Monday, May 25, 2009

Is protein a paramount ingredient of your diet?

I was browsing the net yesterday and one of the frequent questions that I came across was the importance of protein. Every cell in our body contains protein. No other nutrient plays as diverse a role as protein in keeping us alive and healthy. Studies have long proven the importance of protein for the growth and repair of your muscles, bones, skin, tendons, ligaments, hair, eyes. Further, it also provides the enzymes and hormones that we need for metabolism, digestion and other important processes.The importance of protein grows even higher when we are sick or have an infection. This is because protein helps our immune system in creating the antibodies needed to fight the disease. Our body needs many different kinds of proteins for various purposes. Our body makes them from about 20 building blocks called amino acids. Amongst these nine essential amino acid are obtained from our food. The other non-essential ones are produced by our body. Protein can be easily obtained from meat, chicken, turkey, fish and dairy foods. It is essential to consume foods from animal sources as they provide complete protein including all the essential amino acids.There are also foods that like legumes- beans, peas and peanuts that are called incomplete proteins as they lack some essential amino acids.
They can be made complete by combining them with plant foods from one of these categories – grains, seeds and nuts, and vegetables. Always try to maintain a diet that contains lots of proteins in them