Calories or Proportions, Fats or Proteins: Which takes priority in a healthier diet?

Today, America has become one of the largest countries in the world. American is one of the biggest countries not only in land, debt, and military power, but also in terms of weight and size. Obesity is on the rise and has become one of America's most prevalent problems. When you assess the voluminous problem, obesity comes down to the lack of healthy eating education, and the lifestyle choices of the individual. What the person chooses to eat can be reflected in their overall appearance; "you are what you eat" is one of the most common sayings that summarize this concept. One way to reduce ones figure is to cut down on portion size. However when it comes down to weight gain, proportion size takes priority over Calories at the end of the day. This may seem obvious to some, but a new study conducted by “researchers at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge shows, however, that it’s not what you eat but how much that matters when it comes to body weight” (Song).  This study, led by Dr. George Bray, took a sample of 25 healthy, normal weights from the Baton Rouge area and put them on a high calorie diet for eight weeks.  The difference of the diet depended on where the calories came from- proteins or fats.  After the eight weeks, everyone gained but weight. The group with the low protein, thus higher fat content, diet gained less weight, about half as much, compared to the normal-high protein intake diet. Surprised? When you take a closer look at the health of the individual, the higher protein diet was the clear winner.  Although the high protein diet gained more weight, only half of it was fat. So in the overall picture, both diets gained the same amount of weight in fat. The extra weight from the high protein diet comes from the extra body mass.  Also, the low protein diet caused the participants to loose approximately 1.5 lbs. of body mass, which is not a good thing. Overall, it is clear that the diet with smaller proportions and more protein will be the winner.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/04/low-protein-diets-lower-weight-but-dont-cut-fat/#ixzz1ivVqpFuz