All About Protein — Part 1
Protein is made up of amino acids. These are your body’s building blocks. The human body needs protein for growth, tissue replacement, tissue maintenance, muscles, cartilage, skin, bones and blood, enzymes, hormones, vitamins….
Protein is essential for our body!
There are 2 types of amino acid. You have to get the 9 essential ones, that your body is not able to make on its own, from your diet. They are called “essential”, because it is essential that you get them from the food that you eat.
Your body is able to synthesize the remaining, non-essential ones, on its own.
We can also divide protein into “complete” and “non-complete” protein. Complete contains all of the 9 essential amino acids, and usually comes from animal sources such as meat and milk. Incomplete lacks one or more of the essential amino acids. Examples for incomplete protein include most vegetable proteins, beans, lentils and nuts. This is the reason that it’s so hard to get good quality protein with a vegan diet.
So how much protein do you need?
1 gram of protein provides your body with 4 calories of energy. The general recommendation is between 0.8g and 1.2g protein per pound of lean body mass. If you do regular resistance training then you may need a higher amount, between 1.2g and 1.5g per pound of your lean body mass. But you do need to be careful — too much protein will overwork the kidneys, and may cause dehydration.
Here are some tips for choosing good quality protein sources.
- Choose lean cuts of meats, such as round steak, tenderloin, boneless skinless chicken breast, or ground beef that is at least 90% lean.
- Trim visible fat from meats and poultry before cooking.
- Skip or limit the breading or battering of meat, poultry and fish.
- Avoid packaged food, look for single ingredient protein sources.
- Increase your daily intake of lean, high quality protein.
