What Nutritionists Learn About Protein
It’s been proven that too much sugar causes a plethora of diseases. Diabetes and Obesity to name a couple. The current recommendation from licensed nutritionists is that 40-65% of your total calories should be carbs does not leave very much room for fats and protein, both which are extremely important for properly functioning cells.
Fat is necessary for every single one of the 75 trillion (read as 75,000,000,000,000) cells in your body to do whatever it is they’re supposed to do, properly. The cell membrane of every one of the cells in your body is mostly made of fat, with a little protein thrown in. The building blocks of hormones like testosterone and estrogen are fats. A layer of fat insulates brain cells to keep them firing properly (the brain is about 60% fat.) Vitamins A,D, E and K can only be absorbed with the assistance of dietary fat. To finish, when eating a low carb diet, fats are the primary energy source for your muscles and all your other body processes. Fats are very important to have enough of.
Protein also plays a role in many different bodily processes. My favorite is their role as a building block for every muscle cell you’ve got. If you want to run, jump, walk, eat or even breath, there’s a muscle full of protein letting you do it. Your DNA, the stuff that makes you everything that you are, is made up of protein. It’s the stuff that cells use for signaling, growth factors and a lot of other processes. Proteins serve as transport vehicles, the other half of the cell structure that fat doesn’t accomodate and hormones like insulin. In order to keep our immune systems functioning properly and efficiently, protein is needed. Proteins are very important to have enough of.
Carbs provide energy in the form of sugars…which fat is already plenty good at. Plant fiber is a good thing for a healthy GI tract but besides that, carbs don’t have any other purpose that I could find. Dietary carbs really aren’t that important, it seems.
I plan on covering the benefits of getting enough protein and fat in the future so I kept those sections short, I could have added a lot more.
So my question again, do low-carb diets work because of the reduced sugar intake, or because what used to be calories from sugar are now coming in the form of the much more necessary protein and fat? The easy answer is both. I’m curious to find out which one makes the bigger difference though.
We can’t live without protein in our diet and the same goes for fats. Technically, carbs we could do without. However; I know for most people, myself included, some carbs are necessary for life. Like red wine and dark chocolate. Some carbs are necessary for sanity if nothing else which is why I’m doing my best to limit my intake of them, not eliminate them.