Nutrition 101– Protein
Nutritionists tend to throw terms like ‘carbs’, ‘vitamins’
and ‘minerals’ around like everyone knows what they are. But
many people, if asked, couldn’t actually tell you what a vitamin
is, or why your body needs them. Yes, organic food usually contains more
vitamins and minerals, but what does this actually mean for your health?
Well, welcome to this series of explanations of the most used nutritional
terms – what they are, what they do, and how to get them. This month:
Protein
Protein is much more than a building block of muscle. Proteins are extremely
complex molecules based on carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen, and are used
in many ways in your body, including structurally (cell walls, muscles,
organs, etc), communication between cells, in your immune system, to transport
fuel and oxygen in the blood, energy production, hormone manufacture,
enzymes, and maintaining your acid/alkali balance. The building blocks
of protein are 20 different amino acids – imagine them as lego blocks
and now stick about 450 together in a sequence told to you by the DNA
in a cell. This is a protein molecule – constructed in your cells
for a specific purpose and exported to where it’s needed. In order
to build a protein molecule, the cell needs ample supplies of all the
different amino acids that make up that particular protein. Eat sufficient
‘protein-rich’ foods, and you’ll get enough.
So how much protein is enough and what are the best sources? Animal products
including meat, fish, dairy products and eggs are good sources because
they contain all of the most essential amino acids. If someone is protein
deficient, they will have generally poor health, characterised by poor
wound healing, depression, apathy, frequent infections, hormonal imbalance,
poor blood sugar balance, fatigue, poor liver detoxification and more,
depending on which amino acids are lowest, as they each have different
functions in the body. Obtaining enough protein is not difficult. Ideally
it should make up at least 15% of the calorific intake which is easily
achieved by having at least two daily servings of meat, beans, lentils,
quinoa, tofu, eggs, fish, cheese, seeds or nuts. Including protein sources
other than meat and dairy is a good way to minimise your saturated fat
intake. If your energy is poor, eating protein whenever you eat carbohydrates
can really help to stabilise blood sugar.
Vegetarians need not be deficient, though simply eliminating meat from
your diet and not replacing it with a variety of other protein foods may
leave you with insufficient protein for all it’s many uses in the
body, so you body may begin to break down muscle to get the amino acids
it needs.
Wishing you the best of health,
Shane Heaton
Nutritionist
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