An article to gleam a little information on the basics of protein.

In your daily intake of food… otherwise known as EATING

There are micronutrients and macro nutrients. To understand a little more about protein I will briefly go over the differences in macro and micronutrients  and what makes them vital.

Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals needed by the body in very small amounts. Their impact on the body’s health is critical, and deficiency in any of them can cause severe, even life-threatening conditions.

Some common micronutrient understandings are listed below. You will probably have heard of these but not really know they fit in the “micronutrient “category.

• Carrots Provide a good source of Vitamin A
• Beef Provides a good source of iron and Vitamin B 12
• Oranges are known to be a good source of Vitamin C
• And Bananas are known for their help when your Potassium is low

 

Macronutrients are where we get our energy or fuel for the body. Compare your cars engine to your body’s system. If your car runs out of fuel it will not run.  We eat to run, breathe and even think.

Some common macronutrients understandings are listed below. Here, too, you will probably have heard of these and possibly know they fit in a macronutrient.

• Beef provides a source of protein
• Bread provides a source of carbohydrate
• Butter provides a source of fat

Now that you have a general idea on the difference, I am going to tell you that macronutrients and micronutrients are found together in foods

Carrots are a source of Vitamin A in the micronutrient category and a source of carbohydrate in the macronutrient category.

Beef is a source of calcium, magnesium and iron in the micronutrient category and a source of protein in the macronutrient category

Bananas are a source of potassium in the micronutrient category and a source of carbohydrate in the macronutrient category

Hopefully this has not been confusing so far

Now we discuss protein as a macronutrient.

Protein is necessary for every cell in our body. The best use for protein is to repair and maintain body tissues.  Other important functions of protein include forming blood cells and making antibodies to protect us from illness and infections.

If people eat more protein than they need for tissue maintenance and repair, their bodies use it for energy. If there is a basic overload or abundance of energy from protein the body will use extra protein to make fat but this comes as a last resource.

The most up to date recommendation on how much protein one should consume comes with some controversy and a need to understand why or how they recommend things

The CDC, WHO, Mayo clinic, Harvard etc. all have varying recommendations from 10-35% of your daily caloric intake should be protein.

             

On the low end of protein recommended it is just to survive the day. The recommendation came from having someone lay on a couch (could have been a bed) and scientist monitored how much energy it took to breath and for the heart to beat (that was as vigorous as it got) and for muscle loss not to happen. Now if your plan is to survive that way maybe you are looking at the lower end of the spectrum. Even if we took someone that had been in an accident and had this said lifestyle, they would still need more protein than 10% for all the tissue repair and healing in the body.

So if you are a somewhat active adult you probably fit in the 20-30%  range of recommendations.

That means 20-30% of your daily food intake would be protein.

If you are more vigoursly active, have an injury, are trying to lose weight or trying to add muscle your protein consumption would be on the higher end 25-30ish %.

There are many factors that go into these recommendations and lots of scientific studies done prior to and after the recommendations have been published. We can all find a source online that shows us maybe what we want to see or hear.

If you are wondering about your own protein consumption, you could experiment with the varying %’s that are recommended and see how your body responds. Things to look for would be do you have more or less energy, are you sleeping poorly or better, how is your digestion, are you losing or gaining weight.

 

There will be other factors as far as what you are consuming that will also affect the outcome of your little self-study. Try not to sabotage your results by over consuming sugars, alcohol caffeine or street drugs as you are trying to discover what might be your best protein consumption percentage.

We have an InBody scanner here at the gym if you are curious of what you are made of (fat, muscle, bone etc) and the science behind the technology helps us better identify where we need to be nutritionally speaking. You will learn a little about yourself and where your basil metabolic rate is. That just means based on your muscle, fat, and bone composition how much energy you need in each day from food.