Lean protein helps maintain weight

28/11/05 Turkey, nuts, beans and other forms of lean protein also help increase feelings of fullness and satiety, important for maintaining your weight.

Published earlier this month in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., the study pitted a diet proven to control blood pressure and known as DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) against two similar diets that had been tweaked to provide either more lean protein or more healthy fat. All three diets were low in sodium and rich in fruit, vegetables and whole grains. They included low-fat dairy products, lean meat, poultry and fish. As the researchers expected, all three effectively reduced blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels in a group of 164 adults age 30 and older.

But the diet highest in lean protein — 25% of total calories, half from vegetable protein — outperformed the other two in reducing blood pressure and blood cholesterol and kept participants feeling fuller and most satisfied. "This is a way to have a higher protein diet and do it in a healthy way with some documented benefits," said the study's lead author, Lawrence Appel, professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.

The diet highest in healthy fat offered different benefits. The study found that it beat the regular DASH diet in controlling blood pressure and outperformed both other diets in maintaining levels of beneficial blood cholesterol — high-density lipoprotein (HDL).

"Here's the evidence for people to pay attention to what they are eating and to make wise choices" based on their particular health needs, said Ed Roccella, coordinator of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's High Blood Pressure Education Program.

So if blood pressure control alone is the goal, then the high-protein approach is best. But if lowering blood pressure and healthy blood cholesterol levels are important, then the diet higher in healthy fats is best.

Either way, Roccella says, "it's really nice evidence that people can tailor their diets."

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-lean28nov28,1,6161656.story?coll=la-headlines-health