Protein The Educational Version

When I started on the journey learning about health and nutrition I didn’t completely know what protein was or why we “supposedly” needed it. I didn’t give it much thought until I went completely plant based. I heard from everyone I know and everyone I met, “where do you get your protein?” I knew that some vegetables had protein but not to the extent they do so I decided to find out all I could about protein.

I had conversations with a friend about what protein is and he would always tell me that not all proteins are the same. I use to argue that protein was protein, but how wrong I was. Proteins are simply chains of amino acids attached together by peptide bonds, in which all area’s of your body use to function. Different foods are made up of different chains of amino acids which makes different types of proteins in a sense.

Categories of Proteins

There are two categories of proteins and they are fairly easy to understand.  Basically there are complete and incomplete proteins. When they say a protein is complete it means that they have all the “essential” amino acids that our bodies need. There are 8 “essential” amino acids. The only complete proteins are from animal based protein. This does not mean you have to eat animals to get your protein, I’ll come back to that. An incomplete protein is exactly what you would think after reading the first, it does not have all the essential amino acids we need. It can lack many or as few as 1 essential amino acid to be classified as incomplete. All plants consist of different chains of amino acids but none can be classified as complete.

Now, back to the animal protein. Why is it that animal based protein has all the essential amino acids we need? It’s simple, they need them to! Animals, including humans, cannot create protein, we get all of our proteins from plants. Our bodies then break apart the proteins into separate amino acids so the body can utilize them, this process is called proteolysis. Animals eat a small variety of plants that, collectively, have all the essential amino acids and they are used in the muscle of the animal, which people then consume. Though it is technically easy to get your complete protein from animals it is not the best way to do so, I’ll explain in another article why this is. We eat such a variety of vegetables, fruits, and legumes, all of which have protein, meat protein is not actually needed and is harmful. If your interested in finding out why check out my article on “Animal Protein, The Complete Lowdown.”

Types of Proteins

As listed above, there are three types of proteins. They are categorized into 3 types depending on their function and use in the body, the types are fibrous, globular and membrane. There are many proteins that fall into these three types, they are organized depending on the structure of the protein as well as the amino acids that make of that particular protein.

Fibrous

A fibrous protein function is the kind we all think of, muscle! But there is more to it. This type of protein does help to form the muscles in our body but does not stop there, it also creates our tendons, connective tissue and the bones in our body. This type of protein helps with the structure of our cells and the tissues that bind our organs and cells.

Globular

The easiest way to explain a globular protein is it is water soluble and is the most common protein. It is water soluble as it moves more freely in water then other proteins due to its structure. I will try to write an article at a future date to explain how these proteins are structured and why that makes them water soluble.

Membrane

These proteins are just as they sound, they are proteins that make up the membrane of the cell. These proteins help to create a barrier around cells that allows molecules or ions, or basically chemicals, to pass through to the cell.

As you have probably guessed protein isn’t has simple as our society has made it out to be. Proteins make up many parts of, not only our body, but animals as well as plants and basically all living organisms. One thing we know for sure is that protein is extremely important. Being as it’s in all living organisms, it is something that is very hard to become deficient in, so there is no need to worry about getting enough protein.

It is a common belief that the only way to get your protein is to eat meat and dairy but the truth is far from that belief. I cannot say for sure the reason they have been pushed so much in the last century but maybe it is because they are complete proteins and the only ones we know about in nature, that is except one super food I have recently discovered.