Meat Contributes to Obesity Just Like Sugar, Say Australian Researchers

The researchers say meat in the modern diet offers surplus energy, and is contributing to the prevalence of global obesity. It comes after the University’s School of Medicine has studied the correlation between meat consumption and obesity rates in 170 countries.

“Our findings are likely to be controversial because they suggest that meat contributes to obesity prevalence worldwide at the same extent as sugar,” says professor Maciej Henneberg, head of the Biological Anthropology and Comparative Anatomy Research Unit.

 

“In the analysis of obesity prevalence across 170 countries, we have found that sugar availability in a nation explains 50 percent of obesity variation while meat availability another 50 percent.”

 

“After correcting for differences in nations’ wealth (Gross Domestic Product), calorie consumption, levels of urbanization and of physical inactivity, which are all major contributors to obesity, sugar availability remained an important factor, contributing independently 13 percent, while meat contributed another 13 percent to obesity.”

 

“While we believe it’s important that the public should be alert to the overconsumption of sugar and some fats in their diets, based on our findings we believe meat protein in the human diet is also making a significant contribution to obesity.”

 

Professor Henneberg stresses that the findings do not advocate a diet high in fats and carbohydrates, rather that it’s important to show the contribution meat protein is making to global obesity so people can better understand how the modern diet works.

 

“In the modern world in which we live, in order to curb obesity it may make sense for dietary guidelines to advise eating less meat, as well as eating less sugar,” he adds.

 

The research has been conducted by PhD student Wenpeng You, who recently presented the findings of his work at the International Conference on Nutrition and Food Sciences in Zurich, Switzerland. This research has also formed the basis of two papers published in BMC Nutrition and the Journal of Nutrition & Food Sciences.

 

“There is a dogma that fats and carbohydrates, especially fats, are the major factors contributing to obesity,” says You.
“Whether we like it or not, fats and carbohydrates in modern diets are supplying enough energy to meet our daily needs. Because meat protein is digested later than fats and carbohydrates, this makes the energy we receive from protein a surplus, which is then converted and stored as fat in the human body.”

 

Whilst previous academic papers have shown that meat consumption is connected to obesity, they have often argue that it is the fat content in meat that contributed to the problem, when You’s research points towards protein.

 

“On the contrary, we believe the protein in meat is directly contributing to obesity,” he adds.