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"Fat consumption is the only cause of weight gain!" says Mail Online, reporting a study where mice were exposed to different diets and monitored for weight gain and increased energy intake.
Approximately 30 different, all highly controlled diets were administered to mice over a 12 week period.
Diets varied in the amount of carbohydrates, fats and proteins that they contained. Body composition and food intake of the mouse were measured daily.
Mice that consumed a regular amount of protein, but a growing amount of dietary fat gained the most body fat during the study.
There was no change in body fat gain when researchers gave mice increasing amounts of carbohydrate while they ate stable amounts of fat and protein.
This study gives us a possible insight into how the effect can have on body fat gain.
One point pointed out by researchers is that fat stimulates "reward pathways" in the brain, which leads to a strong desire to consume more, as seen with addictive substances such as Alcohol and cocaine.
It is possible that the more fat you consume, the more fat you consume (at least in the mouse).
But it is not clear whether these results would apply to people, or what role physical activity might have in modifying the results.
Current recommendations recommend that:
- men should not have more than 30g of saturated fat per day
- women should not have more than 20g of saturated fat per day
Where does the story come from?
The study was conducted by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources, Dali University and Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution. and genetics in Beijing.
It was funded by the strategic program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the 1000 Talents Program, a Wolfson Award, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and funds of the Academy of Sciences of China. Guangdong.
It was published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Metabolism.
The British media well covered the details of the research, but overestimated the strength of the findings since it was a study on mice rather than on humans.
In addition, the Daily Mirror claimed that the study provided "unequivocal" findings that fats were the only ones responsible for weight gain.
But the debate on "fats versus carbohydrates and sugar" has been going on for decades. So we doubt that this will be the last one we will hear about it.
What kind of research was it?
This was an animal study in which researchers were trying to measure the effect of different macronutrients such as fats, carbohydrates and proteins by exposing mice to different diets.
This type of study has the advantage of being able to precisely control the kind of nutrients to which mice have access in a way that would not be possible in a human study.
But we can not guarantee that the same results will be observed in people, because sometimes the results of animal studies do not translate directly.
What does research involve?
Researchers identified 30 different diets that had different amounts of protein, carbohydrates and fats.
These were organized in 5 different series:
- series 1: the fat was fixed at 60% dietary energy content, and the protein ranged from 5% to 30%, with the remainder as carbohydrate
- was set at 20% of the dietary energy content, and the protein ranged from 5% to 30%, the rest being carbohydrate
- series 3: protein fixed at 10% of the dietary energy content, and fat ranging from 10% to 80%, the remainder being in the form of carbohydrates
- series 4: proteins fixed at 25% of the food energy content, and fat varying from 8.3% to 66.6%, the remainder being under form of carbohydrates
- series 5: fat fixed at 41.7 Percentage of the food energy content, proteins fixed at 25% and carbohydrates ranging from 5% to 30% (it seems that all the details of this last series are not included in the study)
The source of protein was casein in animal milk), the carbohydrate source was corn starch and maltodextrose, and the source of fat was a mixture of cocoa butter, coconut oil, oil menhaden, palm oil and sunflower oil.
Researchers randomly assigned mice to one of 30 diets administered for 12 weeks.
They examined different "strains" of mice, where members of a particular strain have the same genetic characteristics.
For the main strain used, they allocated 20 mice per diet.
The main findings were researchers interested in food intake and changes in body weight and body fat (adiposity).
These were measured daily, first for a period of 2 weeks before the start of diets, and then throughout each diet.
Adiposity was measured with the aid of a body composition analyzer, while food intake was measured by weighing the amount of food remaining to deduce how much each mouse had eaten during this day.
What were the basic results?
For diets where the protein content varied, the alteration of the protein made no difference to the amount eaten by the mice.
When the fat content was 60%, both body weight and adiposity increased as the protein content increased.
When the fat content was 20%, body measurements increased when the protein increased from 5 to 20%, and then decreased when the protein increased from 20 to 30%.
For diets where the fat content varied, the highest level of adiposity occurred when the dietary fat content was 50-60%.
Modifying the carbohydrate content while the mice consumed fixed fats and proteins made no noticeable difference with respect to food intake and adiposity.
Researchers also found that higher fat diets stimulated the brain's chemical activity associated with pleasure, greed, and addiction in humans, similar to the effects of dopamine and other drugs. serotonin.
How did the researchers interpret the results?
The researchers said their results had "significant translation implications" [may have implications for humans] but acknowledged that their study had some limitations.
They only looked at male mice at the beginning of adulthood for a period equivalent to about a decade in human terms.
They speculated that they might find different results in female mice, and whether the diets were followed for a longer period of time to cover a larger part of the lifespan.
Conclusion
This study, which explored the effects of various precisely controlled diets on body fat gain and food intake in mice, may be of interest to scientists and nutritionists.
But this does not have direct implications for the general public.
The fact that the human body reacts in the same way to these changes in nutrients is less clear.
The sources of protein, fats and carbohydrates used in these diets were also much narrower than the range of sources that most people eat.
This means that they might not be completely representative of "typical" carbohydrates, proteins and fats in a human diet.
In addition, the complex and varied role of various human factors, such as our individual genetic makeup, our state of health, and our lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, have not been taken into account here.
A balanced diet, not just a food group, is good for your health and well-being.
Learn more about the benefits of a balanced diet.
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