The Proteins and Amino Acids

Proteins

     Proteins are long or short chains of amino acids. The most important building blocks for the body, and used for numerous of things; some of these things include; the repair and renewal of all your tissues including muscle, blood, skin, hair, nails, intestines, and bones. No living tissue can be built without protein. Protein is part of every living cell. They account for about 20% of our body weight.Having protein in your diet can benefit you as it is helpful to your health. Aside in being important to health, protein is very important aiding in weight loss and athletic goals--help retain health of your muscles and tissue as you lose weight, and can help repair muscle damage during exercise.
     Different proteins varies widely depending on the source of protein (animal or plants/vegetable), and perform many vital functions. Here are some examples:
Lean Animal Sources

• Seafood (fresh, canned or frozen) - tuna and white fish, shellfish* (prawns, crab, lobster, etc), octopus calamari
• Poultry - skinless chicken/turkey breast, egg whites (whole boiled eggs are great too! essential fats from yolk!)
• Dairy - 1-2% fat free cottage cheese, fat-free milk, and live yogurts (froyo anyone?)
• Lean meats - extra lean red meats, lean pork
• Protein Supplementation - whey, casein, milk, and egg

*note, shellfish raises your uric acid, can cause gout, don't eat tooo much!

Fat Animal Sources

• Seafood - salmon, sardines
• Animal - red meats, eggs, full fat dairy, cheeses full cream milk

Plant Sources

• Tofu or soy - soybean or tofu (unfermented)
• Protein Supplementation - now plant made sources such as soy, pea, brown rice

Also take note that Proteins are also stored as energy at 4 calories per gram.

Protein As Energy:
•In the absence of adequate energy, the body will sacrifice protein to provide energy.
•The amine group will be degraded, incorporated by the liver into urea, and sent to the kidneys for excretion in urine.
     –Urea: the nitrogen excretion product of metabolism, generated mostly by the removal of amine groups from unneeded amino acids or from those amino acids being sacrificed to a need for energy.
Legumes : plants of the bean and pea family having roots with nodules that contain bacteria that can trap nitrogen from the air in the soil & make it into compounds that become part of the seed.
The seeds are rich in high-quality protein compared with those of most other plant foods.
Proteins are made up of nine amino acids. There are 20 amino acids needed to make all human proteins

-Nine are essential

-Eleven are non-essential

–Histidine

–Isoleucine

–Leucine

–Lysine

–Methionine

–Phenylalanine

–Threonine

–Tryptophan

–Valine

This Chart Shows the Protein contributed by food groups in the average U.S. diet