Do I Really Need All That Protein?

You've seen the protein ads - massive muscled bodies, shining with paint on tan, in skimpy bathing costumes...all claiming that you too can look like this with a protein shake and a workout. There's a whole lot of hard work that goes into competitive bodybuilding, and that's not just on the weight bench. Muscle building nutrition is a science in itself - nutrients for optimal growth, nutrients for intense workout recovery, and nutrients to prevent and repair injury.

The foundation nutrient is of course, protein. All the other add-ons are to help the protein be assimilated and strengthen the signals to the muscle to grow.

But for those of you like me that just want to maintain a strong, attractive physique, the body building regime is not what we are after. So just what type of protein should we be consuming, when and how much? This article helps answer that question.

What Is Protein?

Protein is the foundation structure of all of your organs, nerves, hormones, muscles, antibodies, and enzymes. Its assimilation into the body is aided by a number of vitamins and minerals. Protein is made up building blocks called amino acids. There are 22 different amino acids, that combine in numerous ways, to form the thousands of different proteins found in your body. Of these 22 amino acids, eight cannot be made by your body from other nutrients. These eight are referred to as 'Essential Amino Acids' and must be obtained from food.

Plant Based Proteins

Beans, nuts, seeds, and grains should be soaked in water for at least a few hours, preferably overnight, before eating or preparing to eat. This helps deactivate compounds in these foods that are known to cause mineral deficiencies and digestive disturbances. Always chew these food groups until liquid to make it easier for stomach acids to break the protein down into amino acids, making them them available to your blood stream via your small intestine. Chewing well also decreases the potential for food-allergic reactions.

Processed Protein Supplements

Avoid isolated protein products, usually made from soy, egg whites, whey, and casein. These isolated protein products are typically made with high-temperature processes that can make the protein unusable by the body, and can even be harmful. Protein isolates are found in many health food bars, energy bars, muscle-building supplements, and dietary shakes.

Instead, look for protein supplements that have been manufactured using

How Much Protein Is Required?

In general terms, a good guide is to take you body weight in pounds, half it to get the number of grams of protein required per day. As an example - a woman weighing 126 pounds would require 63 grams of protein per day.

If you exercise, you need more protein to help build muscle and replenish and maintain your cells, but keep to the maximum above.

Difference Between High-Quality And Low-Quality Protein?

Protein is found in many foods from both animals and plants. But proteins vary greatly in their make-up of amino acids. Some proteins are greatly deficient in some amino acids which are important to protein synthesis. The “ideal” protein has an amino acid pattern which exactly matches the body’s needs. To be sure, these needs vary. The needs of a newborn baby are exactly met by the protein mixture in mother’s milk. The needs of an adult are somewhat different, being determined by replacement rather than by growth. Egg albumin is generally thought to be a good reference protein. One can grade a protein according to how closely it conforms to the composition of the reference protein.

The amino acid score is the measure of this. This is calculated by comparing the amount of an amino acid in the protein with the amount in the reference protein. The score of a protein is the score for its lowest amino acid, the limiting amino acid. Usually the limiting amino acid is either tryptophan, threonine, lysine, or methionine + cystine. Notice that this defines higher-quality protein as being composed of a higher proportion of the essential amino acids than the reference protein.

A fundamental way of looking at protein is its ability to promote synthesis. We can measure synthesis in a variety of ways but the oldest and most generally useful is to determine the dietary protein intake and measure the urinary nitrogen output. Assuming the patient is in steady state, the difference should be measure of a net protein synthesis. Some proteins support synthesis better than others, and these are high-quality proteins.

Lastly, one can define protein as its ability to produce growth. The protein efficiency ratio is the ability to promote growth in an animal; it is ratio of the weight gain to the protein intake over a study period of several days or weeks.