Take a quick scan through the headlines, and you might find yourself confused about what a healthy diet means nowadays.
The Independent recently touted the benefits of a high-fat Mediterranean diet, which followed closely on the heels of a BBC article that says “cutting fat from your diet leads to more fat loss than reducing carbohydrates”.
These articles are dotted between a slew of others that sing the praises of everything from water to seaweed as the path to wellness.
And now a new study from the University of East Anglia is adding fuel to the fire, by announcing that’s it’s actually a high protein diet that holds the key to good health.
“Increasing intake from protein-rich foods such as meat, fish, dairy produce, beans, lentils, broccoli and spinach could be an important and readily achievable way to reduce people’s risk of cardiovascular disease,” said the study’s lead researcher Dr. Amy Jennings from UEA’s Norwich Medical School.
High protein diets are nothing new. Just a few years ago, fad food craze Atkins popularized the idea with its high-protein, low-carb weight-loss ‘solution’.
However the UEA’s study focuses more on the diet’s benefits for cardiovascular health, rather than just weight loss.
In fact, with an increasing number of consumers focusing on healthy diets and high performance athletics, healthy, lean proteins are taking their place as the nutrition world’s new wunderkind.
The performance nutrition market in the UK, for instance, is dominated by protein products meant to both compliment and replace a regular diet. The market in the UK valued at $387.46 million in 2014 and is expected to reach $578.79 million by 2019, growing at a CAGR of 8.4%.
Emerging products with better ingredients will provide a big boost to the market
A lot of this growth is due to the fact that many non-traditional users are now opting for supplements as part of their regular diet. This is forcing key vendors like GlaxoSmithKline, Glandia, and Reflex Nutrition to develop better tasting, healthier products for specific needs. The increasing number of targeted, customized protein products being released in the market will fuel strong growth in the performance nutrition market in the UK through the forecast period.
