They Need It But Don't Know What It Is: What are Proteins? Complete Proteins?What are Essential Amino Acids? What Good Are They?

They Need It But Don't Know What It Is: What are Proteins? Who Needs Proteins? What Are Complete Proteins?

Did You Know That Bacteria Can Be Made to Manufacture Some Human Proteins As For Example Insulin

Here are examples of amounts of protein in food: Click on the letter

Is this fun or what? How much protein in these foods?

A Cup of milk has which? 4 grams, 6 grams or 12 grams of protein

3 ounces of meat have 41 grams, 31 grams, 21 grams or 15 grams of protein

1 cup of dry beans has about how many grams of protein

When people talk about food having protein do they know what they are talking about? Do you know what protein is? Did you know insulin is a protein? Bacteria have been engineered to make insulin. You may be wondering why would you engineer bacteria to make insulin when you can get it from animals? Well, that is what they used to do but people would get allergic reactions since their human bodies would react to the animal insulin.

Most people know in a general sort of way, what contains protein.They know that meat like steak, hamburger and chicken and fish have protein. That's because meat products consist of muscles and other tissue that is constructed out of biological material generically know as protein. Protein is a vital building block of all biological organisms. But there are many thousands, in fact hundreds of thousands of proteins throughout nature. What do they have in common? Proteins are made of chemicals called amino acids. So by eating protein, your body can deconstruct the proteins and get a source of amino acids to use for building.

What are Essential Amino Acids?

Proteins are made up of amino acids. There are 20 different amino acids that join together to make all types of protein. Some of these amino acids can't be made by our bodies, so these are known as essential amino acids. It's essential that our diet provide these. A complete protein source is one that provides all of the essential amino acids. You may also hear these sources called high quality proteins. Animal-based foods; for example, meat, poultry, fish, milk, eggs, and cheese are considered complete protein sources.

An incomplete protein source is one that is low in one or more of the essential amino acids. Complementary proteins are two or more incomplete protein sources that together provide adequate amounts of all the essential amino acids. For example, rice contains low amounts of certain essential amino acids; however, these same essential amino acids are found in greater amounts in dry beans. Similarly, dry beans contain lower amounts of other essential amino acids that can be found in larger amounts in rice. Together, these two foods can provide adequate amounts of all the essential amino acids the body needs.

Protein is found in the following foods:

meats, poultry, and fish
legumes (dry beans and peas)
tofu
eggs
nuts and seeds
milk and milk products
grains, some vegetables, and some fruits (provide only small amounts of protein relative to other sources)

WHY DO VEGETARIANS HAVE TO WORK HARDER TO GET PROTEIN?

Because many non meat proteins may not have all the amino acids the body needs. Therefore, vegetarians need to insure that they are getting a variety of protein sources that have the adequate amino acids. See the famous book Diet for A Small Planet by Francis Moore Lappe.

WHAT DO PROTEINS DO IN THE BODY?

What don't proteins do in the body? Besides being structural parts, proteins are involved as enzymes that make chemical reactions possible. Insulin, for example, is a protein( it's a hormone) made in the pancreas and released into the blood stream to push the glucose in the blood into the cells of the body. Although the human body has hundreds of thousands of proteins and proteins are made by following the instructions of genes, the body is estimated to have 25,000 or 30,000 genes. So the manufacture of a protein is not just a one to one correspondence with a gene. In fact, it's turning out that the old idea of genes as long strands of dna is just a part of the whole genetic story.