The New Year is around the corner, let’s plan ahead NOW by adding more protein.
So many people, nutritionally, are toxic and deficient. Meaning, too much of the bad things and not enough of the good things. So, let’s start with adding some
basics, protein and collagen. Dietary protein is essential for building and repairing tissues, including muscles and organs. It’s also required for the proper functioning of enzymes, hormones, and your immune system. Proteins are made up of amino acids which serve as the
building blocks of your body. While there are hundreds of amino acids in nature, humans only use about 20 of them to make the proteins our bodies need. Five of them are considered nonessential amino acids because your body can make them, although you can also get them from foods. Another six are described as conditionally essential because your body can make them if you are healthy. However, there are nine essential amino acids, which you must get from food as your body cannot make them. These include histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine. Dietary sources for these essential amino acids include meat, fish, eggs, and dairy, as well as some plant-based options like legumes. Protein, especially animal based protein, is essential for optimizing muscle mass and longevity as well as muscle maintenance and muscle building. In terms of diet, skeletal muscle requires high-quality dietary protein, again ideally animal protein, to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. Skeletal muscle requires branched-chain amino acids which are most abundant in meat. Unlike plant proteins, animal sources also provide nutrients like vitamin B12, retinol (vitamin A) and creatine, bioavailable iron, carnitine, and carnosine, all of which are important for muscle growth and health in general. Animal based protein sources also contain taurine, a semi-essential amino acid that is important for healthy brain function, heart health, healthy muscle function, to just name a few.
So, what’s the ideal amount of protein for adults? As mentioned before, most adults need about 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of ideal body weight (the weight
you would ideally be, not necessarily the weight you are now), or approximately 0.36 grams of protein per kilogram. In general, protein should make up about 15% of your daily calories. For example, if your ideal weight is 135 pounds, your protein requirement would be 49.09 grams. Divided into two meals, that would be 24.54 grams per meal. For reference, there’s approximately 7 grams of protein in each ounce of steak, so a 5-ounce steak would give you 35 grams of high-quality protein.
Once you have calculated your overall protein requirement, make sure one-third of that is in the form of collagen. Collagen is the most common and abundant of your body’s proteins, accounting for about 30% of the total protein in your body. One of its primary purposes is to provide structural support and strength to your tissues, such as skin, bones, tendons, ligaments, and cartilage by allowing them to stretch while still maintaining tissue integrity. So, approximately one-third of your daily protein intake should be in the form of collagen.
For all the carnivores out there, red meat cannot provide all the protein you need because the primary amino acids in collagen, (glycine, proline and hydroxyproline), make up the matrix of connective tissue and red meat contains very little of these amino acids. Therefore, eating only muscle meat will not provide enough amino acids to allow you to build strong connective tissue and maintain bone strength. Unfortunately, red meat is a double edge sword because its collagen contains higher
amounts of specific amino acids with anti inflammatory tendencies and other healing properties, yet, it also is higher in amino acids that promote inflammation. The ideal collagen source is homemade beef broth. With a pressure cooker, bone broth can be made in as little as two to four hours. Start with choosing bones not from animals raised in concentrated animal feeding operations. These tend to be contaminated with heavy metals which will leach out in the cooking process. Other sources of collagen are chicken feet and the knuckle bones (knee joint) of cows. These are particularly high in collagen and are therefore excellent choices for making bone broth.
Your take away, dietary protein is crucial for building and repairing body tissues, influencing everything from muscle growth to the function of enzymes and hormone. We need nine essential amino acids from our diet because our body cannot synthesize them. Animal proteins provide not only essential amino acids but also nutrients that are essential for health, such as vitamin B12, retinol and other key nutrients, which support brain, heart, and muscle function. Adults generally need about 0.36 grams of protein per pound of their ideal body weight daily to support optimal muscle protein synthesis.
Lastly, consume collagen, which makes up about 30% of your body’s protein. It’s essential for maintaining the strength and flexibility of tissues like skin, bones and joints. At the end of the day, HEALTH IS YOUR MOST IMPORTANT ASSET. Protect it like a child, nurture it back and optimize it so you may be a blessing to those around you. We are here to help, always. -Dr. Irma Palmer
Resources: Mercola.com
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