For a living organism proteins are like a brick house. Proteins, and to integrate and regenerate tissues, play many roles, as assimilate nutrients, transporting oxygen and iron in the blood, fight the foreign organisms and inactivate toxic substances. The DNA, which contains the genetic identity of each individual, is composed of protein
To form new tissues require four basic elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen. The first three are found in carbohydrates and fats, while the fourth is only present in the proteins.
Proteins are large molecules that are integrated from amino acids. There are about twenty different amino acids that are combined in every possible way to form these long linear chains that are proteins. Of these twenty amino acids are thousands of different proteins, each comprising an average of about one hundred or two hundred amino acids.
Break down proteins in the stomach and intestine by the action of gastric juice and various enzymes. Amino acids that are passed to the blood and distributed to all tissues, which are combined again to make specific proteins. That process is ongoing and is called the replacement protein, consume energy even when the body is at rest.
When you consume more of the proteins that are required to renew tissue and produce the protein itself, the organism can get energy from the surplus. To this end, the liver converts certain amino acids into glucose, which is the only nutrient of the nervous system and leukocytes. However, the combustion process of amino acids has the major drawback of producing waste that is highly toxic to the body, such as ammonia, urea and uric acid. Although these wastes are eliminated in the urine, cause significant neurological damage.
Of the twenty amino acids that exist, the human body is capable of synthesizing eleven itself, the other nine are called essential, it must obtain from the diet, so if a person does not eat foods that contain some or several of these suffer malnutrition and essential amino acids your body can not synthesize those proteins that require the missing amino acids. Therefore a diet with adequate amount of protein is vital during pregnancy, lactation and growth, nutritional deficiencies affect more children than adults, because you need the first two or three proteins to develop .
The quality of the protein in the human diet is defined by its ability to provide all the amino acids necessary for human beings. The biological quality of a protein will be greater the more its composition is similar to that of the protein in our body. Breast milk is the parameter to determine the biological value of protein foods.
The proteins can be vegetable or animal origin. The animal comes mainly from beef and pork, fish, poultry, eggs and dairy products. The vegetable can be found in nuts, soy, legumes and whole grains.
What plant or animal?
The human body assimilates protein not complete, but only amino acids and can not distinguish whether these amino acids come from animal protein and vegetable. There is no difference between them according to their origin.
However, animal protein molecules are larger and more complex than those of vegetable origin and contain a greater quantity and diversity of amino acids, but also are more difficult to digest.
The ideal is to combine foods rich in plant and animal proteins, such as legumes (beans, peas, beans, lentils, chickpeas, beans, peanuts and soybean) or milk (cream, yogurt, milk, cheese) and cereals (oats, wheat, corn, barley, rye).
Therefore, it is essential that people adequately combine vegetarian protein (beans and cereals or cereal with milk) to get a balanced set of amino acids. For example, rice protein containing all essential amino acids, but have a minimal amount of lysine. When combined with lentils and chickpeas, rich in lysine, and biological quality protein intake surpasses that of most animal products.
Moreover, by eating meat (white or red) and fish not only make the protein, also eat the waste of cell metabolism (ammonia, uric acid, etc.) Did not remove the animals before slaughter. This can avoid consuming the animal protein in the egg and dairy products. In addition, the meat is often accompanied by fat, especially saturated and has been shown that a diet rich in saturated fatty acids increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Proteomics: beyond genomics
After interpreting the human genetic map, the research focused on understanding the basic structure of DNA, ie the proteins that make up DNA, as they are “building blocks” that form the genetic burden of living . In this new phase of study is called proteomics.
Genomics studies the content of genetic information of living beings and how it interacts with the environment, but has no way to approach a description of how the body against certain diseases. It is therefore important to study the structure of the human genome, in this case proteins, which are the basis of the cells, which in turn are the basis of life.
“Not only is it important to know the map of the human genome ma, but how and why proteins function, this is called proteomics,” says Dr. Michael Goldberg, who for more than 30 years devoted to studying the role of protein in DNA.
The importance of proteomics is that it can come to understand how a disease at the genetic level, is that a malfunctioning gene, because a protein works in the wrong way. Thus, in a future ailments could be detected before they were submitted. So proteomics concentrates on studying the performance of each protein DNA and discover their physiological functions in all circumstances.
For example, in the case of diabetes mellitus have been identified fifty pairs of genes that could be susceptible, twelve pairs have shown that specific cause hereditary diabetes; seven statistically up an area of high predisposition and eleven involved indirectly.
At the function of each protein in the human genome opens the possibility that, over time, genomic medicine becomes personalized medicine.
Proteins fulfill multiple roles, including: Repair the daily wear of cells and tissues. In the form of enzymes, hormones, antibodies and in-munoglobulinas carry out all the chemical reactions in the body.
When there are not enough carbohydrates for energy, or when there is an excess of protein, the liver converts into glucose. Help maintain the balance of body fluids and transported some substances, such as iron and oxygen.
A food that deserves special mention is gelatin, which through a complex process of extraction and purification is extracted from animal bones to obtain a substance odorless, tasteless and nearly that contains between 84 and 90% protein and almost all amino acids, including eight of the nine essential to the human body.
In general, it is recommended that one third of the protein that we eat are of animal origin, although it is possible to achieve good nutrition with only vegetable protein. The secret is in the combinations.
Exit the doubt
According to the World Health Organization the daily requirement of protein for an adult is estimated at about 0.8 grams per kilogram of weight. To calculate quickly the protein intake of a meal finds that 100 grams of meat or fish are about 25 grams of protein. The same amount of edible insects (grasshoppers, jumiles, maguey worms, escamóles, etc.) are between 60 and 70 grams of protein.
Tags: protein information, protein interactions, Proteins