Why Protein Matters
A high protein diet is not just for meatheads; eating an optimal amount of protein is critical for long term weight loss and weight management, for men and women over 30, if you’re going through perimenopause or menopause, for your health in general and your quality of life as you age. Why is protein important? I am going to tell you exactly why protein matters, let’s dive in!
Sidenote: I use the term meathead affectionately as I include myself in this category.
Why I have a passion for protein and plants.
I look at diet plans like keto, low-FODMAP and carnivore like protocols not a lifestyle. To be used for a targeted amount of time to accomplish a goal. Because I feel strongly that our diet should support our individual needs and health, while accommodating our preferences. In other words, the best diet for you supports what a quality life means to you. And while restricting foods may be helpful at times, our gut microbiome loves variety, so the more diverse the better. Our diet doesn’t need to be ‘perfect’, we simply want to make decisions that will support us. And one decision that will support most people is to eat a high protein diet (along with lots of plants).
When you design your diet around protein, it helps to keep your blood sugar and mood balanced, reduces hunger and cravings, helps you to lose fat and build muscle, improves your brain function and boosts your energy. How? Keep reading! I’m going to answer all of your questions including what is protein, types of protein, how much protein, best protein powders, high protein foods and more!
What is protein and why is it important?
Everything that is living is made of protein. Protein is in every cell of our body. There are 3 macronutrients; protein, carbohydrates and fat. These are the nutrients we use in the largest amounts. Through digestion, carbohydrates get broken down into glucose and fructose (sugar), fat gets broken down into fatty acids and protein gets broken down into amino acids. The primary role of carbohydrates and fats is to be used as fuel; for everyday functions like breathing and beating our heart, as well as for exercise. We also need the essential fatty acids for brain function and overall health. Protein can be used as a fuel source, but that is not its main role. Protein (amino acids) are the building blocks of our body. Proteins make our organs, skin, hair, nails, muscles, hormones, neurotransmitters and our enzymes. That means we rely on protein to function; our heart, brain, our mood, our metabolism, our digestion and more depend on the amino acids we get from protein.
Muscle Protein Synthesis
One important thing to know is that proteins do not last forever. Proteins get old over time and are no longer as functional as they once were. For this reason, the proteins in our body are in a constant state of turnover. Old proteins are broken down into amino acids; we lose some through our urine and some are rebuilt into new proteins to replace them. Imagine it like a team of workers in a factory; some workers retire (the old proteins we break down) and new workers join the team to replace them (the new proteins we create). Each day, our body replaces roughly 250g of protein. This process helps to keep our muscles, organs and other tissues healthy and running smoothly. It is crucial to eat sufficient protein (amino acids) so we have enough to make new proteins to synthesize and repair our tissues.
What happens if we don’t eat enough protein? We go into a net protein loss and we can start to experience fatigue, anxiety, digestive issues and cognitive dysfunction, we can lose strength, gain fat and we may notice other health issues. Since our muscle acts as a reservoir of amino acids, the body starts to break down muscle to get the amino acids it needs to feed the needs of our body. This is one way muscle protects our body; if we’re injured or ill, in a longer-term fasted state or chronically stressed, our body can use amino acids from our muscle to support the organs, enzymes, neurotransmitters and hormones we need to survive.
What are the symptoms of a low protein diet?
If you cannot build muscle, gain strength, if you’re struggling with cravings, your mood, your energy or digestion, or if you cannot lose weight, look at your protein intake. It’s the number one under-eaten macronutrient yet it’s imperative to pretty much every bodily function.
How does protein affect digestion?
Our digestive enzymes, which is what allow us to break down our food and absorb the nutrients we consume, are made from proteins. And stomach acid is created in the presence of protein, so if we are not eating enough protein, we will not produce it. Stomach acid is what protects us from pathogens and parasites we ingest. We need it to break down the protein we eat and to stimulate our other digestive juices which we need to break down carbs and fat. Too little protein and stomach acid can lead to heartburn, constipation, bloating and other more serious gut issues.
How does protein help the immune system?
A diet deficient in protein impairs immune function and increases our risk of infection. Here are a few ways eating adequate protein supports your immune function:
Antibodies that disable pathogens as part of our immune response are made from protein.
Amino acids increase the rate at which we produce white blood cells in response to an infection, helping to fight it faster.
The release of cytokines that activate specific immune responses is triggered in response to amino acids
Glutamine, an amino acid, helps to preserve gut barrier function and prevents permeability to toxins and pathogens. Our gut is actually outside of our body, and our gut barrier is our first line of defense against external pathogens. When this barrier is compromised (known as leaky gut), pathogenic organisms can invade our body.
The role of protein and collagen for healthy bones, hair, skin and nails:
Bone is made from protein, calcium and other minerals. Adequate protein is essential for optimal bone mass during growth and for preserving bone mass throughout the aging process, which helps to prevent osteoporosis.
Hair, skin and nails are primarily made out of protein. Specifically keratin, collagen and elastin. You must consume enough protein to have the building blocks to repair and regenerate the cells in these tissues if you want to prevent breakage and promote growth. Read more about collagen here.
High quality protein sources like meat and fish also supply us with B vitamins and zinc which are vital to healthy skin and hair. A diet deficient in these nutrients is often part of the reason why women experience hair loss.
The role of protein for hormonal balance
Eating an optimal amount of protein is important for hormonal balance at any age, but this becomes even more of a priority as we approach and transition through perimenopause and menopause. Amino acids are used to make most of our hormones, so if we are deficient in protein, we will under-produce these extremely important chemicals. Hormones are made and secreted by endocrine organs or tissues. They act as messengers in our body that help with communication between our cells, tissues and organs. They travel through our bloodstream to their target tissues or organs where they bind to protein receptors on the cell’s surface, similar to how a specific key fits into a lock. A hormone will only carry out its job if it fits into the receptor.
