Nutrition 102 - Protein

Hope everybody has time to digest the previous blog on nutrition (pun intended.) If not please go read it so you are all caught up for this blog.

The next  few blogs will be on macronutrients. Lets think of these as the drywall, concrete and wood of the body. With out them there is not structure.  The major macronutrients are protein, fat and carbohydrates. Today we will focus on protein.

Protein is the building block of the animal kingdom. The human body alone assembles and utilizes about 50,000 different proteins to form our organs, nerves, muscles and flesh. Proteins are also utilized to catalyze metabolic reactions, replicate DNA and transport molecules from one location to another. Believe or not protein is used for more then just building muscle. Proteins are made up of amino acids (AA). All proteins differ from one another based on the sequence of these AA. Understand that AA are the building blocks of all the protein in your body and are found in all of the protein that you eat. Lets think of AA as tiny lego blocks that when put together it builds a bigger block.

There are 22  standard but different AA that combine in various arrangements to make just about everything within the body (there are actually close to 500 AA but only 22 used by the body. You will hear 20-22 for humans because there are 22 standard AA BUT only 21 are found in what is known as eukaryotes. Then you'll hear 20 because 20 are actually encoded into the universal genetic code). The body can produce the majority of these AA but there are 9 that it cannot. These 9 AA are known as essential AA for humans. The 9 essential AA are histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, thereonine, tryptophan and valine. Science!

These 9 essential AA need to be consumed in your diet. If they are no present in sufficient amounts then the body is unable to build muscle and organ tissue. When ALL 9 essential AA are present in the diet, the body can usually build the other "nonessential" amino acids BUT if just one of those 9 is low or missing, the body is unable to synthesize the other proteins it needs even when overall protein intake is high. This is one of the many issues with a vegan lifestyle and this is why you should consume animal proteins.

If the whole eating meat thing is wrong in your eyes then here is another thing to consider. There are three AA which are the sulphur containing AA that are extremely important  to the health of the brain and nervous system. The three are methionine, cysteine and cystine. The place these are found most plentiful is in eggs and in meat. I could write a whole  blog on those three AA alone.

All of the essential AA and many that are considered "nonessential" are present in animal products. A complete protein is a protein that contains all of the essential AA and an incomplete protein lacks one or more of the essential AA. Sources of protein from the vegetable kingdom are low in one or more essential AA even when overall protein content of that vegetable is high. The body MUST ingest all the essential AA in order to use any of them. This is another problem with being a vegetarian.

This is a quick and dirty guide to protein. Extremely quick so please ask questions below or on our facebook wall so we can further help you understand what protein is.

Coach B