What's the big deal about protein?

Having just finished the Thanksgiving week and heading into the Christmas season, I thought it might be an appropriate time to return to some of my previous nutrition topics. After downing more bird than I care to admit during the last several days , protein seems like the best place to start.

If Zubaz were a definitive mark of 90's fashion, high protein diets are a definitive mark of our current decade's attempt to trim the fat. Most of these are fads aimed at dropping weight quickly without much care for the other associated health risks (i.e. Atkin's). I recently reviewed an article during my evidence based medicine class that especially highlighted the increased risks of heart disease in middle aged women who ate a high protein-low carbohydrate diet.

This isn't to say that protein is bad for you. An appropriate view of nutrition means that you need to make your eating choices based on balance and your personal circumstances will dictate your need for different nutrients. Lean protein, for instance, has been shown to help with muscle building and recovery from strenuous exercise. Another perk and perhaps more important to those who care to lose weight is that it helps with satiety. However, like all good things, there is a limit to it's effectiveness and benefits. As I talked about before, if you eat too much of anything your body will store it as fat for later.

So how much protein is enough and how much is too much. Let's take a look at what the experts have to say. In 2007 the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition wrote an article regarding their stand on "protein and exercise." If you'd like to view the entire article for yourself, just follow the hyperlink. I'll highlight some of the most important parts:

1) "Vast amounts of research" have been done that support the increased protein needs of exercising individuals. This means that, yes, you do need more protein when you work your body more. (warning: sciencey language ahead) This is because proteins are made up of amino acids which are used to build other proteins in your body including enzymes that perform metabolic processes. An athlete's increased metabolism and stresses therefore dictate the need for increased protein intake.

2) Protein intake levels ranging from 1.4-2.0 g/kg/day in exercising individuals are not only safe but may also help improve adaptations to exercise training. That's pretty self explanatory. It means that for a guy like me who weighs ~79 kg, I can eat between 110 and 158 g of protein each day in hopes of improving my athletic performance. That comes out to between 400 and 600 calories a day from protein which would be only 13-20% of my caloric intake on a day that I eat 3000 calories (which is normal or less than normal when I am in full swing with bike racing).

3) Eating protein after exercise can aid in recovery, specifically it aids in maintenance of lean muscle mass and muscular hypertrophy when consumed following resistance exercise . This is a complicated topic, and one that I think I will highlight again another time, so for more info you'll have to tune in later.

Another interesting topic on protein is how much is too much? Generally your body breaks down and reuses a set amount of its own proteins each day. This means that there is a plateau effect in supplementing protein. Amounts higher than 2.0 g/kg/day generally offer only limited increase in benefit if any increase at all. It also just so happens that eating 2.0 g/kg/day is actually rather difficult if you aren't intentional about it. A whole egg only has about 7 g of protein (I would need to eat 22 eggs to eat my 158 g of protein) or 600+ g of lean chicken...that's about 1.32 pounds.

The bottom line is that protein is an essential part of your diet whether you are an athlete or not. If you aspire to live an active lifestyle, protein becomes a more important part of your diet. Nevertheless, all things must be taken in moderation and balance must be your guiding principle. I'll leave you with the following from Mayoclinic.com:

"Remember, the healthiest diet is based on fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean sources of protein — not rigid lists of 'good' and 'bad' foods. "