Giving your body the amino acids it needs ensures a balanced diet. Knowing how to score the protein amino acid content can help you do that.
All matter comes down to energy. The basic principle of nutrition is giving your body enough fuel to – energy - to keep on going.
Such as there are three types of fossil fuels that fuel your life (Gasoline, Diesel、Stove-oil) there are three main energy sources – macronutrients - that fuel your body, which are protein, carbohydrates, and fat.
PROTEIN Keeps You Alive!
Protein is an essential macronutrient that among serving as an energy source (secondary to carbohydrates) also plays an important role in muscle development, supplying your body with the building blocks it uses for growth and routine repair of your muscles.
Not getting enough PROTEIN in your diet = Diet Failure!
When your body lacks in protein muscles break down without repair causing noticeable determination if continued for long periods of time. This is why weight lifters are told to increase their protein intake, because they are tearing up their muscles all the time.
Maybe you don't want to get ripped. However, just because you're not looking to bulk up, doesn't mean you don't need protein.
Smart Consumption of PROTEIN = Diet Success!
Getting enough protein maintaining muscle mass is one of the pillars you need to keep strong in order to succeed in your diet.
The influential role your muscles play in your diet
Let's start by talking about what makes you special – your basal metabolic rate, BMR. Your BMR is the amount of energy you burn just being you, without the entourage of your exercise buddies.
At rest – doing nothing at all – your body uses energy performing essential bodily functions such as respiration (breathing) and digestion all that food you just ate.
Your muscles Contribute Heavily to your BMR and total body Energy Expenditures.
It is said that as much as 40% of your BMR can be attributed to the energy consumption of your muscles alone. In addition, your BMR is said to make up as much as 70% of your daily caloric expenditures. Doing the math, you muscles alone can be thought to up as much as 28% of you daily calories. Note this doesn't include the energy you would burn by exercising.
Building Muscle helps raise your BMR!
You can now see why putting on muscles mass – increasing your BMR – can help you change the sign when trying to balance the old standstill (what you eat and what you burn off) allowing you to burn more calories than before.
Raising your BMR makes it easy to Stay In Shape!
This is why there is some truth in the statement “Increasing your muscle mass makes weight harder to gain easier to lose."
How important it is to get quality proteins in your diet
Quality in the protein you put into your body is determined by the amino acids you get out of it.
There are 20 different types of amino acids that are necessary to your muscles from falling off your body, 11 of which can be made by your body, nonessential amino acids. That leaves 9 others that must be consumed in your diet, essential amino acids.
The balance off AMINO ACIDS determines the Quality Of The Protein you are putting in your body.
Your body process proteins similar to the way iPhones are put together in China.
Most of what is considered an iPhone is made in Asia. China, Japan, and Korea play an important in getting the job done right; producing thousands of iPhones per day, making iRobot seem like childsplay. What is missing is the little the “ness" that gets put into every box before being shipped back to the state and the rest of the world.
In the same way, your body by scraping parts (proteins) together can bet most of the work done in house, breaking down protein into amino acids and turning them into other proteins and amino acid that you body needs.
As good as a smith as your body is, it can't make everything. There are proteins that have to be taken from elsewhere. The absence of a single amino acid has the same effect as making a million Chinese factory workers wait to assembly a single iPhone. Without essential amino acids your body can't produce the stuff its needs to build and maintain muscle, make blood, and build strong bones.
Not All Foods Contain The Same Balance of essential AMINO ACIDS.
The amount and types of amino acids you get from the food you eat varies with your diet, which is why eating foods well-balanced in essential amino acids is recommended.
Looking up the AMINO ACID score can give you a feel of How Well You Are Balancing Your Diet.
How you determine which foods are well-balanced in essential amino acids, looking up their amino-score can help you do just that.
What is does PDCAAS stand for?
Now there's a word the guys at the pentagon might know. For the people that don't, this is for you.
PDCAAS is a dietary term that stands for Protein Digestibility Correct Amino Acid Score, which we'll just call an amino-score for reasons I don't have to explain.
Incorporating a Balance Of Amino Acids in your DIET is key.
An amino-score tells you more or less how many essential amino acids are contained in your food. An amino-score of 100 indicates an optimal balance of essential amino acids; whereas an amino-score of 0 constitutes lacking any one essential amino acid.
That's right, only by missing 1 essential amino acid is a foods amino score negligible, which is why having a diet well-balanced in essential amino acids is so important for your health.
| Foods And Their Amino Scores | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rice and Grains | Beans and Soy Products | Fish | |||
| Brown Rice | 68 | Green Soybeans | 92 | Scad | 100 |
| White Rice | 65 | Been Curd Lees | 91 | Sardine (J. Pilchard) | 100 |
| Bread | 44 | Soy Milk | 86 | Salmon | 100 |
| Meat and Poultry | Vegetables | Eggs and Diary Products | |||
| Chicken | 100 | Broccoli | 80 | Milk | 100 |
| Pork | 100 | Garlic Chives | 77 | Yogurt | 100 |
| Beef | 100 | Carrots | 55 | Eggs | 100 |
How to get the essential amino acids your body needs
When eating foods that have lower amino acid scores, it becomes necessary to do protein combination. Protein combination is the practice of combining foods together with the hopes of achieving a high cumulative amino acid score. This is what gives vegetarians the edge they need to stay healthy without eating meat.
How it is done is as follows. First consider a bowl of rice, which has an amino acid score of 68. Rice lacks lysine. So by combining rice with foods containing lysine (beans and soy products) it is possible to up the amino acid score of the foods you are eating. Now you wonder why people like eating beans and rice.
Making sure you get a BALANCE of Amino Acids Is As Important As Taking In Protein.
This is why limiting your food intake restricting your diet could easily drive your efforts to lose weight and get healthy down the drain. Just because you are getting enough proteins in your diet, doesn't mean you are getting a good balance of amino acids.
Compensate With Other Foods in areas where one food lacks to achieve the best BALANCE of amino acids in your diet.
Always keep the amino acid balance “score" in mind when considering what source of protein you will be putting into your body. If done right, you should be able to maintain muscles mass, making it easy for you when the time comes that you want to slim down.
