8 Reasons To Increase Your Dietary Protein
When most people think of dietary protein, they often think of athletes and muscle recovery. In fact, a lot of clients express their concern “won’t increasing my protein intake cause me to bulk up”. Ironically, this is farthest from the truth. Beyond muscle recovery and muscle growth, dietary protein plays numerous vital health roles in the human body. From general tissue regeneration to immune system health to mental clarity, regular intake of high quality protein is a necessity for health and well-being. Let’s take a deeper dive on increasing your dietary protein consumption.
Building block for virtually all tissues of the body
Getting enough dietary protein has a direct positive impact on most bodily tissues. Pick any part of your body and chances are it’s made primarily of proteins (exceptions include bodyfat and brain). Even bone is made up of over 50% protein. Each of our bodily tissues has a given life cycle and replaces itself after some time. For example, human skin regenerates itself every 30 days and does so using the building blocks of the human body – amino acids.
Metabolic demand (thermic effect)
It takes roughly 30% of the energy contained within a given amount of protein to digest and assimilate it. For example, it requires 120 calories to digest 100g of protein. The math on this is as follows: 100g protein = 400 calories. 30% of 400 is 120. The net amount of calories one ends up consuming is actually 280 calories. Protein has the highest thermic effect out of any macronutrient and, of all foods, is the least likely contributor to bodyfat
Muscle maintenance and recovery
You may not care about the amount of skeletal muscle that you carry but you should if you care about minimizing bodyfat and/or bodyfat gain. Protein is a building block nutrient and is necessary for the maintenance of muscle and lean body mass (LBM) as a whole. Optimizing LBM allows you to burn more calories at rest. Muscle mass in particular, requires more energy for maintenance when compared to other tissues of the human body (with the exception of our brains). With more muscle mass and LBM, comes more metabolic demand, and therefore, more calories burned when at rest.
Satiety
Dietary protein is the most satiating macronutrient especially when it comes from real whole food sources. When comparing post-prandial levels of Ghrelin (a hunger hormone produced in the stomach) after a high protein meal versus a high carbohydrate meal, we see a lower concentration of circulating Ghrelin and an increase gastric emptying time. Both of these contribute significantly to feelings of fullness.
Regulation of blood sugar levels
Dietary protein reduces the rate at which sugar enters the blood stream. This is important for blood sugar stabilization and pancreatic health. For example, if I eat a banana on its own its going to raise my blood sugar levels faster than if I eat a banana along with a portion of meat. As mentioned above, this is likely due to the increase in gastric emptying effect from the protein.
Reduced chances of Type II diabetes
When you eat a source of carbohydrate such as a potato or a banana, your level of blood sugar will elevate. The amount by which it elevates depends on the amount of carbohydrate that you ingest, along with the carbohydrate’s relative glycemic index. White bread, as an example, has a high glycemic index (GI). When eaten alone, most white breads will typically raise blood glucose levels very fast given their high GI. As blood sugar levels rise, the body has to respond and stabilize this as too much sugar in the bloodstream becomes toxic. This is where the pancreas steps in and releases a hormone (a polypepetide hormone btw – a protein based hormone) called insulin to help reduce the amount of sugar in the blood stream. As mentioned earlier, protein acts as a sugar moderator slowing the release of sugar into the blood stream. As a result, the pancreas does not need to work nearly as hard since it does not need to produce as much insulin. In addition, insulin receptors on cells in the human body (found on tissues like muscle and fat) remain more sensitive; this means they require less insulin to take sugar in. Type II diabetes can result when the scenario above – repeated bouts of high carbohydrate ingestion (especially high GI carbohydrate souces) – occurs repeatedly over time. Again, eating protein along with carbohydrates helps to reduce the GI of a respective carbohydrate source. As a side note, dietary fiber and fat also act as sugar moderators
Dopamine production
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter produced in the brain that, among other functions, helps improve mental clarity and memory function. With increased dopamine production, comes a feeling of greater “energy” – simply put, you are going to feel more alert. Protein and the amino acids phenylalanine and tyrosine, are the building blocks for dopamine. These building blocks are necessary for dopamine production and increasing the amount of these amino acids in your diet will positively impact levels of dopamine and, ultimately, mental clarity.
Immune system health
Protein is made up of individual amino acids and these amino acids allow for the synthesis of important immunological entities including cytokines and antibodies. Proteins and amino acids also help regulate key metabolic pathways of the immune response helping to combat infectious pathogens. Getting adequate dietary protein is necessary for sustaining normal immunocompetence and protecting us from onset of disease.
Until next time Fitin10 Nation!
Coach Mark