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Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine
University of Naples
Via Pansini 5 80131 Napoli
Italy
E-mail: pasanisi{at}unina.it
Dear Sir:
Weigle et al (1) raise the intriguing question of whether high-protein diets are useful in preventing and treating excess body fat—a clinical issue that affects more than one billion people. They showed that a high protein intake reduces body weight by increasing satiety. Their study, together with the editorial by Astrup (2), raises the question of whether high-protein diets should be promoted in large numbers of people, particularly given the high protein intake typical of Western diets. Suffice it to note that the current estimated protein intake in the United States is already more than double the recommended amount (3). As a matter of fact, the human species is omnivorous and has developed very efficient adaptive physiologic mechanisms for fuel utilization, notwithstanding the feast or famine pendulum and that meat constituted the staple diet of our pre-Neolithic ancestors (4).
However, a meat-based diet—which has a high protein content—is largely less environmentally sustainable than is a vegetarian-based diet nowadays (5). A meat-based diet had little effect when the world's population numbered only a few million, unlike today when more than 6 billion individuals are competing for resources. Furthermore, a high-protein diet may have untoward effects, for example, on calcium and bone metabolism (6, 7).
In conclusion, the findings reported by Weigle et al confirm some basic physiologic concepts of human nutrition; a high-protein diet can have untoward effects, may be difficult to adhere to, and, most importantly, is not environmentally sustainable. Thus, caution should be exercised in applying the findings of Weigle et al in the clinical setting.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Neither author had a conflict of interest.
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