The various health products on the market can be roughly divided into four categories: one is known to have nutritional value and is beneficial to specific groups of people, such as vitamins and mineral preparations;One is known to have no nutritional value and is purely deceptive, such as the so-called "nucleic acid nutrition";One is that there is still no reliable basis for its health value, and most health products fall into this category;There is also a category that has a little nutritional value, but it is not worth the money, and there is no need to eat it, protein powder is this category.
The human body contains tens of thousands of proteins, which are the most important biomolecules, and almost all life activities require their participation. However, the proteins in food cannot be directly used by the body, they are digested into amino acids in the stomach and intestines, and then absorbed by the body. Proteins in the human body are synthesized with amino acids under the guidance of genes. The ultimate amino acid in the body is the protein in the food. Therefore, although the proteins in food cannot be directly used by the human body, the amino acids produced by their decomposition are indispensable materials for building human proteins.
For this reason, protein is an essential nutrient that we need to replenish every day. However, the amount that needs to be supplemented is not much, about 08 grams of high-quality protein. This amount is not difficult to achieve for people with a normal diet. If you eat eggs, milk, meat, and tofu every day, you are unlikely to be deficient in protein: eating one egg can supplement about 6 grams of protein, drinking a glass (250 ml) of milk can supplement 8 grams of protein, and eating 100 grams of chicken, minced pork, and tofu can supplement each gram of protein. Malnutrition due to lack of protein is generally only found in inappropriate diets, vegetarian diets and poor populations, and people who can afford health supplements need not have this concern.
If you're worried about a protein deficiency, there's no way to replenish it by eating protein powder. According to the way of eating a famous brand of protein powder, eat once a day, eat 10 grams each time, and its protein content is 80%, that is, 8 grams, which is equivalent to the amount of protein contained in a glass of milk, and its ** is several times that of milk.
Eating protein powder is not only not economically, but also nutritionally. Most of the protein powders on the market are extracted from soybeans, and soy protein is not the best quality protein. As we mentioned earlier, the protein in food is digested into amino acids before being absorbed by the human body, so why is there a difference in quality of food protein?This is related to the amino acid content of the food protein. There are 20 kinds of amino acids in the group protein, of which 11 are synthesized by the human body with other amino acids or other organic substances, and do not necessarily have to be absorbed from food, but the remaining 9 kinds of amino acids cannot be synthesized by the human body and must be absorbed from food proteins, which are called essential amino acids. The quality of protein in food depends on the content and proportion of essential amino acids.
For example, rice and flour also contain protein, but it lacks lysine, an important essential amino acid, so the quality of cereal protein is not high. Soybean protein is of the highest quality, but soybean protein lacks the essential amino acid methionine, and the content of lysine, another essential amino acid, is enough to meet people's nutritional needs, but it is easy to convert into substances that cannot be used by the human body in soybean processing, and a part of it will be lost, so that soybean protein is actually lacking in lysine. Eggs and milk contain all 9 essential amino acids in the right proportions, making them the best quality proteins. Therefore, in terms of protein quality, eating protein powder is not as good as eating eggs and drinking milk.
In addition to protein, eating high-protein foods can also supplement other nutrients at the same time, which are impossible to eat with protein powder. For example, drinking milk can supplement calcium and multivitamins, eating eggs can supplement multiple vitamins, eating fish can supplement unsaturated fatty acids that are very good for cardiovascular health, eating meat can supplement iron, and eating soy products (tofu, soy milk) can supplement unsaturated fatty acids, vitamins, minerals and fiber. It can be seen that even eating soy products is more beneficial to health than eating protein powder, and it is much more cost-effective economically.
More protein is not always better. After amino acids enter the body, if they are not used to make proteins, they will be removed from amino groups in the liver, converted into carbohydrates for energy, or converted into fat for storage, which will make people fat. The amino group that is taken off becomes ammonia, which is a toxin. Ammonia is then converted into urea, which is excreted by the kidneys. Therefore, excessive protein intake will cause a burden on the liver and kidneys, and will also cause the body to lose calcium, which will damage bone health.