Protein is made up of amino acids, often described as its building blocks. We actually have a biological requirement for amino acids, not for protein – that is, our bodies need the amino acids to build our own protein. Humans cannot make nine of the twenty common amino acids, so these amino acids are considered to be essential. In other words, we must get these amino acids from our diets. We need all nine of these amino acids for our body to make protein.

You may have heard that you need to eat animal protein to stay healthy. Eating animal protein does get you all the essential amino acids – but they’re not necessarily the best way to get protein, if you consider all the costs and health benefits of the way you eat.

Soybeans, quinoa (a grain), and spinach also are considered high quality protein. Other protein sources of non-animal origin usually have all the essential amino acids, but the amounts of one or two of these amino acids may be low. For example, grains are lower in lysine (an essential amino acid) and legumes are lower in methionine (another essential amino acid) than those protein sources designated as high quality protein.

Eating a variety of plant-based foods each day will ensure that you get all the essential amino acids, and thus plenty of protein each day.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 at 8:51 am and is filed under Articles - Food, Meat and Animal Protein. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.