1 Unexpected (and Awesome) Benefit Of A Protein Rich Diet

A study which was only recently published revealed if you eat a fair amount of protein it could help with one of the most common problems Americans suffer from.

A Purdue professor by the name of Wayne Campbell had his team investigate what would happen to people who ate high amounts of protein in their diet. Their findings revealed that not only would it help them lose weight (one of the primary aims of a high protein diet), but it would also help them sleep better.

Now that's as good a reason as any to eat a nice, juicy steak.

Their study focused specifically on obese adults who were attempting to shed pounds through the practice of relying on a high protein diet.

After several months of observation, they noted the individuals who stuck with the diet slept better than they had before they adopted the diet.

As NewsMax writes: 

After a three-week period allowing volunteers to adapt to the diet, participants then consumed 0.8g or 1.5g of protein a day per kg of body mass for 16 weeks. Each month, the researchers evaluated the quality of participants' sleep by means of a questionnaire.

The scientists found that after three and four months, the volunteers with the highest protein intakes while losing weight reported an improvement in sleep quality.

"Short sleep duration and compromised sleep quality frequently lead to poor metabolic and cardiovascular health and premature death," explains Jing Zhou, the study's first author. "Given the high prevalence of sleep problems, it's important to know how changes to diet and lifestyle can help improve sleep."

This study is yet another study in a long list of studies (see how many times I can say study in a sentence) supporting our assumptions on how diet affects our health.

As you might remember, there's another interesting correlation between diet and sleep.

I wrote about that a few weeks ago where researchers learned that poor sleep might actually cause you to eat more.

You can see that article here. 

While this doesn't mean you should switch to a high protein diet necessarily, it does show how important your diet's influence on your health (and sleeping patterns) can be.

Truthfully I always recommend eating more protein. Protein's great at helping curb appetite as well as helping to build lean body mass and it's quite beneficial to total health. Proteins > carbs is definitely a good mantra to live by.

That and most protein rich foods are also extremely tasty, so why wouldn't you want to eat it? 

Talk soon,

Dr. Wiggy
www.HealthAsItOughtToBe.com