Have YOU tried the Atkins diet? High-protein foods may help you lose weight but ‘DOESN’T protect against diabetes’

October 11, 2016

Type 2 diabetes is one of biggest health problems linked to obesity
Losing weight should reduce the chances of getting the disease
But those women on high protein diet who lost weight did not cut their risk

Colin Fernandez Science Correspondent For The Daily Mail

Published:
11:00 EST, 11 October 2016

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Updated:
11:22 EST, 11 October 2016

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High protein diets like Atkins may help with weight loss – but won’t protect against diabetes, according to research.

Diabetes is one of the biggest health problems associated with obesity – and losing weight should reduce the chances of getting the disease.

But a study of obese women who lost weight from a high protein diet found that they did not improve their chances of getting the type 2 form of the disease.

In overweight and obese people, the body becomes less sensitive to insulin, the hormone which removes excess sugar from the blood.

High protein diets like Atkins may help with weight loss – but won’t protect against diabetes

Too much sugar in the blood stream can damage various parts of the body including the eyes, kidneys and feet and legs – leading in severe cases to amputations.

Researchers from the University of Washington School of Medicine in St Louis studied the diets of 34 women who weighed an average of 12 stone (168lbs) – with average BMI of 30, which is classed as obese.

All of the women were post-menopausal and aged on average 55.

The women were split into three groups of dieters. One group were given around 65 grams of protein a day, considered a standard amount.

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The other ‘high protein’ group were given around 97 grams of protein a day – around 50 per cent more than the standard amount.

One group were told to maintain their body weight, in other words not on a diet.

Both groups of dieting women lost 10 per cent of their body weight.

The group eating the ‘normal’ amount of protein improved their sensitivity to insulin by 25-30 per cent, reducing their risk of diabetes.

But there was no improvement in the other group.

Lead researcher Bettina Mittendorfer said: ‘We found that women who lost weight eating a high-protein diet didn’t experience any improvements in insulin sensitivity.

A study of obese women who lost weight from a high protein diet found that they did not improve their chances of getting the type 2 form of the disease

‘However, women who lost weight while eating less protein were significantly more sensitive to insulin at the conclusion of the study.

‘That’s important because in many overweight and obese people, insulin does not effectively control blood-sugar levels, and eventually the result is type 2 diabetes.’

Insulin sensitivity is a good marker of metabolic health, one that typically improves with weight loss.

It’s still not clear why insulin sensitivity didn’t improve in the high-protein group, and Mittendorfer said it’s not known whether the same results would occur in men or in women already diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

She plans to continue researching the subject.

The researchers focused on protein because in postmenopausal women, there is a common belief that consuming extra protein can help preserve lean tissue, keeping them from losing too much muscle while they lose fat.

The findings were published in Cell Reports.