Nutrition topic for today is proteins. Another lengthy post, but lets get to the facts with these 7 bullets, the 7th bullet being the most important to note- 1. Proteins are essential for our body. Proteins are what make up all tissues in our body from our muscles, skin, organs, it all comes from proteins. Seeing how our skin sloughs and renews the outer layer about every 27 days, everyone will need proteins for regeneration. Proteins contain amino acids that our bodies do not produce and we have to get them from an outside food source. 2. We have 2 different types of proteins, complete and incomplete. Complete proteins are from animal sources and will contain the entire spectrum of amino acids, both essential (needing to get from and outside source) and non-essential (our bodies make this protein internally). Incomplete proteins are missing specific essential amino acids that are required by the body to complete a structure. In essence, its kind of like building a house but you are missing nails or wood, if you are missing an essential amino acid. Because of this, a wide variety of food must be eaten by vegans and vegetarians to get this spectrum of essential amino acids. Incomplete proteins are from plant sources, i.e. grains, nuts, veggies. 3. Its been my experience that most people over consume proteins. We dont need more than 1 gram per pound of lean body mass. Excess proteins convert to an energy source and then can be stored as fat. Of all of the macronutrients though, proteins are the least likely to store. So those that want growth and think that growth is from excess proteins, you only need so much and anything excess will not force growth, it converts to sugars and then can potentially store as fat. 4. Proteins main function is to repair. If muscle tissue is broken down from training, the proteins repair the damaged tissues and then reinforce it. The reinforcement is where we get growth. Resistance training is seen as damaging to the body and it reinforces the muscle to prevent that type of damage from happening again. 5. What kind of proteins should be eaten? I personally encourage lean cuts like wild caught white fish, chicken breast, turkey breast, lean steaks, bison, lean grass fed beef, low fat cottage cheese, plain greek yogurts. For vegans and vegetarians, youll need a combo of grains, greens and fats to get the spectrum of amino acids needed. 6. How much do we consume? Portions vary per person, but typically 30% of your total calories is a good point. Some may need a little less, depending on how many total calories they are consuming and needing. The math- Lets say you are consuming 2,000 calories per day. 2000 * 0.30 = 600 calories 600 calories / 4 calories per gram = 150 grams of protein per day. Then for portion sizes, I like to divide the grams evenly for all the meals I am going to have for the day. So if 5 meals- 150 / 5 = 30 total grams per meal. Note that both carbs and fats have trace amounts of protein in them. Those protein grams do count for your daily totals. Because of this, one would be looking at about 4ounces of lean cut protein or 5oz for a fattier cut like Salmon or ground turkey/beef for a 30 gram meal target. 7- The not so good thing about proteins... Proteins do not retain water like carbs do. While most of us may think that water retention is a bad thing (too much is), we actually want to retain a bit of water. Carbs retain water and this helps cushion joints (good thing) and aid our bodies in staying hydrated (very good) which helps with kidneys in filtering our blood (also very good). If carbs are non existent, water consumption can be extremely high and the body may still be dehydrated. Couple this with high proteins and the demand that places on the kidneys and you have a recipe for kidney damage. Kidneys are like no other organ in the body where they do not regenerate. When they are damaged, they are damaged for good and if they get too beat up, dialysis or transplants become necessary. Your long term health and longevity is much more important than your short term aesthetics. Be cautious with protein consumption and please balance it with carbs and fats.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 22:51:13 +0000
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