PARIS--A long-term, high protein, low carb diet reduces body fat and has no deleterious effects, according to a new French rat study published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology--Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology (10.1152/ajpregu.00100.2004) (http://ajpregu.physiology.org).

In the study, scientists administered two different diets--“normal protein” (14 percent protein) or “high protein” (50 percent protein)--to 48 male Wistar rats over a period of six months. The rats were assessed for body composition, plasma hormones and nutrients, liver and kidney histopathology, hepatic markers of oxidative stress and detoxification, and calcium balance. No major alterations of the liver and kidney were found in rats fed a high protein diet, whereas rats fed a normal protein diet exhibited substantial hepatic steatosis (fatty degeneration, or a process of tissue degeneration marked by the deposition of fat globules in the cells). In addition, rats fed the high protein diet showed no changes in calcium balance and were found to have enhanced detoxification markers (glutathione and glutathione S-transferase). In contrast to rats fed a normal protein diet, rats fed a high protein diet exhibited a marked reduction in white adipose tissue and showed lower basal concentrations of triglycerides, glucose, leptine and insulin. The scientists concluded long-term consumption of a high protein diet in male rats markedly reduces adipose tissue without major side-effects and could prevent metabolic syndrome in male Wistar rats.

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