A few of our hormones made from amino acids include:
Insulin and glucagon: Manage how our body uses and stores glucose (carbohydrates and sugar).
Melatonin: Regulates our sleep and wake cycles.
Oxytocin: The ‘love hormone’ can induce anti-stress-like effects including reduced cortisol level and blood pressure.
Thyroid hormones: Our thyroid regulates our metabolic rate which impacts our entire body; constipation, weight gain, anxiety, extreme fatigue, hair loss and dry skin are all signs and symptoms of low thyroid function.
Why is eating protein important for cognitive function?
Protein contains amino acids that we need to make neurotransmitters which play crucial roles in regulating our mood. We rely on our neurotransmitters in our brain to carry signals (‘messages’) from one nerve cell to other cells. This is how our emotions and psychological processes are conducted. Our network of nerves throughout our body is what creates our nervous system, and this controls how everything functions - how we move, think and what we feel. Most of our neurotransmitters require protein, including:
Serotonin: Our ‘happy hormone’, serotonin also acts as a neurotransmitter, and it impacts our entire body. It is key to stabilizing our mood and promoting feelings of well-being and happiness. We need it to make melatonin, which is critical for sleep. It’s important for digestion and it reduces our appetite as we eat. Low levels of serotonin can contribute to depression, anxiety, chronic pain, insomnia, disturbed sleep, and a tendency to overeat.
Dopamine: Our ‘feel good’ neurotransmitter as it helps us feel pleasure and reward. Low levels of dopamine are linked to reduced motivation and enthusiasm.
Look at eating protein like investing in your metabolic, bone, cognitive, emotional, immune and general health.
How protein fits in a weight loss diet
If all you care about is weight loss, this part is for you. We see fat regain and weight loss resistance when we yo-yo cycle through fad diets that focus on restriction. This is because when you focus only on calorie restriction and hours of cardio to lose weight, you are missing factors that are critical to keeping the weight off for the long term. For any fat loss program to be effective, it needs to be sustainable. This means it needs to provide a certain level of satiety and satisfaction, it needs to involve behaviour change and it must prioritize maintaining muscle mass.
The Protein Leverage Hypothesis
There has been consistent evidence behind the theory that people will eat until they get the amino acids their body needs, regardless of caloric consumption. This means we will crave food and keep eating until we consume enough protein to survive. If we’re eating low-protein foods, this often results in overeating to our caloric needs. So that’s why it’s ideal to front load protein in the day to control our overall caloric intake.
It is hard to eat too much protein
If you think constant hunger and cravings are normal, I suspect you are eating a diet low in protein and fiber. Protein is the most satiating nutrient; it stimulates our satiety hormones and it lowers ghrelin, which is our ‘hunger hormone’. The higher our ghrelin, the hungrier we get and the lower it is, the more full we feel. So when we eat a diet rich in protein, we’ll feel less hungry and find it easier to eat fewer calories. Think about how many times you’ve given up on a diet because you’re sick of being hungry?
Protein is also the most thermic macronutrient, this means you burn more calories to digest protein than you do when you eat carbs and fat. And while we can still store excess protein as fat, it is more difficult. Protein must first be converted into glucose (sugar) in the liver, before it can be converted into fat, whereas carbs are more easily converted into glucose and then stored as fat.
A higher protein diet means we will have better blood sugar regulation than a diet higher in carbohydrates. Our blood sugar rises after eating anything, but the increase we get when we eat protein is negligible, especially compared to the increase we get from carbs. This means we release less insulin and no subsequent drop in blood sugar. This helps to keep our blood sugar balanced which is critical to controlling cravings, for fat loss, reducing inflammation, getting quality sleep and to reduce our risk for chronic illness.
And when you eat in a caloric deficit, which is needed to lose fat, you run the risk of losing not just fat but muscle. This is not only detrimental to your health, but suppresses your metabolism, and increases your likelihood of regaining significant amounts of body fat when you end the diet. Not to mention you’ll start to lose the beautiful shape and lift that muscle creates. But we can significantly reduce that risk by eating adequate protein during a caloric deficit which helps to maintain your muscle mass. Maintaining our muscle is not only important for any weight loss plan, but it’s critical for our health and quality of life, especially as we age.
Eating a protein-rich diet is a hallmark of any effective and sustainable fat loss program.
Why protein matters for muscle growth and maintenance
If you want to spend your life in good health, you want to prioritize building and maintaining muscle in every decade, because if you have a higher muscle mass, you will experience a higher quality of life. Read more about how impactful muscle is on or health here. How do we build and maintain muscle? Through muscle protein synthesis, which is a metabolic process that produces muscle protein. It works in opposition to protein breakdown and it supports muscle maintenance or growth. When we exercise, it creates tiny tears in our muscle fibers. Then, during muscle protein synthesis, our body uses amino acids to repair and rebuild the damaged fibers, making them stronger and bigger over time. So ultimately, muscle is actually built during the recovery process, not through the exercise itself. To stimulate muscle protein synthesis (muscle growth), we must resistance train and consume enough high quality protein. By giving the body what it needs to rebuild proteins, we trigger the process and if the body doesn’t have the right materials, it won’t happen.
More Protein Resources
Now that you have an understanding of why protein is so important for anyone who wants to feel and look their best, you’ll want to check out these resources to learn how much protein you want to eat in a day, the best protein sources, protein timing for muscle gain or fat loss and more!
How to Easily Hit your Protein Goals
The Benefits of Collagen, EAAs and Glutamine
Why Muscle is an Important Part of your Weight Loss Plan
The Best Protein Foods and Timing for Weight Loss and Health
