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You're
looking to increase the protein levels in your diet. Whether you are a
vegan, vegetarian or hard training athlete, the benefits of protein do not
go unnoticed. You desire increased cell recovery, growth and immune
support and enhancement. You want ot maintain regular, stable blood sugar
and energy levels, supplying your brain with essential neurotransmitters
and your muscles with what they need to not only survive but grow
stronger.
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Protein is a
macro nutrient composed of up to 21 amino acids and is the only source of
nitrogen in the diet. Amino Acids are the very building blocks of muscle
tissue, while remaining in a positive balance of these nitrogen rich
substances is critical to the growth of muscle tissue. Essentially ones
bosy is in a constant state to retain homeostasis - a state of being the
same. Your balance of proteins flowing into the muscle and building and
the flow of proteins being broken down and leaving the muscle are
influenced by the quantity and quality and timing of the protein you
consume, which is where high quality, targetted and specifically design
protein supplements shine in a very favourable light.
The well known saying "you are what
you eat" is founded on the fact that the body is in a constant state
of change at the chemical level. Just about every part of your body is
replaced over a six month period, some parts quickly, like blood, others
more slowly like muscle cells. Protein is the primary building material
for the human body, remove the water from muscle and nearly everything
that’s left is protein. Consequently, eating the correct levels and
types of protein is essential, what you are today is a result of what you
have eaten over the last six months. Protein can also be used for energy,
especially on low to zero carbohydrate diets. Excess protein is broken
down into carbohydrates, a prime energy source, and urea. The body stores
a "pool" of amino acids appropriate to its needs in the liver,
the rest is broken down into carbohydrates and ammonia.
In designing a typical basic diet, you
should look to get at least around 25-30% of your calories from protein,
which based on a 2500 calorie diet would give 160-190gm of protein per
day. For heavily training athletes and those using methods to enhance
protein absorption, far greater quantities of protein are required.
With modern advances into protein
research, digestibility and absorption you can now obtain proteins that
contain insulin like growth factors, immune enhancing qualities, super
fast absorption into the bloodstream for assimilation into muscle tissue
and even protein that is time released for periods of the day, such as
sleep, when you cannot eat to maintain a positive nitrogen balance. Things
like Ion Exchange Whey Protein have been manufactured to mimic human
muscle tissue near exactly making it a much higher bio-availability and
usable for construction of muscle proteins over something very inferior
such as tuna. One must remember that the amino acid profile of tuna is far
removed from the type that human muscle tissue is created from and so the
body has to do a lot of groundwork and manipulation to create
bio-available protein to build muscle from other sources of amino acids.
This is where the benefits of the likes of whey protein come into their
element.
You can find many very great tasting
protein formulas on the market. Flavours are normally down to individual
taste, however, due to the high growth market of the nutritional
supplement market and the greater mainstream coverage, especially in
America, taste and mixability has become a major effort for the
manufacturers to make good. There are instantaneous mixing products that
dont even need blending at all.
We would suggest you pick a protein that
is relevant to your goals and then find a manufacturer and ake that suits
your individual tastes.
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