The basics on Protein.....
What is Protein?
You probably know you need to eat protein, but what is it? Many foods
contain protein, but the best sources are beef, poultry, fish, eggs,
dairy products, nuts, seeds, and legumes like black beans and lentils.
Protein builds, maintains, and replaces the tissues in your body.
Your muscles, your organs, and your immune system are made up mostly of protein.
Your body uses the protein you eat to make lots of specialized protein
molecules that have specific jobs. For instance, your body uses protein
to make hemoglobin, the part of red blood cells that carries oxygen to
every part of your body.
Other proteins are used to build
cardiac muscle. What's that? Your heart! In fact, whether you're running
or just hanging out, protein is doing important work like moving your
legs, moving your lungs, and protecting you from disease.
All About Amino Acids
When you eat foods that contain protein, the digestive juices in your
stomach and intestine go to work. They break down the protein in food
into basic units, called amino acids. The amino acids then can be
reused to make the proteins your body needs to maintain muscles, bones,
blood, and body organs.
Proteins are sometimes described as
long necklaces with differently shaped beads. Each bead is a small amino
acid. These amino acids can join together to make thousands of
different proteins. Scientists have found many different amino acids in
protein, but 22 of them are very important to human health.
Of
those 22 amino acids, your body can make 13 of them without you ever
thinking about it. Your body can't make the other nine amino acids, but
you can get them by eating protein-rich foods. They are called essential
amino acids because it's essential that you get them from the foods you
eat.
Different Kinds of Protein
Protein from animal
sources, such as meat and milk, is called complete, because it contains
all nine of the essential amino acids. Most vegetable protein is
considered incomplete because it lacks one or more of the essential
amino acids. This can be a concern for someone who doesn't eat meat or
milk products. But people who eat a vegetarian diet can still get all
their essential amino acids by eating a wide variety of protein-rich
vegetable foods.
For instance, you can't get all the amino
acids you need from peanuts alone, but if you have peanut butter on
whole-grain bread you're set. Likewise, red beans won't give you
everything you need, but red beans and rice will do the trick.
The good news is that you don't have to eat all the essential amino
acids in every meal. As long as you have a variety of protein sources
throughout the day, your body will grab what it needs from each meal.
Just what is a Calorie?
A calorie is a unit of energy. We tend to associate calories with food,
but they apply to anything containing energy. For example, a gallon of
gasoline contains about 31,000,000 calories.
So if you
understand that calories give you the energy to move and the sustenance
to build our bodies lets get a closer look at what these calories really
are!
Take the calories from
21 Big Mac Hamburgers and convert them into energy you would have enough
energy to drive a small car approximately 80 miles! So you see foods
harbor a great deal of energy. Eating the right type of calories at the
right time and your body will respond by building lean muscle and
burning fat. Eat the wrong calories at the wrong time and you will lose
muscle and gain fat.
Most of us think of calories in relation
to food, as in "This can of soda has 200 calories." It turns out that
the calories on a food package are actually kilocalories (1,000 calories
= 1 kilocalorie). The word is sometimes capitalized to show the
difference, but usually not. A food calorie contains 4,184 joules. A can
of soda containing 200 food calories contains 200,000 regular calories,
or 200 kilocalories. A gallon of gasoline contains 31,000 kilocalories.
The same applies to exercise -- when a fitness chart says you burn
about 100 calories for every mile you jog, it means 100 kilocalories.
For the duration of this article, when we say "calorie," we mean
"kilocalorie."
What Calories Do
Caloric Breakdown
1 g Carbohydrates: 4 calories
1 g Protein: 4 calories
1 g Fat: 9 calories
1 g Alcohol: 7 calories
Human beings need energy to survive -- to breathe, move, pump blood -- and they acquire this energy from food.
The number of calories in a food is a measure of how much potential
energy that food possesses. A gram of carbohydrates has 4 calories, a
gram of protein has 4 calories, and a gram of fat has 9 calories. Foods
are a compilation of these three building blocks. So if you know how
many carbohydrates, fats and proteins are in any given food, you know
how many calories, or how much energy, that food contains.
