A year-long study of the dietary habits of 9,341 Australians has backed growing evidence that highly processed and refined foods are the leading contributor of rising obesity rates in the Western world.
The new study, in the latest issue of the journal Obesity conducted by the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre (CPC), was based on a national nutrition and physical activity survey undertaken by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), and further backs the ‘Protein Leverage Hypothesis’.
Participants with a lower proportion of protein than recommended at the first meal consumed more discretionary foods – energy-dense foods high in saturated fats, sugars, salt, or alcohol – throughout the day, and less of the recommended five food groups (grains; vegetables/legumes; fruit; dairy and meats). Consequently, they had an overall poorer diet at each mealtime, with their percentage of protein energy decreasing even as their discretionary food intake rose – an effect the scientists call ‘protein dilution’.
“The results support an integrated ecological and mechanistic explanation for obesity, in which low-protein, highly processed foods lead to higher energy intake in response to a nutrient imbalance driven by a dominant appetite for protein,” said Professor Raubenheimer. “It supports a central role for protein in the obesity epidemic, with significant implications for global health.”
Study confirms that processed foods key to rising obesity — https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2022/11/08/processed-foods-key-to-rising-obesity-study-finds-.html
Beans for breakfast anyone? Eggs?
Link to the original study Macronutrient (im)balance drives energy intake in an obesogenic food environment: An ecological analysis – https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.23578
Earlier posts on the obesogenic food environment:
garyskitchen.net 
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten beans and eggs together. But I would think some nicely spiced beans with a poached egg on top would be very good.
You have just given me a breakfast idea!
Let me know how it turns out. Maybe take a picture. My mother used to serve corn beef hash with a poached egg on top. I think the beans would be much more healthy.
Apparently what’s new to us is fairly common. I did a quick search “beans and eggs” and there are a bunch of recipes on the Internet. Now I have to find one I like.
Whom knew!
Certainly not I.
Me either. I had never heard of nor seen such a dish. It just occurred to me when you wrote some thing about beans and eggs.