Protein: An Important Macro-nutrient

Do you know the vital importance of protein in your daily diet? Why your body metabolism heavily depending up on your protein intake? Yes! Protein forms an important constituent in your body and your body cells are composed mostly by proteins. As your body cells are lost due to wear and tear, they need to be replaced constantly. It is used for building muscle tissues. Hence your body should receive protein on daily basis to sustain replacement and growth. Your skeletal muscles hold most of your protein. In short protein is solely responsible for our growth and development.

Protein Categorization

Of the three macro nutrients you might have enough input about carbohydrates and fats. You have been advised to go for good carbohydrate (fiber rich carbohydrate) and to avoid bad carbohydrate (sugar rich carbohydrate). Similarly you may have fair idea about fat i.e. good fats (mono and poly unsaturated fats) and bad fats (saturated fats). Likewise is there any good protein or bad protein? No! Proteins are not categorized as good or bad. All dietary proteins are good. They are differentiated in terms of the source from which they are supplemented i.e. animal or plant; also differentiated in terms of richness in essential amino acids i.e. complete protein and in-complete protein.

Twenty Amino Acids

Your body metabolism breaks most of the proteins down into their tiniest components called amino acids, which are then used to synthesize new proteins in your body. Amino acids are considered as the basic units of proteins. Different forms of amino acids constitute different protein types. There are twenty amino acids associated with protein metabolism. Your body can synthesize 10 of the 20 amino acids. It is known as non-essential amino acids. The 10 non-essential amino acids that a human can produce are:

1. Alanine, 2. Asparagine, 3. Aspartic acid, 4. Cysteine, 5. Glutamic acid, 6. Glutamine, 7. Glycine, 8. Proline, 9. Serine and 10. Tyrosine

The remaining 10 amino acids need to be supplemented directly from your daily diet. Nutritionists call them as essential amino acids.The essential amino acids are:

1. Arginine, 2. Histidine, 3. Isoleucine, 4. Leucine, 5. Lysine, 6. Methionine, 7. Phenylalanine, 8. Threonine, 9. Tryptophan, 10. Valine

Protein Metabolism and Protein in Your Diet

How much protein do I really need? Your skeleton muscles need protein. The amount of muscle mass you possess, the equal amount of protein you need. To put it simply protein is the structural nutrient. Your protein requirement will also determined by yet another point; the amount of activity you perform. In the absence of protein your body will slowly start breaking down its own cells. Low consumption of protein will result in poor skeleton muscle system, lack of growth, low immunity and poor synthesis of hormones, antibodies, enzymes, and tissues. However, extremely high doses of protein are not recommended. Therefore protein is regarded as 'basic building blocks of the human body'. Protein is also responsible for balancing acid-alkali balance in your body.

Source:

1) What Makes a Healthy Protein So Healthy?
http://nutrition.about.com/od/meatsandproteinsources/a/proteinshealthy.htm