Study: Meat contributes to obesity at same rate as sugar; excess protein becomes fat

Meat is just as likely to contribute to obesity—a greater problem in rural areas than elsewhere—as sugar, says an international study by researchers at Australia's University of Adelaide, published in the Journal of Nutrition & Food Sciences.

Professor Maciej Henneberg said: "In the analysis of obesity prevalence across 170 countries, we have found that sugar availability in a nation explains 50 percent of obesity variation, while meat availability another 50 percent. After correcting for differences in nations' wealth (gross domestic product), calorie consumption, levels of urbanization and of physical inactivity, which are all major contributors to obesity, sugar availability remained an important factor, contributing independently 13 percent, while meat contributed another 13 percent to obesity."

Lead researcher Wenpeng You, a Ph.D. student, said, "Whether we like it or not, fats and carbohydrates in modern diets are supplying enough energy to meet our daily needs. Because meat protein is digested later than fats and carbohydrates, this makes the energy we receive from protein a surplus, which is then converted and stored as fat in the human body." (Read more)