THE POWER OF PROTEIN
It's essential to the growth, repair, and maintenance of all body tissues. It's also required for making enzymes-catalysts essential to all life processes, and hormones-powerful chemical messengers that circulate through your bloodstream to specific target cells, where they generate a wide range of biological responses. It also helps your body maintain fluid and electrolyte balance, provides a source of energy, and helps your body fight off disease. Yes, these are the powers of protein!
These powers are made possible by consuming adequate amounts of dietary protein from a variety of lean meats, fish, and poultry, as well as soy and milk, which supply the body with amino acids, the basic building blocks from which the body can make its own body proteins.

Not All Protein Is Created Equal
Foods provide about 20 different amino acids, of which more than half are considered to be "non-essential". In other words, the body can make them for itself. However, nine other amino acids are considered "essential", meaning the body is unable to make them on its own. And unlike the carbohydrates and fats we consume, amino acids are not stored in the body. Therefore, the body must rely on a constant and steady supply from the protein-rich foods we eat every day.

So what are the best sources of dietary protein? And is there a difference between animal and vegetable sources? Well, it's true that not all dietary protein is created equal. The protein quality of one's diet that in large part, determines how well a child will grow, develop and how well an adult will maintain his or her health. Put simply, high quality proteins provide enough of all the essential amino acids needed to support the body's work and lower quality proteins don't. Two key factors that influence protein quality are the protein's digestibility and its amino acid composition. Protein digestibility is a measure of the amount of amino acids absorbed from a given protein intake and amino acid composition refers to the simultaneous availability of all the needed amino acids from a food we choose to eat. In general, animal-sourced proteins (meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy) are considered high-quality proteins, as is soy, a vegetable-sourced protein. However, other vegetable proteins tend to be of much lower quality and are often referred to as "incomplete" proteins because they do not provide all the essential amino acids the body needs. Incomplete proteins can come from fruits, vegetables, grains, and nuts.

Health Benefits
When most of us think about the health benefits of dietary protein, its role in body building comes to mind-– and rightly so. No new body tissue can be built without it. However, research also suggests that the intake of high-quality protein in the context of a healthful diet also may have positive effects on our body weight and body composition as we age, as well as play a role in the prevention of chronic diseases such as heart disease and certain types of cancer.
  • Weight Management: Studies have shown that achieving a healthy weight and maintaining that weight can help add years to your life and scientists believe that dietary protein may play an important role in weight management. High-protein diets may promote significantly more weight loss compared to lower protein diets because of protein's role in promoting satiety.
  • Age Related Muscle Loss: After about age 40, most adults, lose anywhere between 0.5% and 1% of their skeletal muscle mass each year. Insufficient protein intake in older adults can contribute to a loss of muscle. Although the optimal amount of protein to prevent or offset this muscle loss has yet to be established, research findings suggest that protein intake modestly above the present recommended dietary allowances of 0.8 grams per kilogram body weight per day (1 gram per kilogram body weight per day or higher), enhances muscle mass in older adults who regularly perform resistance exercise. Protein intake in older adults also appears to have a more beneficial effect when consumed within an hour or so of resistance exercise.
  • Cardiovascular Disease: One concern that has been raised about the trend in high- protein diets for weight loss has been that eating diets high in protein and fat, and low in carbohydrate, would harm the heart. However, recent research findings suggest that if done in a healthy way, eating a little more protein, especially vegetable protein, while cutting back on refined carbohydrates may actually benefit the heart.

  • Cancer: There's no good evidence that eating a little protein or a lot of it significantly influences cancer risk. However, eating a lot of red meat (cured and processed meats in particular), has been is linked to an increased risk of colon cancer. There also has been considerable investigation of the potential of soy protein-containing foods, to reduce the risk of cancer, especially breast cancer. In a fairly recent review of studies based on Asian populations, a higher soy intake was associated with an overall 29% decreased risk of breast cancer. Despite these positive findings, however the relationship between soy foods and breast cancer risk has been controversial because of data gathered from cell culture and animal studies that suggest isoflavones (the plant estrogen-like compounds in soy foods) stimulate the growth of estrogen-sensitive breast cancer cells. This has lead to questions about the safety of soy consumption in women with a history of breast cancer or who are at high risk for the disease. Research continues in this area but, it's important to point out that several lines of existing evidence suggest that women with breast cancer can safely consume soy. First, human studies have shown that isoflavones do not stimulate breast cell proliferation or increase breast tissue density (two markers of increased cancer risk), and a lack of harmful effects have been noted in several clinical studies examining the impact of soy food intake on the prognosis of breast cancer patients. In one study, neither soy nor isoflavones, intake was related to the disease-free survival rate of breast cancer patients over a 5 year follow up period and in a second study, higher soy intake was associated with a more favorable outcome for both total mortality and disease-specific mortality or relapse during a follow-up period of two years. And even better news is that the benefit of soy food intake on survival was more pronounced among women with estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer. Although these studies are very encouraging, breast cancer remains a very serious health condition. Women with a history of breast cancer should seek the advice of their doctor concerning the consumption of soy foods as part of an overall healthy diet.

How Much Protein Is Enough?
Although no one-size-fits-all answer exists for that question and research on the topic is still emerging, the current RDA for protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram body weight for healthy young adults. That comes to about 62 grams of protein a day for a person who weighs 170 pounds. Getting the minimum daily requirement of protein is fairly easy. Cereal with milk for breakfast, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, and a piece of fish with a side of beans for dinner adds up to about 70 grams of protein. It's also important to pay attention to what comes along with the protein in your food choices. An eight-ounce broiled porterhouse steak is a great source of complete protein—54 grams worth. But it also delivers 44 grams of fat, 16 of which are saturated. Saturated fats raise blood cholesterol and high blood cholesterol increases the risk of heart disease. On the other hand, a cup of cooked lentils has 18 grams of protein, but less than one gram of fat.

Vegetable sources of protein, including soy protein beverage mixes are also an excellent choice and many of them, also provide healthful amounts of other essential nutrients such as fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
The best animal protein choices are fish, poultry and nonfat dairy. If you are partial to red meat, such as beef, pork, or lamb, stick with the leanest cuts, choose moderate portion sizes, and make it only an occasional part of your diet.

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