CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet ~ by Noakes, M & Clifton, P
Research at CSIRO's Clinical Research Unit in Adelaide, South Australia, has led to the development of the Total Wellbeing - higher protein, low fat - Diet. The Total Wellbeing Diet (TWD) has now been produced as a book, with fabulous recipes to help us eat well and stay healthy.
Dr Peter Clifton, Director of the Clinical Research Unit, and Dr Manny Noakes, the Senior Research Dietician, at the CSIRO Nutrician Clinic in Adelaide, South Australia, are the scientists who identified the need for this research and put together the volunteer program.
The research behind the diet
CSIRO as a leading authority in dietary research, was contacted by many dieticians with concerns about the promotion of high protein diets, without reliable supporting evidence.
The Clinic had conducted studies over the years with different types and different levels of protein. The benefits they showed are subtle but are at least as effective as traditional high carbohydrate, low-fat diets.
To investigate further, Clinic researchers studied 100 overweight and obese women on two different diets over a period of 12 weeks. The women were divided into two groups:
one group was placed on a high protein, low fat diet,
the other group was given a high carbohydrate, low fat diet.
Dr Noake's team had a hypothesis - that if kilojoule intake for each diet was the same then there shouldn't be any difference in weight loss. But they did see a difference.
More weight and fat was lost by the women on the higher protein diet, particularly if they had high blood fats, called triglycerides.
More dropped out of the high carbohydrate diet, which was a surprise, because they didn't expect the high protein foods to appeal to women as much as the starchy foods. So the higher-protein diet was more successful because people preferred it!
