A new animal research has revealed that boosting up protein content in diet would be a better way to lose weight rather than counting calories.
There would be no competition between the appetite systems, when foods are nutritionally balanced and when one nutrient requirement is satisfied.
Many foods however, are unbalanced and have a higher or lower proportion of protein to carbohydrate than the animal requires. Therefore, to obtain the right amount of protein the animal may have to over- or under-eat fats and carbohydrates, thus, the consistent balance was achieved where 20 percent of the energy needs came from protein.
It was established that like spider monkeys and orang-utans, humans prioritise protein over carbohydrates and fat, which meant that if they have a diet with low protein, they would over-eat fats, carbs and energy to get the target level of protein and that is why human obesity cases in the Western World have soared over the past 60 years.
Professor Raubenheime said that they could use this information to help manage and prevent obesity, through ensuring that the diets people eat have a sufficient level of protein with the balanced consumption of fats and carbs to satisfy their appetite.
He further suggested that a simple rule for healthy eating was to avoid processed foods, whilst, no human population has until recently encountered "ultra-processed foods" that is made from industrially extracted sugars, starches and salt, so our appetites are not adapted to biscuits, cakes, pizzas and sugary drinks but people do eat too much of them at their peril.