If
we look at the nutritional label on the back of a packet of
maple-and-brown-sugar oatmeal, we find that it has 160 calories. This
means that if we were to pour this oatmeal into a dish, set the oatmeal
on fire and get it to burn completely (which is actually pretty tricky),
the reaction would produce 160 kilocalories (remember: food calories
are kilocalories) -- enough energy to raise the temperature of 160
kilograms of water 1 degree Celsius. If we look closer at the
nutritional label, we see that our oatmeal has 2 grams of fat, 4 grams
of protein and 32 grams of carbohydrates, producing a total of 162
calories (apparently, food manufacturers like to round down). Of these
162 calories, 18 come from fat (9 cal x 2 g), 16 come from protein (4
cal x 4 g) and 128 come from carbohydrates (4 cal x 32 g).
Our
bodies "burn" the calories in the oatmeal through metabolic processes,
by which enzymes break the carbohydrates into glucose and other sugars,
the fats into glycerol and fatty acids and the proteins into amino
acids. These molecules are then transported through the bloodstream to
the cells, where they are either absorbed for immediate use or sent on
to the final stage of metabolism in which they are reacted with oxygen
to release their stored energy.
The Basil Metabolic Rate (BMR)
Just how many calories do our cells need to function well? The number
is different for every person. You may notice on the nutritional labels
of the foods you buy that the "percent daily values" are based on a
2,000 calorie diet -- 2,000 calories is a rough average of what a person
needs to eat in a day, but your body might need more or less than 2,000
calories. Height, weight, gender, age and activity level all affect
your caloric needs. There are three main factors involved in calculating
how many calories your body needs per day:
1. Basal metabolic rate
2. Physical activity
3. Thermagenic effect of food
Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of energy your body needs
to function at rest. This accounts for about 60 to 70 percent of
calories burned in a day and includes the energy required to keep the
heart beating, the lungs breathing, the kidneys functioning and the body
temperature stabilized. In general, men have a higher BMR than women.
Your Caloric Needs
As you now know, there are three main factors involved in calculating
how many calories your body needs per day: your BMR, physical activity
and the thermic effect of food.
The second factor in the
equation, physical activity, consumes the next highest number of
calories. Physical activity includes everything from making your bed to
jogging. Walking, lifting, bending, and just generally moving around
burns calories, but the number of calories you burn in any given
activity depends on your body weight. Click here for a great table
listing the calories expended in various physical activities and for
various weights.
The thermic effect of food is the final
addition to the number of calories your body burns. This is the amount
of energy your body uses to digest the food you eat -- it takes energy
to break food down to its basic elements in order to be used by the
body.
Calories, Fat and Exercise
So what happens if
you take in more or fewer calories than your body burns? You either gain
or lose fat, respectively. An accumulation of 3,500 extra calories is
stored by your body as 1 pound of fat -- fat is the body's way of saving
energy for a rainy day. If, on the other hand, you burn 3,500 more
calories than you eat, whether by exercising more or eating less, your
body converts 1 pound of its stored fat into energy to make up for the
deficit.
One thing about exercise is that it raises your
metabolic rate not only while you're huffing and puffing on the
treadmill. Your metabolism takes a while to return to its normal pace.
It continues to function at a higher level; your body burns an increased
number of calories for about two hours after you've stopped exercising.
Lots of people wonder if it matters where their calories come from. At
its most basic, if we eat exactly the number of calories that we burn
and if we're only talking about weight, the answer is no -- a calorie is
a calorie. A protein calorie is no different from a fat calorie -- they
are simply units of energy. As long as you burn what you eat, you will
maintain your weight; and as long as you burn more than you eat, you'll
lose weight.
But if we're talking nutrition, it definitely
matters where those calories originate. Carbohydrates and proteins are
healthier sources of calories than fats. Although our bodies do need a
certain amount of fat to function properly -- an adequate supply of fat
allows your body to absorb the vitamins you ingest -- an excess of fat
can have serious health consequences. The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration recommends that a maximum of 30 percent of our daily
calories come from fat. So, if you eat 2,000 calories a day, that's a
maximum of 600 calories from fat, or 67 grams of fat, per day.
This is the base foundation for understanding calories and how calories
play an important role in nutrition. Just remember not to get caught-up
counting the calories as much and you look at the nutritional value of
the calories you choose to eat.
Nutrition 101
The basics on Protein.....
This page is designed to educate you and help you understand the
importance of proper exercise and nutrition. So over the next few weeks I
will post basic knowledge articles to help you understand some of the
more detailed and more specific articles on down the road. I encourage
you to follow us daily here because articles will post daily. All of
theses articles can be read in less than 10 minutes, they are short and informative.
