Research
Talking points: Leveraging protein The importance of protein in regulating our diet
It is the start of the new year. Consumer interest in weight management, including adopting new dietary patterns, is at a seasonal peak. Let’s give some airtime to the intriguing concept of protein leverage and its impact on our diets.
The idea of protein leverage, that our daily hunt for protein drives our overall eating patterns, has been circulating within nutrition science for some time but has yet to transition over into the food world. This is likely to change for a number of reasons, not least because it puts forward both a plausible explanation for the impact of highly processed foods on our health, and a practical solution for packaged food companies to work with. In this note, we briefly explain protein leverage and propose three questions the food industry needs to start considering, as we expect the concept to gain wider recognition over time by the consumer.