Latest news with #NicholasBurd
Axios
27-05-2025
- Health
- Axios
U of I study challenges meat-muscle theory
Vegan protein can work just as well as animal protein when it comes to muscle building, according to a recent University of Illinois study. Why it matters: The research appears to upend long-held beliefs, based on lab studies of subjects who ate whey protein versus soy or other plant-based proteins, that animal protein offers the best path toward muscle building. What they're saying: "We hypothesized that animal protein would be greater than vegan, and protein distribution (meaning meal timing) would matter," Nicholas Burd, researcher and director of the UIUC Nutrition and Exercise Performance Group, tells Axios. "But as the paper showed, our findings are in contrast to our hypotheses." Methodology: Burd randomly assigned 40 young adult participants to eat vegan or omnivore meals for nine days. They engaged in three weightlifting sessions over the nine days and at the end of the trial, researchers biopsied participants' muscles to track "protein synthesis" and observed no significant differences. Zoom in: Burd also had subjects eat their meals at different times to see "if frequent and smaller meals are better for muscle building than eating two small ones and a big one at the end of the day." The result: Also no difference. The change: This U of I study looked beyond the effects of isolated protein sources by giving participants whole meals that, for instance, paired beans with rice, creating "a complete protein." Burd thinks this likely contributed to the surprising results. The big takeaway: "Achieving a high-quality protein meal that supports the muscle-building response in response to weight lifting can be achieved via different ways," Burd says. "Including animal protein foods into the meal is easier to achieve a high-quality protein meal, but vegan approaches can be effective too, especially when using complementary protein pairings to balance the amino acid profiles." The intrigue: The research was sponsored by the beef industry-funded marketing and research program known as The Beef Checkoff. But Burd says his funders didn't try to influence the outcome. "The Beef Checkoff is committed to educating the consumer regardless of the outcome, but I'd assume they expected a different outcome because our findings are in contrast to what we originally hypothesized. That's the beauty of science … the conviction for a hypothesis doesn't dictate whether it's true or not."
The Independent
22-04-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Trying to bulk up? It doesn't really matter what you eat to gain muscle
Trying to build muscle? It doesn't really matter what kind of protein you eat after weight training, researchers announced this week following a new study. Eating plant or animal-based protein will do the trick, they said, challenging a long held notion. 'The longstanding belief or the current dogma was that animal-based protein sources were better, particularly for the muscle-building response,' Nicholas Burd, a professor of health and kinesiology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said in a statement. Burd led the study with former graduate student Andrew Askow. It was published on Monday in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. It was supported by the Beef Checkoff program, which was overseen by the National Cattlemen's Beef Board. Previous studies had found that muscle biopsies after a single feeding showed an animal-based meal provided more of a stimulus for muscle protein synthesis than a vegan meal, he noted. However, measurements taken after a single meal might not reflect the effects of a balanced vegan diet, he cautioned. Burd's lab recruited 40 healthy and physically active men and women between the ages of 20 and 40 to examine how vegan or meat-based diets influence the rate of the process in which protein is produced to repair muscle damage after intense exercise — eventually leading to muscle gain. The experiment also tested the hypothesis that a moderate protein intake should be distributed evenly throughout the day to maximize muscle growth. The recruited participants underwent a week-long 'habituation diet' to put them on an even nutritional playing field, and then were assigned to either a vegan or meat-eating diet. Some of the meals the lab provided for them were eaten in the lab. Most were consumed at home. The meat diet included beef, pork, chicken, dairy, and eggs. The vegan diet balanced the amino acid content of their provided meals, the study's authors noted. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. The groups were divided once more into those who ate roughly the same amount of protein at each of three daily meals, and those whose intake varied across five meals eaten daily. All groups participated in muscle-strengthening activities in the labs every three days, wearing accelerometers to track their activity levels at home. Lastly, the participants drank what is known as 'heavy' water. Instead of hydrogen, the atoms are replaced with a heavier fingerprint of the element. Those replaced atoms allowed the researchers to trace where they went in muscle tissue, and they took samples of tissue from participants' leg muscle at the beginning and end of the trial. Ultimately, they found there were no differences in the process in which protein is produced to repair muscle damage between those eating vegan or omnivorous diets. Researchers also found that protein distribution across the day had no effect on the rate of muscle building. Burd said the results surprised him. So, what's the best kind of food to eat to gain muscle? 'It's the kind you put in your mouth after exercise. As long as you're getting sufficient high-quality protein from your food, then it really doesn't make a difference,' said Burd.
