Health and fitness are very closely related to diet, and this is a fact that you should know by now. If you have read any of our previous work, you already know that most nutritional discussions will center on the three macronutrients: Protein, fat, and carbohydrate. While all of these macronutrients fulfill vital functions, protein is the one that is the hardest to obtain.
If we were living in a natural way (in other words, eating only what we could find in the wild), it would be much easier to find protein. That’s because we would be doing a lot of hunting, and that would provide us with large amounts of meat. In the modern world, however, meat is kind of expensive. If you want good meat, that is even truer. Most convenience foods are very high in fat and carbs, so it will require a little more effort from you if you want to get enough protein in your diet. Here are five reasons that you should make that effort.
Reduced Appetite
You’ve probably heard that old joke about Chinese food: It tastes great, but you’ll be hungry again in an hour. There is no need for us to investigate this old belief because we are only using it for comparison. When you eat a big meal that doesn’t contain sufficient energy and nutrients, you tend to feel like eating more. Eating when you are already full is one of the leading causes of obesity, and it’s caused by low-nutrient food.
Studies have shown that a high-protein diet leads to a greater feeling of fullness. This feeling is called “satiety” in the scientific literature (for those of you who might want to dig a little deeper). Scientists disagree on the exact mechanism, but there is no doubt that it’s true. We believe that this increased feeling of satiety is caused by the fact that protein is harder for the body to use.
All things are made up of tiny particles called molecules, and these molecules are held together by bonds of varying strength. Stronger bonds require more energy to break. Protein molecules are bonded to each other quite strongly, and so the body requires more time and energy to break them.
Greater Muscle Mass
If you know anything about strength training, you probably know that the body turns protein into muscle. Of course, protein can also turn into fat when it isn’t used, so don’t think you can just chug protein shakes all day and lose weight. If you don’t combine your high-protein diet with sufficient exercise, it will be no different than eating a concentrated blob of fat.
Chances are, your body is already used to processing a certain amount of protein. In order to increase your muscle mass, it is essential that you increase your protein intake. Don’t worry too much about overdose, as protein overdose is not common. However, you should be aware that your body needs a little bit of fat to process protein correctly. Without this, protein overdose can and will occur.
According to this study, a high-protein diet produces maximum muscle growth when you increase protein above your normal intake. This is because the body, like any machine, is meant to respond to certain stimuli. Thus, an increase in protein causes a certain reaction, and that reaction is: to build as much muscle as possible.
Superior Bone Health
Some people will try to tell you that a high-protein diet will result in decreased bone mass. We aren’t sure where this myth originated, but we are pretty sure that it’s false. There are quite a few studies that show a high-protein diet to be beneficial to the bones.
Take this study, for instance. They found that protein helped the bones to maintain density and strength, and they even came to the conclusion that protein is essential for bone health. If that’s not good enough, we found another study that came to similar conclusions.
Metabolic Increase
When people talk about “burning” fat or carbs, they may not realize how literal the term has always been. Your body acts much like a combustion engine in the fact that it consumes fuel in order to extract its energy. While a car does this with burning gasoline, the body breaks down food with an acid (your stomach acid, of course). Like any sort of burning, digestion produces heat. By measuring this heat, we can determine how quickly the body is burning its fuel.
There is significant evidence to show that a high-protein diet leads the body to burn its energy faster. This is a great thing for those who want weight loss, which is why stimulant-based diet pills have proven to be effective. However, stimulants are not healthy for the body over the long haul. Protein gives you a much better way to increase your metabolism.
Conclusion
We hope that we have given you a good idea of why protein is so essential for a healthy diet. While many foods contain protein, the modern diet simply doesn’t contain enough. Carbs are generally cheaper to produce, and that’s why so many restaurants and food producers will use them as “filler.” By cutting out this filler, you can live more like a wild human except that you won’t have to live in the woods, freeze to death in the winter, or hunt down animals with a spear. If you are grateful for our expert advice, we hope that you will follow us on Facebook.