Protein Rich Foods – Essential InformationProtein rich foods are used to build and repair your body. Protein is what most of your body is made from - muscles, blood, hair, nails, etc. Your immune system depends on it, as anti-bodies are made from protein. It’s clearly important to get enough good quality protein – and to make the most of what you get. Digesting protein rich food is hard work – protein’s tough stuff. Stomach acid is designed for the job – it's strong hydrochloric acid. Help your body out by not diluting this by drinking lots with a meal. It’s good to have a glass of water half an hour before a meal, as water is needed for the digestive processes. Then don’t drink much till an hour or so after you finish eating. Eating starchy foods with protein rich foods will also dilute your stomach acid. Starch is digested differently - it doesn’t need acid for digestion. So by eating starch and protein foods at separate meals you’ll be helping your body to work more efficiently. This is why the Hay system (food combining) is so effective. People who’ve switched to food combining as a regular way of life have achieved miracle cures. Chronic conditions including arthritis, colitis, liver disease just clear up by themselves when you allow your digestion to work at it’s best. The Atkins diet works for the same reason – by eating a high protein diet and avoiding starchy foods completely, you’re obviously not mixing the two.
Proteins are the building blocks of your body. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. When you eat protein rich foods, the protein is broken down into individual amino acids. These are small enough to be absorbed into your bloodstream. Protein consists of long chains of amino acids. There are 22 different amino acids. Like letters of the alphabet they can be put together in lots of different sequences. Eight of these are essential – the rest can be made from these by the action of enzymes. A complete protein is a food that contains all eight of the essential ones. Meat and eggs are good sources of protein in that they have all eight in roughly equal amounts. But it's certainly not essential to eat animal proteins. Many of the biggest animals on earth are herbivores - they get all the protein they need from plant foods. Many plant foods have more of some amino acids and less of others. This is why a varied diet is important. Mother Nature has it all worked out - where one food is short, another has plenty. So by eating a variety of foods we can get all we need. This is what people mean when they talk about ‘complementary proteins’. For instance, beans supply the amino acids that are lacking in grains. So vegetarian recipes have combinations like lentil curry and rice, dhal and naan bread, or refried beans and tortillas – or even simply tinned baked beans and toast - not the healthiest choice, but it still gives you the complete set of amino acids. It’s not actually necessary to eat them at the same meal – your body can store amino acids to some extent. If you don’t eat protein rich foods such as meat and eggs, you’ll get good protein by mixing foods from the following three groups in your vegetarian recipes:
Find out more about protein requirements.
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