Why Proteins are important. This is Post 2 of a 3 Post Series on Protein
The Importance of Proteins
In POST 1, we spent a lot of time going through a variety of research that emphasized the value of including high-quality protein in our diet.
There are many important reasons why incorporating high-quality complete protein is a good idea. All of which help to achieve the number 1 GOAL of Optimizing Our Body.
Protein supports the 1 Focus of Providing the Cell with what it needs.
Plus there is ample proof that including more and more high quality complete Protein in our meals is a Good Self Care Micro Decision and is especially important as we age.
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Complete Proteins Promote Optimal Health
Eating complete protein (meat, eggs, fish) is recommended for optimal health and wellness.
It is important for our body because it:
- Provides our cells with the essential building blocks.
- Optimizes the cell’s ability to do its job(s).
- Protects the cells from damage. Part 1
Protein has an enormous influence on our well-being at every age!
Knowing what it is about high-quality complete protein that makes the difference in health – wellness – fitness is what we’ll walk through in this post.
Having today’s simplified overview of how Protein works WITH our body is helpful when it comes to:
- embracing the idea of eating more complete protein
- truly understanding its importance so you feel comfortable when it feels like you are receiving advice to restrain/reduce your consumption.
How The Body is Set Up to Work
We are best able to leverage the Micro Decisions we make to care for ourselves (and that actually means take care of our CELLS) when we know how the body is set up to use the Food we choose to consume.
Starting with points of information that helped me, as well as many clients, feel comfortable incorporating more complete protein into the diet.
1: The body does not store Protein as it does Fat.
2: There is no need to eat a large portion at one sitting.
3. Eating portions throughout the day that add up to meet individual body needs is the goal.
4: Consistency will create ongoing accessibility of all the amino acids (building blocks) for the body’s cellular processes to pull from.
1-4 Will exponentially help every system in the body.
Having ALL the Building Blocks We Get from Complete Protein -at the ready- is the KEY.
When it comes to Protein ‘parts’, What Do We Need?
We NEED 20 building blocks, and 9 of them are ESSENTIAL!
Essential means we must have them for things to work well. (like essential workers)
What things NEED Protein Parts?
- Growing, Repairing
- Reproduction
- Health Crisis,
- Aging
This list includes all of us!
Nine of the amino acids (9 of the 20 building blocks) you can’t manufacture.
Your body depends on you to provide the nine essential building blocks from the foods you eat.
If one or more essential building blocks are unavailable when needed, the body will do what it can to bridge the gap.
It will do this by breaking down and getting what it needs from your muscles or other tissue.
When you lack even one of these nine, over a more extended period, you’ll constantly be pulling from your body until the deficiency creates symptoms – physically and mentally.
A Few Examples of Amino Acid Deficiency:
- Muscle wasting (Think of how we have less muscle as we age –we need more protein.)
- Fatigue, Mood
- Our Immune System can weaken
- Skin and Hair can be weak, break, fall out, not grow.
- Metabolism can slow.
- Hormonal disturbances.
- Need to oversleep
Our brain can be negatively impacted as well:
- Cognition decreases
- Depression sets in
- Anxiety increases
- Overall low mood
- Disturbed sleep…
This list is by far not complete, but is a sampling of research attributing the negative impact even ONE missing essential amino acid can have on our body over time.
The longer we go without one or multiple building blocks, the more multi-system stress gets placed on the body.
Note: It is important to know that the Essential nine are crucial, but the other 11 building blocks, although NOT essential, are needed.
If they, too, are depleted long enough, the same negative impact on our body will result.
Today’s Simple Self Care Tip: Build your meals around a portion of complete protein.
Complete Proteins Provide The Building Blocks. What Does That Mean?
When we eat food, our body disassembles it. Then it takes the pieces it disassembled and reassembles them in a way that our cells can use them.
The pieces of food broken down by our chewing and other digestive processes give us the different building blocks our body needs.
The first step to any health/wellness/fitness goal is to ensure that we are providing our body with all the ‘pieces’ it needs.
Providing our body with all the ‘pieces’ it needs to maintain, repair, and replicate our cells is the KEY to all our goals.
When reassembled, the amino acids from protein are in shapes that can communicate with the cells, providing them with what they need to do their jobs.
The Importance of Proteins
The Cells use the building blocks we get from complete proteins for their:
Structure,
Machinery,
Instructions and
Layers of Protection
Energy.
(I always said– proteins give our cells what they need to S.M.I.L.E. and communicate)
Thinking of the Amino Acids (the building blocks) as a 20-letter alphabet helped me see just how important they are to our Cell’s Health…
Protein is used in each part of the cell. It’s membrane’s Structure, Machinery to shuttle things into the cell we need. Information processes for inter and intra cellular communication, Layers of the membranes to keep things out that we want to keep out and for Energy source.
This Video is cued to begin at 04:30. It’s an analogy of how missing an amino acid or two can mean the cell does not have what it needs to function at its best. It is when our body has access to every single amino acid that the speed and clarity it has to know what to do is optimized. If you didn’t read Post 1 yet you might find it interesting to watch all the way through.
To get the message across so the person who is across from you will move closer, you’d assemble the letters needed to get the job done.
If you were missing one of the letters (building blocks) at the time you needed to take action, you’d still likely get your message across by using what you had available.
Missing two or three of the letters (building blocks), it would take much longer for the action to take place because the message was more challenging to understand.
Got it!
This was a really helpful way for me to envision precisely why I needed to consistently provide my body with all the amino acids (building blocks).
The building blocks and body-wide communication helped make it crystal clear to me that it is time well spent to plan and build meals and snacks around complete proteins, so my body had:
- what it needed when it came to building blocks
- when it needed them.
Having all the building blocks ready for the exact time they were needed meant I was:
- protecting my cells from undue stress and deterioration. They could finally replicate optimally.
- these healthier cells created healthier tissues,
- the healthier my tissues became, the better my organs functioned,
- my healthier and healthier organs improved how every system in my body worked!
Finally!
My health–wellness- fitness goals became a reality. Getting comfortable with Complete Proteins was a HUGE, HUGE piece of the Self Care puzzle for me.
Eating complete proteins did AND still does contribute to my ability to Optimize my Body the best I can. The 1 Goal was and is easier to achieve with the 1 FOCUS of making the Good Self Care Micro Decision for MY body to always include a source of Complete Protein in each of my meals.
For me learning how the body is set up to use Protein and leveraging that information was Nothing short of amazing…
This was true for many, many of my clients of ALL age groups as well.
The importance of proteins cannot be understated.
Proteins are a key element of Optimizing Our Body.
Next Post. Post 3 in the Protein Series: How Much Protein?
Protein: How Much?
Updated Research Shows Protein Actually Supports our body and suggests We Need to Eat More High Quality Complete Protein for Optimal Health.
Feel better, Look Better, LIVE better…The Simple Self Care Lifestyle
References/Resources are located Here at the bottom of Post 1: Protein Part 1.
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