The restaurant sector seems to be in a process of constant change . The trend towards specialization that has been seen in recent years has not escaped from restaurants, bars and cafes. While some choose to join the trend of veganism and healthy food, others prefer to pay tribute to meat with places specializing in hamburgers and the like. The concern of society for health and fitness makes more and more people look closely at what they eat and evaluate what effects it has on their body. A new study tries to clarify which components of food are the ones that make body mass vary the most.
Scientists from the University of Aberdeen (Scotland) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have carried out the largest study of its kind to verify which components of the diet – fats , carbohydrates or proteins – cause weight gain in mice.
Part of the problem with these types of studies is that it is difficult to do studies in humans controlling their food for periods of time long enough to determine which factors are most important. However, studies in animals similar to humans, such as mice, may point the results in the right direction.
The diet of mice
The study, published July 12 in the journal Cell Metabolism , includes 30 different diet options that vary in amounts of fat, carbohydrate (sugar) and protein content. The mice were fed these diets for three months, which could be equivalent to nine years in humans . In total, about 100,000 measurements were made on the mice’s weight changes and their body fat content using a micro MRI ( magnetic resonance imaging ) machine.
Professor John Speakman , who leads this study, states that ‘the results of these large studies are unequivocal, the only cause that has caused weight gain in the mice has been the intake of greater amounts of fat in their diets ‘.
The results of the study suggest that carbohydrates, which contain up to 30% of calories from sugars, had no effect on the body mass of the mice and the combination of sugar and fat did not increase the effect of fat alone. There was also no evidence that low amounts of protein (less than 5%) stimulated higher intake. However, this effect of dietary fat appeared to occur because only fat stimulates the brain’s reward centers , increasing intake.
‘A clear limitation of this study is that it is based on mice and not humans . But mice have many similarities to people in their physiology and metabolism, and we are never going to conduct studies where people’s diets are controlled in the same way for such a long period of time, ‘says Professor Speakman. The evidence provided is a good clue to the effects of different diets on humans.
Reference: John R. Speakman & team. ‘Fat, but not protein or carbohydrate, regulates energy intake and causes adiposity in mice’. Cell Metabolism (2018). DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2018.06.010
