"How Much Do You Know About Food Nutrition" Series | How important is protein to you? See here for scientific supplements!

If all kinds of nutrients are materials to ensure the normal operation of life activities, then protein is the driving force that promotes the operation of life activities. Protein is the material basis of life, and there is no life without protein.

More than 60% of the human body is water, and after removing the water, about half of the weight is protein. Therefore, if the human body wants to function healthily, each tissue and organ must undergo metabolism, and it must continuously replenish protein or amino acids to complete the renewal of various functional proteins in the body.

Protein is one of the three major nutrients that can provide energy for the human body, but its more important function is to ensure normal physiological metabolism. Therefore, the lack of any other nutrient is not as harmful as the lack of protein. Once the human body lacks protein, the muscles will become weak, the muscles will gradually become weak and atrophy, and thus lose more energy.

Without muscle, the body's metabolism will gradually decline. At the same time, we will have more diseases, such as hair loss, dry and rough skin, and even frequent colds or flu attacks. If we can take in enough protein, our skin and hair will be shiny and elastic, and we will not get sick easily. Therefore, female friends, especially pregnant women, must not eat vegetarian food and not eat meat in order to maintain a slim figure.

There are many foods rich in protein, in addition to meat, there are eggs, milk, yeast, fish and seafood, as well as plant-based soy products such as soy milk, tofu, and yuba.

So, how should we eat to supplement the protein needed by the body? First of all, from an economic point of view, soy products are relatively cheap protein resources. Compared with a pound of tofu and a pound of pork, the protein content of the two is actually similar. However, the digestion and absorption rate of protein in tofu is far lower than that of pork, because the amino acid composition of plant protein is generally not as suitable for human needs as animal protein. Therefore, the intake of protein also needs to be considered in combination.

Second, eggs are the best source of protein, followed by milk. Eggs are complete nutrients for chickens, and milk is complete nutrients for calves. Although they are not complete nutrients for humans, they are still the best nutritional supplements for the human body. Of course, in addition to protein, there are many other types of nutrients in eggs and milk. Therefore, some people worry that eating too many eggs will cause high cholesterol and high blood lipids. Scientific research shows that for a normal adult, one egg a day will not increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. If you already have problems with high blood lipids, then you should limit your egg intake. As you can see, drinking milk is very common in our current life. The development of my country's dairy industry is to solve the problem of widespread protein deficiency in the daily diet of Chinese residents. Therefore, especially for pregnant women and children, a glass of milk a day will not cause excessive protein intake.

Author: Du Kun, Luoyang Normal University

Review expert: Zhang Juanmei, School of Pharmacy, Henan University