You are what you eat. Anne Dempsey talks to a researcher who advocates a re-design of traditional nutrition advice
It reads like a bold coup attempt. Meet one of Europe's most eminent nutritionists: he wants to redesign the "food pyramid", the famous set of nutrition guidelines which have guided the diets of a generation.
Crudely put, the pyramid divides foods in to basic categories and suggests eating a little of what is not so good for you (i.e. fats) and a lot of what is really good (fruit and vegetables etc.).
But Prof Søran Toubro would like to redesign the pyramid to give a more prestigious place to protein.
This is not, he stresses, any endorsement of the controversial but hugely successful Atkins diet.
"The Atkins diet cuts out carbohydrate. What I would propose would be to increase protein and carbohydrate and so cut down on fats," he explains.
At present, he suggests the typical western diet comprises 45 per cent carbohydrate, 40 per cent fat and 15 per cent protein. He would rearrange the pyramid tiers to raise our awareness of the protein tier, specifically of good-quality lean meat, fish, eggs, beans, barley and lentils.
He would also have us choose more of the carbohydrates which contain protein - such as some breads, cereals and soy - and more of the winter vegetables with protein such as turnip and parsnip.
Ideally, he would change the way we eat to increase our carbohydrate intake up to 50 to 55 per cent of our total foods, bring protein up to 20 per cent, and thus squeeze fats down to 35 to 30 per cent.
A member of the Danish Obesity Task Force Group, Toubro, who is based at the department of human nutrition in the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen, was in Dublin last week to speak at Bord Bia's annual meeting for members of the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute.
Away from academic abstracts in Copenhagen, he raises Scottish Highland cattle on his small farm, grows wholegrain, and has his own supply of eggs with fish available in the nearby river. "Yes, it's mainly protein," he says with a laugh.
Describing obesity as the penalty of civilisation, he says the proliferation of cheap, highly palatable, high-fat, instant, fast and pre-packaged foods has contributed to both over-consumption and less control over food preparation and cooking. Promoting low-fat diets to induce and maintain weight loss is an understandable response in a fast-food culture.
"But going on a diet is like stopping breathing. Sooner or later, you have to take another breath and may go back to where you started.
"My own experience is that it is easier to change some things in your diet. You also need to have foods which give a sensation of fullness, otherwise you feel starving all the time," he says.
His studies have found that adding more high protein to the diet can help to give this sensation of fullness or satiety. When we eat, the stomach expands, internal nerve receptors sense the volume of food and the pressure on the stomach wall and so send signals to the brain acknowledging the full feeling.
"A number of short-term studies suggest that protein exerts a more powerful effect on satiety than both carbohydrate and fat.
"This potential weight loss effect has been also confirmed in long-term, high-protein intervention studies where weight loss was of an average 4 kg more than in a low-protein control group," he says.
The Danish findings are confirmed by other international studies on the "satiety power" of protein. In one US study, subjects ate 38 common foods with equal calorie contents with feelings of fullness regularly recorded.
Highest satiating power was found with high levels of protein, dietary fibre and water, with low satiating power related to higher fat foods.
Protein-rich (fish, meat, beans, lentils and eggs) and carbohydrate-rich foods (pasta, rice, wholegrain breads and cereals) plus fruit and vegetables staved off hunger best, with boiled potatoes scoring particularly well.
Croissants, cakes and biscuits did least well in this satiety study. This may explain why a high-fat diet can lead to passive over-eating, often resulting in weight gain.
If people wanted to eat more protein, what menu change would Toubro suggest? "You could have an egg and ham in the morning, aside from your cereals. Have some fish for lunch, say sardine or herring in a sandwich, or low-fat sausage and choose high-fibre bread.
"You have to concentrate most of your eating thoughts in the evening as most people eat their main meal after 6 p.m. It's very important to have a good quality of protein. So sirloin steak is better than shin beef - the slimmer the animal, the less the fat."
The more refined the food, the greater the fat content in the diet. Processed corned beef could have 20 per cent fat, compared to 6 per cent in an unprocessed variety.
Also, you're unlikely to find prime tenderloin pork in canned meat.
"There are cost implications when buying expensive cuts. But organ meat - liver, kidney, heart are good, inexpensive sources of protein. If considering cost, you may have to bulk up your protein with vegetables - the denser vegetables such as carrots, parsnips, turnips with a low water content are best.
"Salady stuff and mushrooms would be too high in water, while broccoli or celery are medium sources of protein," he points out.
"Beans, lentils, barley and pulses are a great source of protein, and you can use them in stews, soups and casseroles. But I'm not talking about baked beans in tomato and sugar mess - even cans that say 'no added sugar' will contain sugar."