Macronutrients Cheat Sheet; Protein

Protein. Found in meat, poultry and fish, nuts and seeds, beans and legumes and dairy. Important for providing the building blocks (amino acids) for building body protein. There are nine essential amino acids, this means the body cannot make them and relies on food consumption to obtain them. The nine essential amino acids are histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine. Consumed protein gets broken down into amino acids during digestion, and then those amino acids are repackaged into body proteins as needed during protein synthesis.

An average adult needs about 0.8g of protein/kg body weight (0.36g/pound), but as with anything your specific requirements will depend on individual factors. Protein requirements increase if you are an athlete or very active, pregnant or breastfeeding, recovering from an illness or surgery. I don’t subscribe to the idea that you need to put a number on protein requirements and achieve a “daily goal” because I find people focus to much on hitting that number. Rather, I tell patients to try to eat a varied diet, incorporating a protein at each meal and snack, with different protein sources throughout the day to also provide a variety of micronutrients.

A few important points about protein:

1.        Just eating protein alone isn’t going to give you more body mass, you need to use your body to place that demand to build muscle protein.

2.        Our bodies need carbohydrates for energy, the energy required to do things like exercise and build muscle. If you aren’t eating enough carbohydrates, your body will break down your own body protein (muscle) for fuel, which will defeat the purpose of eating more protein.

3.        Excess protein will be stored by the body as fat for later use. Same as excess carbohydrates and excess fat consumption.

4.        Muscle is not the only protein we have in our body. Proteins are used in the body for many different functions including hair, nails, skin, bones, and organs. We also need protein for tissue repair, hormone synthesis and antibody production (immune function).

5.        Not all protein sources are created equal. Animal proteins are complete proteins, meaning they contain all nine essential amino acids that are body needs. Plant proteins tend to be incomplete, and therefore the concept of protein complementation is important, especially for vegetarians and vegans, to ensure that they obtain the complete array of amino acids in their diet. Protein complementation refers to combining plant-based foods with different amino acid profiles to obtain the complete set. A classic example is rice and beans.