Question:
Describe about hypothesis in nutrition named “Protein Leverage”.
Answer:
This paper has been focused on the analysis of the particle based on obesity, the protein leverage hypothesis. In this article, the authors has been described the role of protein and developed a hypothesis aligning protein consumption with leverage for driving the obesity epidemic through the food intake related effects. The article provided some primary and secondary data related to the protein consumption and the data supporting the hypothesis formulation (Simpson and Raubenheimer, 2005). The paper would concentrate on analyzing this article and the protein leverage hypothesis for analyzing its effect upon obesity epidemic and its effects upon future human nutrition trends.
It has been estimated that, throughout the world, there are 1 billion people, who are overweight or suffering from obesity. It has been estimated that, obesity is being one of the major health issue in global context; therefore, the topic should be of significant concern. However, there are significant dietary causes of obesity issues, however, the causes are mostly related to the role of carbohydrate and fat in their diet, thus the researchers has been focused on demonstrating the molecular basis of controlling fat and carbohydrate metabolism and its contribution in the obesity epidemic throughout the world (Antonogeorgos et al. 2011). In contrast, role of protein in obesity issues are not concerned, as protein does not provide a major part of human energy budget and protein intake has been remained constant for longer period. Thus, the protein intake and its role have not been concerned throughout the period of obesity epidemic throughout the world. The authors used the geometrical analysis for analyzing the important role of protein in the diet of non-human animals. This analysis helped them to develop a model for demonstrating the protein leverage on human ingestive behavior for explaining obesity. It has been analyzed that, the model helped the authors to understand the role of dietary protein for developing obesity along with that, the model also assisted in providing potential way of ameliorating the obesity issues (Assmann et al. 2013).
In the article, authors analyzed the model with the help of an example where they represented the situation as two-dimensional nutrient space. They combined the fat and carbohydrate in a single value of energy. In this context, the hypothetical subject is eating and concerned with the observed behavior. Keeping the protein intake on one side of the curve and relating the carbohydrate + fat intake on the other hand, they determined the intake target for the subject. If the subject reaches the target, it would meet his daily needs. They analyzed that, the model should include composite food intake in spite of single food (Simpson and Raubenheimer, 2005). It was analyzed that, nutrient space can be drawn from this graph and a diet intersecting the intake target would be a balanced diet. Every unbalanced diet would have a point of compromise and this point along with nutrient plane would determine nutrient array describing influences and mechanisms controlling weighing over-eating against under-eating. Here, authors established the rule of compromise. According to the hypothesis, the intake target will vary according to the age, genotype, sex, activity level, reproductive status of the subject (Escribano et al. 2012).
Based on the ‘rule of compromise’ hypothesis, authors explored the geometric framework of human rule of compromise related to P and C+F intake. In experiment, the subjects were divided in groups and provided with fixed P to C+F ratio in diet. From the experiment, four scenarios were raised which can be considered as the future implications of diet shift by including protein along with carbohydrates and fats in daily diet of humans (Gosby et al. 2013). The implication included, there can be a shift to the diet with high percentage of fat and carbohydrate, there would be a shift to the diet with high protein percentage, there would be the enhancement in protein requirement and the diet can remain unchanged throughout days but the level of exercise declines along with it. One of the interacting consequences is the vicious cycle, describing the interdependent scenarios. From the hypothesis the implication upon the human nutrition were revealed and it was analyzed that, people consuming more protein and they will be more likely to be affected by obesity related issues (Rolland-Cachera, 2012).
In conclusion, it can be said that, the protein leverage hypothesis built on the assumptions which included the fact that, while pushed to trade-off intake of protein in spite of fat and carbohydrate in a nutritional unbalanced diet, the human physiology would give priority to protein. People should consider the P: C+F ratio and should analyze the importance of protein leverage with other environmental, physiological and cognitive factors influencing obesity. The Vicious cycle helps to give an individual feed mechanism for analyzing the risk of obesity.
Reference List
Antonogeorgos, G., Panagiotakos, D., Papadimitriou, A., Priftis, K., Anthracopoulos, M., & Nicolaidou, P. (2011). Breakfast consumption and meal frequency interaction with childhood obesity. Pediatric Obesity, 7(1), 65-72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2047-6310.2011.00006.x
Assmann, K., Joslowski, G., Buyken, A., Cheng, G., Remer, T., Kroke, A., & Ganther, A. (2013). Prospective association of protein intake during puberty with body composition in young adulthood. Obesity, 21(12), E782-E789. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/oby.20516
Escribano, J., Luque, V., Ferre, N., Mendez-Riera, G., Koletzko, B., & Grote, V. et al. (2012). Effect of protein intake and weight gain velocity on body fat mass at 6 months of age: The EU Childhood Obesity Programme. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord, 36(4), 548-553. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2011.276
Gosby, A., Conigrave, A., Raubenheimer, D., & Simpson, S. (2013). Protein leverage and energy intake. Obes Rev, 15(3), 183-191. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/obr.12131
Rolland-Cachera, M. (2012). 235 Role of Early Protein Intake in Obesity Development. Archives Of Disease In Childhood, 97(Suppl 2), A68-A68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2012-302724.0235
Simpson, S. and Raubenheimer, D., (2005). Obesity: the protein leverage hypothesis. [online] Available at: <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15836464> [Accessed 16 Feb. 2016].
