Study reveals sugary drinks and high-protein meals lead to increased weight gain

The Worst Drink To Pair With A High-Protein Meal If You Want To Lose Weight

It can make you crave junk food within hours, too - by Christa Sgobba

Downing a sports-drink with a protein-heavy post-workout meal might not be doing your body any favours: drinking sugary beverages with a high-protein meal can trigger weight gain, a new study in the journal BMC Nutrition suggests.

In the study, researchers recruited 27 healthy adults for two laboratory visits: in one visit, they ate two, 500-calorie meals made up of 15 per cent protein, one with a sugar-sweetened beverage and the other with a drink made with artificial sweetener. In the other visit, they ate two 500-calorie meals made up of 30 per cent protein, again with a sugary drink for one and an artificially sweetened drink with the other.

The researchers discovered that drinking a sugar-sweetened beverage significantly reduced diet-induced thermogenesis, or the amount of energy it takes to metabolise meals, and fat oxidation, a process which kick-starts the breakdown of fat molecules.

And the more protein they ate, the more their fat oxidation decreased. When the participants ate the meal with 15 per cent protein and drank the sugary drink, their fat oxidation decreased by 7.2 grams, compared to 12.6 grams when they ate the 30 per cent protein meal with the sugar-sweetened drink.

“This decreased metabolic efficiency may ‘prime’ the body to store more fat,” said study author Dr Shanon Casperson.

Another problem: The added calories with a sugary beverage didn’t help the participants feel any less hungry later on. And while adding more protein helped decrease cravings for savory, salty and fatty foods, combining a sugar-sweetened beverage with the protein-rich meal actually increased the people’s desire for salty and fatty stuff later.

Bottom line: adding more protein to your diet is a golden rule of weight loss, as it increases satiety and makes you feel more satisfied.

But this study suggests adding sugary drinks can take away from those benefits. If you want to reap the high-protein rewards, you may want to stick with a glass of water with your meal instead.