A new study from Penn State found that diets with reduced sulfur amino acids — which occur in protein-rich foods, such as meats, dairy, nuts and soy — were linked to a decreased risk for heart disease.
The team also found that the average American consumes almost 2 1/2 times more sulfur amino acids than the estimated average requirement.
The study was conducted by John Richie et al.
Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. A subcategory, called sulfur amino acids, including methionine and cysteine, play various roles in metabolism and health.
“This study provides the first epidemiologic evidence that excessive dietary intake of sulfur amino acids may be related to chronic disease outcomes in humans.
In the study, the team examined the diets and blood biomarkers of more than 11,000 participants from a national study.
They found that participants who ate foods containing fewer sulfur amino acids tended to have a decreased risk for cardiometabolic disease based on their bloodwork.
The team compiled a composite cardiometabolic disease risk score based on the levels of certain biomarkers in participants’ blood after a 10-16 hour fast including cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose and insulin.
These biomarkers are indicative of an individual’s risk for disease, just as high cholesterol levels are a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
Many of these levels can be impacted by a person’s longer-term dietary habits leading up to the test.
The researchers found that the average sulfur amino acid intake was almost two and a half times higher than the estimated average requirement.
This may be due to trends in the average diet of a person living in the United States.
Many people in the United States consume a diet rich in meat and dairy products and the estimated average requirement is only expected to meet the needs of half of the healthy individuals.
The researchers found that higher sulfur amino acid intake was linked to a higher composite cardiometabolic risk score.
They also found that high sulfur amino acid intake was associated with every type of food except grains, vegetables and fruit.
People who eat lots of plant-based products like fruits and vegetables will consume lower amounts of sulfur amino acids.
These results support some of the beneficial health effects observed in those who eat vegan or other plant-based diets.
Recent studies have found this eating plan can boost your heart health, and cooking food in this way may raise your risk of blindness, which are highly relevant to the current study.
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Previous research from the Washington University in St. Louis and has shown that high-protein diets may help people lose weight and build muscle, they may also lead to more plaque in the arteries.
The team found that high-protein diets spur unstable plaque—the kind most prone to rupturing and causing blocked arteries.
More plaque buildup in the arteries, particularly if it’s unstable, increases the risk of a heart attack.
In the study, the researchers studied mice fed a high-fat diet to deliberately induce atherosclerosis, or plaque buildup in the arteries.
Some of the mice received a high-fat diet that was also high in protein. And others were fed a high-fat, low-protein diet for comparison.
The team found the mice on the high-fat, high-protein diet developed worse atherosclerosis—about 30% more plaque in the arteries—than mice on the high-fat, normal-protein diet, despite the fact that the mice eating more protein did not gain weight, unlike the mice on the high-fat, normal-protein diet.
Plaque contains a mix of fat, cholesterol, calcium deposits, and dead cells. Past work has shown that immune cells called macrophages work to clean up plaque in arteries.
But the environment inside plaque can overwhelm these cells, and when such cells die, they make the problem worse, contributing to plaque buildup and increasing plaque complexity.
To understand how high dietary protein might increase plaque complexity, the team studied the path protein takes after it has been digested—broken down into its original building blocks, called amino acids.
They found that excess amino acids from a high-protein diet activate a protein in macrophages, which tells the cell to grow rather than go about its housecleaning tasks.
The signals shut down the cells’ ability to clean up the toxic waste of the plaque, and this sets off a chain of events that results in macrophage death.
The researchers found that certain amino acids, especially leucine and arginine, were more potent in leading to cell death—than other amino acids.
Leucine is particularly high in red meat, compared with fish or plant sources of protein.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about cheap drug combo that could reduce heart disease death by one-third, and this diet with lean beef may lower your heart disease risk.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies about the drug that can be a low-cost heart failure treatment, and results showing scientists find a new way to fight against heart failure.
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