High protein diets determine endocrine responses that favour improved metabolic outcomes, inducing a more pronounced release of glucose-lowering hormones, suppressing hunger, and improving cardiac function more effectively than the high carbohydrate diet. Metabolic parameters and oxidative stress are significantly improved compared to the high carbohydrate diet. This happens above all in prediabetic and obese subjects, in which improvement of blood glucose, insulin sensitivity, inflammation, and lean body mass outcomes is seen.
It is essential to have a good quality protein source as the centerpiece of a healthy eating pattern for all these reasons. Those from meat and animal sources offer higher performance than plant proteins, such as higher skeletal muscle anabolic response. They bring in amino acids that may otherwise be in short supply (i.e., leucine, lysine, and methionine).
