If you want to lose weight, a new study shows that you don’t have to give up pork to shed those extra pounds.
Dr. Ana M. Palacios loves pork, but admits it’s gotten a bad rap over the years when it comes to how it fits into a healthy diet. Pork is widely consumed around the world and serves as a high-quality protein source, but popular diet culture often classifies it as “off-limits” or incompatible with weight loss due to concerns over saturated fat, she says.
“I’m from Latin America and pork is a staple for me,” says Palacio, assistant professor at Georgia Southern University. “I have a personal connection with it and I love bacon. I feel like pork has been a little bit stigmatized. There’s a lot of talk about pork, but really, there is not a lot of evidence to support some of the claims.”
That’s why she set off to evaluate whether individuals who continue to eat pork while participating in a structured, digital weight-management program could still achieve clinically meaningful weight loss and improve their overall diet quality.
“We wanted to know whether people who habitually ate pork could still successfully achieve weight loss and improve diet quality while participating in a weight management program,” Palacios explains.
Pork is Not a Barrier
In a randomized controlled trial with Weight Watchers (WW), Palacios followed 187 adults who were enrolled in the six-month program. Her team observed that the pork consumers actually lost more than 5% of their original body weight over six months.
“This is important because 5% weight loss is considered clinically meaningful weight loss,” she says. “This means there are health benefits associated with the loss of that proportion of your body weight.”
In addition, they also observed that participants who were eating pork had increased their diet quality scores by 4.3 points at the end of the intervention based on their baseline values. Non-pork consumers improved their score by 2.5 points.
“Participants who ate pork as part of their diet had greater reductions in calories, fats, saturated fats and sodium,” Palacios says.
With over 110 flavor nuances, research shows that pork is a carrier food and flavor driver to get people to eat more fruits and vegetables, adds Kristin Hicks-Roof, PhD, senior director of human nutrition at the National Pork Board.
“One of my favorite examples is Brussels sprouts,” she says. “You typically do not see people choose Brussels sprouts on their own. But add some bacon to those Brussels sprouts, and people are more likely to order it at food service operations. They’re more likely to menu it. They’re more likely to eat it, and that is a way that we can use pork as that flavor vehicle to get people to eat more fruits and vegetables, ultimately uplifting the diet quality.”
Diet Quality is Key
The study affirms that successful weight management is shaped by long-term, overall dietary patterns rather than isolating or completely restricting a single food. Hicks-Roof says the study participants were not required to eat pork and this was not a pork intervention study.
“The study looked at all the foods that they put in their WW tracker as part of a weight management program,” Hicks-Roof explains. “For us at the National Pork Board, it is important that we invest in high quality and rigorous nutrition research to truly understand pork’s role in human health.”
Although those who did not eat pork in the study lost slightly more weight (an average of 8.6% versus 5.3% for the pork consumers), both groups comfortably exceeded the 5% threshold for clinically meaningful weight loss.
“The reason why this occurred is not known, so we have to do more research to understand that better,” Palacios says. “This study doesn’t tell us that pork specifically showed us that difference.”
She is excited to dive deeper to understand what cuts of pork and what quantity of pork helps improve diet quality.
Knowing pork can support clinically meaningful weight loss is a key piece of information for U.S. pork producers, Hicks-Roof says.
“When you look at the American population, over 60% are overweight or obese,” Hicks-Roof says. “When people with obesity go to their health professionals, they’re often told specific dietary regimens that have more restriction, whether that’s calories or foods or food categories. For pork producers, it’s important to have investment in the science to talk about how pork can help support all sorts of chronic disease as well as overweight and obese Americans.”
3 Ways to Incorporate Pork into a Healthy Diet
- Choose lean cuts: Opt for pork tenderloin, sirloin chop or sirloin roast.
- Watch the preparation: Grill, roast or air-fry instead of deep-frying.
- Pair with plants: Balance the plate by pairing pork with high-fiber vegetables and fruits to maximize diet quality. Explore plant-and-pork combinations on Taste What Pork Can Do recipe site.
This study, “Associations among pork intake, weight-loss, and diet quality outcomes in a commercial weight-management program,” was funded by National Pork Board and Weight Watchers and appeared in Nutrition & Diabetes (May 2026).
