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CHAPTER 15
THE POWER OF PROTEIN—
Going Way Beyond Building Muscles
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We all need protein from our diet every day for optimal health and particularly for better endurance. This is true at all ages, for males and females, regardless of your sport. Larger body frames and those performing more extreme sports may need more protein. Growing children also need higher amounts of protein for development. But once optimal body size is attained and growth stabilizes, there is still a significant and continuous need for protein.
We tend to think of protein needs as being higher in weight lifters and bodybuilders, but endurance athletes have similar requirements, perhaps even greater.
In addition to helping build muscles, protein is necessary for many other activities:
Protein is necessary to make enzymes, important for balancing fats, digestion, and hundreds of other metabolic functions.
Protein is essential for maintaining neurotransmitters—the chemical messengers used for communication by the brain and nervous system, and especially the gut.
Protein is a key element for building new cells in bones, organs, glands, and elsewhere all throughout the body—and for the rest of your life.
Oxygen, fats, vitamins, hormones, and other compounds are regulated and transported throughout the body with the help of protein.
Protein is necessary to make natural antibodies for the immune system.
Protein contains key amino acids for health. For example, cysteine is necessary for the body to make its most powerful antioxidant, glutathione; glutamine is used as energy to fuel the intestine’s villi for nutrient absorption.
Protein is important for the production of glucagon in relation to controlling insulin, blood sugar, and other key areas of metabolism.