Nutritional Facts About Protein

July 2, 2010 |

Author Steven Thomas

If you want to know what protein is, just look in a mirror. Protein is part of every cell, tissue and organ in your body.

Since your body constantly breaks down and replaces every cell in your body, it’s really important to eat enough good quality protein on a daily basis. The good news is most Americans are getting more than enough protein in their diet on a regular basis to support this process of building and rebuilding cells. The bad news is many people, however, are not eating enough good quality proteins to be as strong and as healthy as possible.

Protein is found in many different foods – meat, poultry, fish, eggs, milk and milk produ basic-nutritional-facts-about-protein cts, legumes (dried beans and peas), nuts and seeds, tofu, grains and some fruits and vegetables. So it’s extremely rare for a healthy person eating a wide variety of foods to not get enough protein from their diet.

But not all protein is created equal. Some foods have much higher protein value than other foods and some are lacking certain specific building blocks (amino acids) needed for cellular growth.

Protein foods are made up of many different individual amino acids that are broken down in the digestive process and then recombined in the body to form new proteins – for example, skin, bones and blood.

Of all the different amino acids, 22 are needed for human growth and development. Of these 22, nine are considered to be essential in that the body can’t make them on its own. They must be obtained from the food you eat.

Protein food from animal sources is called complete protein because it supplies all the essential amino acids. Plant based protein is considered to be incomplete since it lacks one or more of the essential amino acids. But when two or more certain plant foods are combined together – for example, rice and beans or peanut butter on whole grain bread – they supply the necessary amino acids. They are called complimentary proteins.