Are you busting your gut at the gym each week and eating better than ever, only to find that the numbers on the scale aren’t budging?
The ‘healthy’ snacks you’re eating to boost your results could be to blame.
For Spanish scientists have warned that often foods marketed as high in protein, like cereal bars and yoghurt substitutes, are actually packed with fat.
Said to make muscles stronger and resilient, they may in fact be making consumers pile on unwanted, excess pounds.
The researchers, who analysed more than 500 products, found just one in ten could actually be classed as healthy.
More than a quarter were high in free sugars — sugars added to food and drink that can cause hunger pangs — and saturated fat, while a fifth contained sweeteners.
‘Consumers attribute healthy properties to foods with protein claims,’ said scientists at Miguel Hernández University in Elche, southeastern Spain.
‘This perception is incorrect. Consumers may not be aware of the high health risk posed by other nutrients present in foods with protein claims.’
Spanish scientists have warned that often foods marketed as high in protein, like cereal bars and yoghurt substitutes, are actually packed with fat and salt
The UK is already one of the biggest markets for added protein in Europe, with sales worth almost £640million in 2020 alone.
According to an analysis by the charity Green Alliance, the UK proteins industry could be worth £6.8 billion a year by 2035.
In the study, scientists examined the protein claims of 561 products including plant-based meat alternatives (68.2 per cent), snack bars (35.3 per cent) and high-protein yoghurt or dairy desserts (21.3 per cent).
Some 90.8 per cent were classified as ‘less healthy’ according to the World Health Organisation-backed ‘Nutrient Profile Model’.
This is a scoring system where points are allocated on the basis of the nutritional content.
They also found bars with protein claims had lower carbohydrate content but contained 48 per cent more saturated fat.
Eating too much saturated fat can make you gain weight.
Too much fat in your diet, especially saturated fats, can also raise your cholesterol, which increases the risk of heart disease.
Said to make muscles stronger and resilient, high protein products may in fact be making consumers pile on unwanted, excess pounds
The Nova system, developed by scientists in Brazil more than a decade ago, splits food into four groups based on the amount of processing it has gone through. Unprocessed foods include fruit, vegetables, nuts, eggs and meat. Processed culinary ingredients — which are usually not eaten alone — include oils, butter, sugar and salt
Milk and dairy drinks contained a lower amount of total and saturated fat, and yogurts and fermented milk contained a lower amount of carbohydrates and sugar.
But milk substitutes with protein claims contained more total fat compared to those without protein claims, the researchers noted.
While these foods may be useful for certain groups who need to increase their protein uptake, such as the elderly, ‘foods with protein claims are unhealthy’ they concluded.
‘This is particularly serious because consumers are often unaware of this risk and instead perceive these foods as healthy.’
Consumers must check the nutrition content and ingredient list of any protein packed product first before buying it, they added.
It comes amid the booming popularity in high protein diets linked to the rise in gym culture.
Fitness and nutrition experts still disagree about the optimal amount of protein to consume daily, but medical authorities say you should aim for about 0.75 grams of serving per kilogram of body weight.
For the average British women, this is 45g and men, 55g — roughly two portions of meat, fish, nuts or tofu per day.
According to the British Heart Foundation, a protein portion should fit into the palm of your hand.
Many Brits, however, already exceed their daily protein intake.
