4 types of people who should be on a high-protein diet

3. People with a very sugary, carby, crappy diet 

Anyone eating the typical American diet (think: bread, pasta, and snack packs) can benefit from shifting toward more high-quality protein, like egg whites, fish, and lean meat. “If you’re getting a higher percentage of calories from protein, you’re getting less of the other stuff, like added sugar and carbohydrates,” Katz says. In other words: “More tuna, fewer doughnuts.” In a randomized trial known as the Optimal Macronutrient Intake Trial to Prevent Heart Disease (OmniHeart), people who replaced some carbohydrate with healthy protein (or healthy fat) saw lower blood pressure and lower levels of harmful LDL cholesterol than people on a higher-carbohydrate diet that was otherwise healthy.