PROTEIN – The Human Factory Raw Material
Your body uses Dietary Protein for building and repairing body tissue, creating enzymes (cells needed to enable chemical reactions), hormones (chemical messengers that control bodily functions), and blood plasma.
Let’s think of Protein as the maintenance and repair guy. If you are not getting the right amount and the right kind, you are at greater risk of illness, injury, and a general sense of being unwell, (fatigue, and diffused pain).
Function of Dietary Protein in the body:
- Repair and replace worn-out, wasted or damaged tissue and build-up new tissue
- Protein is the fundamental structural material of every cell in the body such as:
- Muscles, internal organs, brain, nerves, skin, hair, and nails
- Back-up fuel supply when carbohydrates or fats are lacking in your diet
- Maintains fluid balance
- Metabolism (hemoglobin, digestive and cell enzymes)
- Defense system (white blood cells & antibodies)
- Bone (rubbery inner structure & bone marrow)
- Red blood cells (hemoglobin – carries oxygen through the body)
- Synthesize new protein to carryout bodily functions (enzymes and hormones)
Essential and Non-Essential Amino Acids:
- 10 Amino Acids are classified as essential because the body can’t manufacture them; and therefore they must come from your diet.
- 12 Amino Acids are classified as non-essential because the body can synthesized them (creating them from spare parts).
Because your body requires the essential amino acids; it is very important that you either include them in your diet or combine two or more complementary proteins (see below) so that you don’t risk losing lean tissue (muscle).
Complete and Incomplete Proteins
Dietary proteins are categorized by whether they supply all the essential amino acids; or if they are missing one or more essential amino acids (complete or incomplete proteins).
- Complete Proteins contain all 10 essential amino
- Incomplete Proteins are deficient in one or more of the 10 essential amino acids
Complete Proteins (high quality proteins) include proteins of animal origin:
- Found in eggs, meat, fish, poultry, and dairy products
Incomplete Proteins (low quality proteins) include proteins of plant origin:
- Found in grains, beans, vegetables, gelatin, legumes, nuts, seeds, fruits
- Of the plant proteins, soy is the highest quality
Protein Combinations:
There are complimentary protein combinations; meaning that if you combine two kinds of incomplete proteins, they will provide all the essential amino acids as a complete protein (i.e., what one lacks, the other provides).
The most common combinations are:
- Grains (corn, wheat, rice, barley, etc.) with legumes (beans, peas, lentils) – as in beans & rice
- Grains with milk products – as in cereal & milk
- Seeds (sesame, sunflower) with legumes (beans, peas, lentils)
Protein Requirements:
Protein can also be metabolized as a source of energy in a state of negative calorie balance, in which fewer calories are consumed than are needed. In this case, the protein cannot be used for the intended purpose of replacing the amino acid pool. Thus, an inverse relationship exists between caloric intake and protein requirement. When caloric intake goes down, protein requirement goes up.