We all know protein is important, but did you know it's the second most abundant substance in your body after water? That's right, this incredible molecule makes up a whopping 20% of you! From your strong muscles and flowing hair to your vital enzymes and immune cells, protein is the building block of life.
But what exactly is protein and why is it so crucial? Let's break it down:
Protein makes up 20% of our bodies, second only to water.
Proteins form hair, muscles, nails, ligaments, tendons, enzymes, blood, hormones, and immune cells.
Protein is essential for growth, tissue repair, and movement.
Protein serves as a biochemical catalyst which means it helps to build and break down tissues, move molecules in cells, create and send signals around the body, and move muscle tissue components, which in turn moves our bodies.
Not surprisingly, high-quality proteins are essential to the diet. Amino acids form proteins in chains. As with carbohydrates, amino acids are made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, but protein also contains nitrogen.
Nitrogen separates amino acids from carbohydrates and fats. Most of the 23 amino acids the body needs can be made, but nine cannot. These are the essential amino acids. Since the body cannot make these, we must eat them.
Essential amino acids are Isoleucine, Leucine, Lysine, Methionine, Phenylalanine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Valine, and Histidine.
Complete protein sources contain all nine essential amino acids.
Proteins from animals are complete. However, plant foods often lack one or more essential amino acids, but they become complete when eaten together. Grains and legumes provide amino acids equivalent to a complete protein.
How Protein Works
Protein has 4 calories per gram. About 2 to 4 ounces of animal protein and 4 to 6 ounces of vegetable protein make up a serving size of protein. If you want to eat meat, one serving is about the size of your palm and the thickness of a deck of cards. To make sure you get enough of all the essential amino acids, you should eat more of the vegetable proteins, and consider supplementing as needed.
Needs for Protein
Getting enough protein is important for health. Too many people have the "more is better" mentality and eat a lot of protein to lose weight, so it's easy to forget how much protein our bodies really need. Most Americans eat a lot more protein than they need to, sometimes up to twice as much.
To keep our bodies healthy, we need about 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram (kg) of body weight. (1 kg = 2.2 lbs) Depending on how much energy they use, an athlete or someone who just had surgery may need as much as 1.7 grams of protein per kg of ideal body weight or more.
Also, remember that grams of protein and grams of protein foods are not the same thing. Everything has fats, carbohydrates, water, and other nutrients in it, like meat, beans, seeds, and more. A good rule of thumb is to eat two to four servings of protein every day to get all the amino acids your body needs. It gives our bodies the amino acids they need to grow and stay healthy, more if you are active.
Keep in mind that our bodies can make most of the amino acids we need and will reuse a lot of the ones we already have.
Protein foods: things to think about
A lot of protein in the diet, especially protein from animals, has been linked to a lot of long-term diseases that damage our bodies, like heart and kidney diseases, cancer, arthritis, and osteoporosis. But it's not clear if this link is because of the high protein content. This may be too simple a way to look at a very complicated problem.
It is important to remember that commercial meat and dairy products contain a lot of antibiotics, hormones, and pesticides, and that each person can only eat so many calories each day.
People who eat too many calories from protein are likely to eat less vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts and seeds, and whole grains. This is because proteins are often packaged with fats, which have twice as many calories per gram. Because this is where the important cofactors that help break down and use protein are found, along with our much-needed phytonutrients, it's not a surprise that a diet so limited would lead to illness.
Another idea that is becoming more popular is that we should eat less or no animal products because they are an unsustainable way to grow food that makes it harder to give everyone enough healthy food. Yes, this is true, but only for large-scale operations that turn animal farming into a kind of industrial factory.
This puts a huge amount of stress on health and the environment because of the huge amounts of antibiotics, bad food, petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides, and toxic animal waste that is dumped. People have been eating animals since the beginning of time, so let’s look at big food companies before we throw the baby out with the bath water.
The quality of food and the environment for the animals are the keys to raising animals for food in a way that doesn't harm the environment. You should only eat animals that were raised on foods that they were meant to eat. This means grass-fed for cattle that are raised for food or milk. Buy meat from small farms or ranches, preferably ones in your area.
As a side dish, serve vegetables, nuts and seeds, beans and legumes, higher-protein grains (like quinoa and amaranth), soft goat cheese, or raw hard cheeses with your meat proteins. You can also put in whey, hemp, rice, or pea protein powder.
Most likely, a diet with enough calories from a variety of foods will also have a lot of protein.
When it comes to nutrition, our bodies need both plant and animal proteins to grow and heal. Each of us has our own tastes and needs, and while some people do better with animal proteins, others do just fine without them.
More protein is a great way to keep from getting burned out when you're under a lot of stress. How much protein you need will depend on your age, level of activity, and health.
Some might say that quality, variety, and how well it breaks down are more important than quantity when it comes to protein. We are taking good care of our bodies when we choose high-quality protein foods that are grown in a way that doesn't harm the environment and help us get healthy again or stay healthy.
