The majority of your body is make of water. The second most abundant thing in the human body is protein. All your muscles are made of protein, and you need protein for healthy body function and to heal your body. Protein consists of amino acids, of which there are 20. Of the 20, 8 of them need to be eaten to be present for your body to use. The food you need to eat to get them are from animals. Meat, eggs, milk. How much do you need, and what do you need to eat to get the proper amount?

There is a wide range of recommendations on how much protein you should get in your daily diet.  It ranges from .38 grams per pound of body weight up to 4 grams per pound of body weight.  The more you exercise that the more muscular you are, the more protein that you will need.  Your body does not store protein like it does fat and carbs, so you need it every day.  Recent studies by the U.S. and Canadian government, show that a female 19-70 years old needs to eat a minimum of 46grams of protein per day, and a male 19-70 needs 56grams per day minimum.  To avoid protein deficiency syndrome.

Dr. Latham, director of the program in international nutrition at Cornell University says that protein deficiency is a serious cause of death in developing countries. It affects 500,000,000 people per year and kills 10,000,000 per year. He also says that Protein deficiency also occurs in developed countries, such as the U.S. It occurs in people who are poor, doing crash diets, in people who are recovering from surgery, older people who don't eat enough protein, and other people who have a poor diet.  He also says that it is more common than you think, and it appears to cause low academic performance in low income students.

If you are a fairly active adult, you should eat between .75 grams and 1 gram per pound of body weight.  If you are very active or you do heavy weight workouts, you likely need more. Not enough protein will also lower your b6 and b12 levels, this can cause problems with proper brain function.

You need to eat animal protein, lean beef, lean pork, chicken, fish, eggs or milk.  Protein from plant products are good for you, but you need the animal protein to get all the essential amino acids.

What everyone should do for 2 weeks is track what they eat daily.  Track for Fats, carbs, and protein intake daily.  Look at the labels of everything you eat and write it down for each meal.  Add up what you get daily. After 2 weeks you will have a good idea of what you are eating and how you should change what you eat to be healthier.  The best balance is 20% fats, 40% carbs, and 40% protein.   Put good fuel into your body to be healthy.

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