dr. Qili Liu’s lab at UCSF, investigating precisely this theory. We referred to it as the “protein intake setpoint,” a concept suggesting that organisms have a biologically programmed target amount of protein to consume over a given time period. Using arbitrary numbers, the idea is that if my “protein intake setpoint” is 150 grams per day, my brain is going to push me to continue eating until I’ve approached 150 grams of protein. It doesn’t necessarily matter how many calories I’ve consumed, as protein is what the system is looking for.
Dr. Liu and her team have been providing evidence for this theory for nearly a decade, and they’ve even identified a specific set of neurons in fruit flies that seem to encode the protein setpoint. Beyond the science, this theory aligns with our lived experience as humans. We know that protein-rich foods produce more satiety. Dr. Susanne Holt’s “satiety index,” published originally in 1995, is far from perfect science. Nevertheless, it provides another data point as protein-rich foods consistently scored high on the satiety index.
While we certainly want to reduce the prevalence of eating disorders, it’s difficult to be metabolically healthy if sugar-sweetened beverages and other major dietary offenders remain part of your diet. Still, I think there’s something to be said for an approach that focuses on eating the right things. If you’re going to give this a try, the evidence seems to suggest that making protein a central part of your strategy might produce the best payoff.
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