Whey protein benefits for overweight adults

A world-leading study by Australian researchers has found that whey protein, found in dairy foods, improved a number of health risk factors in overweight or obese adults.

The research conducted by Associate Professor Sebely Pal and colleagues from Curtin University and funded by Dairy Australia, evaluated the effects of whey protein supplementation on a number of health risk factors in a group of overweight or obese adults.

The subjects – 70 overweight or obese men and women – were randomly allocated to replace a portion of their normal diet with whey protein, casein or glucose for 12 weeks.

After the 12 weeks, the researchers found that the whey protein group showed improvements in their cholesterol levels, insulin levels, blood pressure and artery stiffness.

Dairy Australia dietitian Glenys Zucco said the results highlighted whey protein had important health benefits for overweight and obese adults.

"Previous research has indicated that people who consume higher amounts of dairy foods such as milk, yoghurt and cheese tend to have a lower risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes than people who eat little or no dairy foods.¹" Ms Zucco said.

"This study suggests that one of the reasons for this may be due to the bioactive proteins found in whey protein."

Whey protein makes up about 20 percent of the protein naturally present in dairy foods such as milk, yoghurt and cheese.

It has been estimated that about 30 percent of Australian adults have the metabolic syndrome – a combination of factors such as obesity, unhealthy cholesterol levels, high blood pressure and insulin resistance, which significantly increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.²

Project leader and a key researcher at Curtin University in Western Australia, Sebely Pal said her latest results highlighted benefits of overweight and obese patients taking regular whey protein.

"The full health-giving potential of whey proteins is a growing area of research, so there is much potential for these outcomes to have a real impact on health," Dr Pal said.

Two research papers that describe the intervention trial are about to be published in two peer-reviewed journals – Obesity and the British Journal of Nutrition.

References

Elwood PC, Givens DI, Beswick AD, et al. The survival advantage of milk and dairy consumption: an overview of evidence from cohort studies of vascular diseases, diabetes and cancer. J Am Coll Nutr. 2008;27(6):723S-34S.
Barr ELM, Magliano DJ, Zimmet PZ, et al. AusDiab 2005. The Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study. Melbourne: International Diabetes Institute; 2006.

(Source: Dairy Australia: May 2010)