The Doctor's Diet: Dr. Travis Stork's STAT Program to Help You Lose Weight & Restore Your Health (19 page)
Authors: Travis Stork
It all comes down to balance. You can get the most weight-control bang from your protein buck by making sure you’re eating balanced amounts of protein and the right kinds of protein foods, and that you’re timing them in the most effective way possible throughout your day.
Here’s an example of what I mean. I’ve already talked about the importance of eating a good breakfast, but there’s even more to the story than that. It’s not just
whether
you eat breakfast that matters. The protein content of your first meal of the day also makes a big difference.
In a 2013 study published in the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
, researchers looked at the effect of a high-protein breakfast on hunger and snacking. Some of the subjects ate a protein-rich breakfast (35 grams of protein, 350 calories), some ate a moderate amount of protein with their morning meal (13 grams, 350 calories), and some had no protein (or any other nutrients, for that matter, because they skipped breakfast completely). The high-protein and moderate-protein meals had the same amount of fat, fiber, sugar, and calories.
Having a protein-rich breakfast really paid off. Researchers found that compared with the others, the higher-protein breakfast group reported feeling more satiated and less hungry throughout the day, and experienced fewer food cravings. They also reduced their evening snacking on high-sugar, high-fat foods—evidence that eating a high-protein breakfast pays off throughout the day.
Other studies have found that people lose more weight and keep it
off more effectively when they include protein in each meal and snack—which is exactly what The Doctor’s Diet does.
SCRAMBLED ADVICE
For years we’ve been told to avoid eggs because of their cholesterol. But it turns out this may not be necessary. For people without heart disease, diabetes, or high cholesterol, eating an egg a day appears to have no negative impact on heart health.
It’s true that egg yolks contain a fair amount of cholesterol. But they’re also good sources of protein, several B vitamins, choline, vitamin D, and vitamin E. Depending on how the chickens who laid them are fed, eggs can also be a good source of omega-3 fatty acids and lutein, which helps with eye health.
I love eggs not only because of their nutrients. For someone like me who is not a natural vegetable lover, eggs are a fantastic veggie-delivery vehicle. I’m not crazy about most raw veggies, but I eat them up when they’re hidden in an omelet made with a mix of whole eggs and egg whites.
Choose eggs from hens fed an antibiotic-free vegetarian diet. Limit yourself to one yolk a day, or three per week if you have heart disease or diabetes. We don’t know exactly why, but in studies of groups of people with diabetes, those who limit egg intake seem to have less heart disease. We need more research to understand the connection—or whether there really is one—but in the meantime, we’ll go with that advice because it’s the best we have.
Full disclosure: we don’t know exactly why protein helps with weight loss. One reason is that it has an impact on the action of ghrelin, known as the “hunger hormone,” and leptin, the “satiety hormone”—which is why people who eat protein at each meal find they feel fuller and less
hungry during the hours after they eat than do people who skimp on protein. In fact, protein is more satiating than fat or carbohydrates.
Another explanation for protein’s contribution to weight loss is its ability to help keep blood sugar levels stable. When you eat a low-protein, high-carbohydrate meal, your blood sugar soars soon after you eat. What goes up must come down, and it doesn’t take long for blood sugar that shoots up quickly to come falling down fast, too. When blood sugar comes down fast, alarms go off in your endocrine system. Hormones tell your brain that you need more food in order to get blood sugar levels back up, and before you know it, you’re wandering around the kitchen looking for a snack just a short time after you finished your meal.
Something different happens when you eat a protein-rich meal. Instead of skyrocketing, your blood sugar levels go up gradually, allowing your endocrine system to proceed at a normal pace as it does its job of getting energy to all of your body’s cells. Without a dramatic spike, there’s no dramatic fall, meaning no sudden hormone alerts telling you to eat something right away, meaning no sudden, intense desires to inhale jelly donuts or chocolate cake.
Without those blood sugar spikes and constant cravings, you’re much better able to make it to your next meal without wanting to fill your tank with lots of extra food.
Eating a protein-rich diet has other benefits as well:
Protein vs. paunch.
Protein helps burn belly fat. In studies, people who eat higher-protein diets lose more belly fat than those who eat lower-protein diets with similar calorie counts.
Muscle maker.
Protein helps preserve muscle. When you’re losing weight, you take in fewer calories than you need, which forces your body to burn fat for fuel. When you eat a high-carbohydrate diet, your body is more likely to turn to muscles for stored fuel rather than fat. But eating a protein-rich diet protects your muscles and pushes your body to rely on fat rather than your hard-earned muscles.
Speedier healing.
Protein is a necessary nutrient that just about every part of your body needs. Protein contributes to the growth, development, and healthy function of each cell in your skin, muscles, organs, and glands. It also allows your immune system to work effectively.
Tool for the ticker.
Your heart benefits from protein as well. Eating a diet rich in lean protein—I’m not talking fatty steaks and processed lunch meats here, but lean, healthy protein sources—benefits your blood cholesterol levels.
One of the absolute best sources of protein is seafood—especially fish and shellfish that contain omega-3 fatty acids, a type of polyunsaturated fat that has a wide range of health benefits. Omega-3s are credited with reducing heart disease risk, boosting brain health, and supporting eye health, and studies are under way to tease out other benefits as well.
Nearly all fish contain omega-3s, but some have especially high levels, such as herring, salmon (farmed and wild), mackerel, tuna (bluefin has the most, followed by canned white and light), sardines, swordfish, and trout (and oysters and mussels in the mollusk department). In order to get the omega-3 fatty acids you need, I recommend including at least eight ounces of omega-3-rich fish in your diet each week.
The only downside of eating seafood is that nearly all fish and shellfish contain some amount of mercury, a toxic metal. For nonpregnant adults, eating moderate amounts of most kinds of seafood usually poses little health risk. However, too much mercury can more easily harm the nervous system of an unborn baby or a young child.
To limit the risk from mercury, the US Food and Drug Administration advises women who may become pregnant, pregnant women, nursing mothers, and young children to:
Avoid types of fish that are typically high in mercury—including shark, swordfish, tilefish, and king mackerel.
Limit intake of lower-mercury fish to 12 ounces per week. Some of the most commonly eaten lower-mercury seafood includes shrimp, canned
light tuna, salmon, pollock, and catfish.
Limit intake of canned albacore (white tuna), which has more mercury than light tuna, to 6 ounces per week.
