Yes, they do. But you see, The billion+ people that are obese are to a large extent still not eating good enough, nutritionally complete foods, they are, together with many more billions of people with less body fat, largely choosing to eat nutritionally low-quality foods, it´s just that intentionally and unintentionally they end up consuming way too much of it.

These foods are low on nutritional variety and completeness while packing lots of energy.

Make no mistake about it, these foods have often been designed to maximize profit and to keep the consumer wanting to engage in gluttonous feasts far beyond what their daily intake should be.

As a result foods like this max out your energy balance room rapidly, without actually providing many micronutrients, or satiety at all.

Or they provide a ton of some nutrients, too much in fact, while delivering nothing of most.

This is the opposite of eating nutritionally complete foods with a ton of nutrients with a small to moderate energy package, and a big food volume.

This is why a high-protein food approach works so well, especially if the high-protein foods are supplemented with whole plant-based foods. But no, I am not telling you to go plant-based. I am just saying that consuming high-protein foods together with whole plant-based foods work incredibly well even for the biggest carnivore meat lovers on planet Earth.

Why is this such a good combo?

Because high amounts of protein deliver better health, fitness & body composition outcomes and fill you up easily. This combination of satiaty & protein related benefits for organs, muscle mass, tendons and functions makes most people automatically eat less in total while improving health & physical capacity.

Ergo, it becomes very easy to remain within your real energy balance even if you do not track your food intake.

When we add whole plant-based foods to this high-protein pillar we mostly add foods high in fiber & micronutrients while they are mostly low to moderate in energy. This provides food with a lot of water content, fiber, and food volume but not a lot of food energy. Thus filling up your nutritional needs and boosting satiety and healthy outcomes even more without adding much energy, in the end making it incredibly hard to end up with a surplus energy intake.

This approach is so effective that some people will actually end up having problems eating enough food to sustain their muscle mass this way.

Some, not most.

The answer for that minority that does end up with a hard time eating enough is to finetune their food choices by adding a few higher-energy foods, such as peanut butter, or more meals until they find a balance that keeps them on a healthy body fat percentage, while still eating enough to perpetually pack on more lean muscle mass, and health while reaching that nutritional completeness that is needed to remain healthy.

Anyway, the study that I am citing today highlights the missing nutritional need for billions of people, and the solution is to get back to eating more nutritionally complete high-protein foods, and much less restaurant foods, fast foods, candy, cake, energy-rich foods and beverages with not a lot of nutrients in general.

I mentioned peanut butter earlier, and I did that because peanut butter is actually one of those foods that are very rich in energy but pretty low in nutrients considering the immense amount of energy.

Most people should eat a lot fewer peanuts and peanut butter in other words, but for people who are already on a high-protein, high-satiety food plan and losing too much body mass unsweetened PB all of a sudden makes for a healthy high energy food addition because it provides good fats, some protein, and other good nutrients, and lots of energy in a small, and easily digested and consumed food package.

It is incredibly easy to get 400 or 500 extra calories from just a few spoons of peanut butter, so if you are one of those who can’t add more meals and food volume while simultaneously losing too much lean mass, try adding some peanut butter to your daily food intake, if you are already on point with high-protein and nutritional completeness.

If not, if you are one of the many billions with nutritional deficits, no matter if you are eating too little or too much food, rethink your food choices today. Because we can all take control and create a healthy, satiating high-protein menu that’s nutritionally complete.