10 Suprising Facts About Protein

TEN surprising facts about protein:

1. Most of us eat at least twice as much protein as we really need for good nutrition.

2. You can get fat eating too much protein. Excess protein is of no use to the body except as an energy source-calories.

3. Most of the common sources of protein in the American diet are high in fat and calories. In fact, most contain a much greater percentage of calories from fat than from protein.

4. Excess protein puts a strain on your liver and kidneys, which have to process what the body doesn’t need and get rid of it. Excess protein also promotes bone loss and resulting fractures.

5. On a per-pound basis, your requirements for protein decline with age. Pound for pound, infants need nearly three times as much protein as adults.

6. The protein you eat cannot be stored by your body; it needs a new supply daily.

7. After infancy, you can get all the protein your body needs even if you never eat meat, milk, fish, cheese, poultry, or eggs. But a healthy diet based solely on vegetables cannot rely on a single source of plant protein.

8. You must consume “complete” protein within the same meal for your body to get full value from the protein you eat. Most animal proteins are “complete” whereas most vegetable proteins are “incomplete.’; However, two or more incomplete proteins can be combined in a meal to form complete protein, or tiny amounts of complete protein can be used to supplement an incomplete one.

9. Nearly all vegetables-including green, yellow, and starchy ones contain some protein, which, over the course of a day, contributes significantly to meeting your protein requirement.

10. The amount of protein listed on food packages as “Percentage of U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance” can be very misleading. Most people actually need only one-half to two-thirds that amount each day.