One concern regarding weight loss is that as the pounds drop, so does bone mineral content. Many research teams across the country (including one at my home university, Rutgers) are studying this phenomenon. It’s hoped that ways can be found to reduce the amount of bone mass lost on weight loss programs.
I read an article today (which is from the summer, not brand new): ”How To Lose Weight Without Losing Bone.” University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Read it yourself here.
In summary, the researchers found that protein-rich diets emphasizing lean meats and low fat dairy products were better at maintaining bone health during weight loss than plans based on the Food Guide Pyramid, which emphasizes grain foods. To quote one of the authors, “Essentially we substituted lean meats and low-fat milk, cheese, yogurt, etc., for some of the high-carbohydrate foods in the food-pyramid diet. Participants also ate five servings of vegetables and two to three servings of fruit each day.”
Wow. That sounds just like…. Nutrition Solutions, pared down into two sentences. I’ll add one more item to my long list of health benefits of this eating style: bone health. I always say, you don’t have to sacrifice your health or take drastic measures to get leaner and lose weight, you can have it all.
One last quote from the article. “Study co-author Donald Layman, a U of I professor of nutrition, has previously reported that protein-rich weight-loss diets preserve muscle mass, help lower blood sugar and lipids, and improve body composition by targeting weight carried in the abdomen.”
Cool. So if you can slim down, improve markers of cardiovascular health, and protect your bones….why resort to unhealthy measures like diet pills, nutritionally inadequate fad diets, or liquid fasts?
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Dr. Layman was one of my profs at U of I. He’s crazy about high protein diets! The guy is middle age and so fit, built like a tiny brick house.
haha that’s so funny! There’s plenty of people out there who are nuts about one type of diet or another, but he’s really got some data to back it up…aside form looking like brick house