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.
L-Glutamine in short!
The many benefits of this awesome Amino Acid!
Glutamine/glutamic acid, along with glucose, is one of the principle
fuels for the brain cells. It stimulates mental alertness, improves
intelligence, normalizes physical
equilibrium, detoxifies ammonia from the brain, improves and soothes
erratic behavior in elderly patients, improves the ability to learn,
aids in retaining and recall in memory, helps with behavioral problems
and autism in children, stops sugar and alcohol cravings, may improve IQ
in mentally- deficient children, enhances peptic ulcer healing, and may
be used to treat schizophrenia and senility.
Glutamine is the
most abundant free amino acid found in the muscles of the body. Because
it can readily pass the blood-brain barrier, it is known as brain fuel.
In the brain, glutamine is converted into glutamic acid—which is
essential for cerebral function—and vice versa. It also increases the
amount of Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which is needed to sustain
proper brain function and mental activity. It assists in maintaining the
proper acid/alkaline balance in the body and is the basis of the
building blocks for the synthesis of RNA and DNA. It promotes mental
ability and the maintenance of a healthy digestive tract. When an amino
acid is broken down, nitrogen is released. The body needs nitrogen, but
free nitrogen can form ammonia, which is especially toxic to brain
tissues. The liver can convert nitrogen into urea, which is excreted in
the urine, or nitrogen may attach itself to glutamic acid. This process
forms glutamine. Glutamine is unique among the amino acids in that each
molecule contains not one nitrogen atom but two. Thus, its creation
helps to clear ammonia from the tissues, especially brain tissue, and it
can transfer nitrogen from one place to another.
Glutamine is
found in large amounts in the muscles and is readily available when
needed for the synthesis of skeletal muscle proteins. Because this amino
acid helps to build and maintain muscle, supplemental glutamine is
useful for dieters and bodybuilders. More important, it helps to prevent
the kind of muscle-wasting that can accompany prolonged bed rest or
diseases such as cancer and AIDS. This is because stress and injury
(including surgical trauma) cause the muscles to release glutamine into
the bloodstream. In fact, during times of stress, as much as one third
of the glutamine present in the muscles may be released. As a result,
stress and/ or illness can lead to the loss of skeletal muscle. If
enough glutamine is available, however, this can be prevented.
Supplemental L-glutamine can be helpful in the treatment of arthritis,
autoimmune diseases, fibrosis, intestinal disorders, peptic ulcers,
connective tissue diseases such as polymyositis and scleroderma, and
tissue damage due to radiation treatment for cancer. L- glutamine can
enhance mental functioning and has been used to treat a range of
problems, including developmental disabilities, epilepsy, fatique,
impotence, depression, schizophrenia, and senility. It preserves
glutathione in the liver and protects that organ from the effects of
acetaminophen overdose. It enhances antioxidant protection. L-glutamine
decreases sugar cravings and the desire for alcohol and is useful for
recovering alcoholics. Many plant and animal substances contain
glutamine, but it is easily destroyed by cooking. If eaten raw, spinach
and parsley are good sources. Supplemental glutamine must be kept
absolutely dry or the powder will degrade into ammonia and pyroglutamic
acid. Glutamine should not be taken by persons with cirrhosis of the
liver, kidney problems, Reye’s syndrome, or any type of disorder that
can result in an accumulation of ammonia in the blood. For such
individuals, taking supplemental glutamine may only cause further damage
to the body.