What is Protein?
You probably know you need to eat protein, but what is it? Many foods
contain protein, but the best sources are beef, poultry, fish, eggs,
dairy products, nuts, seeds, and legumes like black beans and lentils.
Protein builds, maintains, and replaces the tissues in your body.
Your muscles, your organs, and your immune system are made up mostly of protein.
Your body uses the protein you eat to make lots of specialized protein
molecules that have specific jobs. For instance, your body uses protein
to make hemoglobin, the part of red blood cells that carries oxygen to
every part of your body.
Other proteins are used to build
cardiac muscle. What's that? Your heart! In fact, whether you're running
or just hanging out, protein is doing important work like moving your
legs, moving your lungs, and protecting you from disease.
All About Amino Acids
When you eat foods that contain protein, the digestive juices in your
stomach and intestine go to work. They break down the protein in food
into basic units, called amino acids. The amino acids then can be reused
to make the proteins your body needs to maintain muscles, bones, blood,
and body organs.
Proteins are sometimes described as long
necklaces with differently shaped beads. Each bead is a small amino
acid. These amino acids can join together to make thousands of different
proteins. Scientists have found many different amino acids in protein,
but 22 of them are very important to human health.
Of those 22
amino acids, your body can make 13 of them without you ever thinking
about it. Your body can't make the other nine amino acids, but you can
get them by eating protein-rich foods. They are called essential amino
acids because it's essential that you get them from the foods you eat.
Different Kinds of Protein
Protein from animal sources, such as meat and milk, is called complete,
because it contains all nine of the essential amino acids. Most
vegetable protein is considered incomplete because it lacks one or more
of the essential amino acids. This can be a concern for someone who
doesn't eat meat or milk products. But people who eat a vegetarian diet
can still get all their essential amino acids by eating a wide variety
of protein-rich vegetable foods.
For instance, you can't get
all the amino acids you need from peanuts alone, but if you have peanut
butter on whole-grain bread you're set. Likewise, red beans won't give
you everything you need, but red beans and rice will do the trick.
The good news is that you don't have to eat all the essential amino
acids in every meal. As long as you have a variety of protein sources
throughout the day, your body will grab what it needs from each meal.
Back to the Basics!
Living a healthy lifestyle can sound challenging and sometimes, even a little scary. But, it doesn’t have to be! Here are 7 nutrition principles everyone should apply to their lifestyle in order to improve their health and live a better life.
1. Eat a well balanced breakfast. Taking the time to eat a well balanced breakfast each and every morning will do wonders for your body. It will boost your metabolism and kick start your day. Try some whole grain toast, a hard boiled egg, some fresh fruit, a cup of yogurt and a cup of coffee. This will keep you feeling full and energized throughout the morning.
2. Eat less by eating more.
I know that the rule of thumb is to eat three meals a day, but eating 5-6 smaller meals a day is actually a lot better for your metabolism. Instead of waiting until you’re starving to eat, spread your meals throughout the day. Eat smaller snacks in between your bigger meals to curb your appetite and control your portion sizes.
3. It’s the little things that count.
Between work, cooking dinner, tending to the kids and housework, there isn’t much time left to exercise. But, there are some alternative ways to sneak a little exercise into your schedule. Try parking towards the back of the parking lot as opposed to the front. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Take the kids for a walk after dinner. The little changes you make will add up. You don’t have to train for a marathon to be active.
4. Stay hydrated.
Most people tend to drink water only when they’re thirsty. You should be keeping your body hydrated all day to prevent dehydration. Just because you’re not thirsty, doesn’t mean you’re hydrated. The best way to make sure you’re drinking enough water and keeping your body hydrated is to drink half of your body weight in ounces of water per day.
5. Pack your lunch.
Stay as far away from fast food restaurants and cafeterias as you can! While those are two very convenient options, by packing your own lunch you are guaranteed a well balanced and nutritious meal with a little forethought.
6. Eat fruits or veggies with every meal.
Fruits and vegetables provide you with all natural anti oxidants, vitamins and minerals that will do wonders for everything from your skin and hair to your metabolism.
7. Stay away from processed foods.
Processed foods are like poison for your body. You want to fill your body with whole grains and fresh produce, not trans fats and empty carbohydrates. 100% whole wheat foods such as whole wheat bread, whole grain pasta and brown rice will give your body more stable energy.
