Everything You Need To Know About Protein!

 

In this article I will break down the science of proteins into easy to understand analogies to help you get a grasp on what it is, where it should come from, and how it can fit into your personal diet. Learn more right here.

Protein intake is a topic I get questions on daily. With the popularity of high protein diets in today's society, I feel it is important to have a solid understanding of what protein is, and what it does in your body.
In this article I will break down the science of proteins into easy to understand analogies to help you get a grasp on what it is, where it should come from, and how it can fit into your personal diet.

The Protein Basics

Protein is arguably the most important nutrient for your body. Proteins are found literally everywhere in your system. From your muscle tissues, to the enzymes that digest your food, to your skin cells, and even within your blood.
When we take protein in our body through the foods we eat, it gets broken down into smaller compounds called amino acids Of the 20 amino acids found in the foods we eat, 9 of these are essential.

The Essential Amino Acids Include:


• Histidine*
• leucine
• Isoleucine  
• Valine   
• lysine        
• methionine
• Phenylalanine
• Threonine
• Tryptophan

The Non-Essential Amino Acids Include:

• alanine
• arginine  
• Asparagine
•  aspartic acid      
• gysteine
• Glutamic                     
• Acid glutamine          
• Glycine
• Proline
• Serine
•  tyrosine

An essential amino acid is one that must be provided from your diet. The other 11 amino acids can be created by your body and are not considered essential. Failing to obtain enough of even 1 of the 11 essential amino acids, those that we cannot make, results in a breaking down of the body's proteins (i.e. muscles!) to obtain the one amino acid that is needed.

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Unfortunately, humans also have no system of storing excess amino acids. What this means is we must take in amino acids on a daily basis to provide the amino acids needed for the body's various functions.

	Note: Arginine is considered essential only in young children and not in adults.

There are basically two types of proteins that are of concern to us while grasping the protein basics:

1. Complete proteins
2. Incomplete proteins

Think of it as the keyboard that is in front of you representing protein. It is only a complete keyboard if all the keys are present; much like a protein is only considered a complete protein when all the "keys" are present.
Think of the keys on this keyboard as amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Each one is slightly different but they all come together to form a keyboard. Like proteins, some keyboards are better than others. They have more keys, maybe they have one that plays music, or one that automatically connects you to the internet.
However, all you need to make a complete keyboard (complete protein) is all the letters, a spacebar, some numbers, and a few function keys. As I said above, we need protein in order to build tissues.

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Animal Sources:

So what better place to get the protein needed to build tissues than to eat animal tissue.
Let's just call it meat as there's something gross about thinking of eating animal tissues. Think of all the protein that comes from animal sources as being a complete keyboard. It has all the amino acids needed to make a complete protein.

Plant Sources:

Plant sources are different however and do not always contain the amino acids needed to make a complete protein. In fact only one plant source of protein, soy proteinis a complete protein.
Because most all plant sources of protein are incomplete, those of us who follow a vegetarian diet have to use food combinations to get a complete protein. Or, you can sleep in a bed of steaks in hopes of absorbing the essential amino acids.



 
Bed Of Steaks.

For most of us though the steak bed is too cold, lets just look at food combinations. For example, let's say A, B, C, and D represent individual essential amino acids. In a complete protein it would look like ABCD. In an incomplete protein it would look like ABC, or DBA, etc.
So, if rice for example provides AB, and beans provide CD, when eaten together they provide the same essential amino acids as a complete protein would; ABCD. Therefore vegetarians must use food combining to ensure they are receiving all the essential amino acids their body needs.