PROTEINS

WHAT IS PROTEIN?

Proteins are a complex chain of smaller sub units called amino acids. In all there are 21 amino acids that exist, together this can give rise to over 2 million different proteins. In our bodies proteins are utilized as enzymes, structural support, an energy resource, cellular component, your hair and in your muscle tissue. Your body synthesizes proteins in a process called ‘protein synthesis’ and once you understand this process your visualization of how important proteins are will be increased. Your body breaks down protein into its constituent amino acids, almost like breaking a Lego structure down into each individual block. From here they are rebuilt in to desirable proteins used for growth and repair on the cellular level. Proteins can also be classed as primary, secondary, tertiary and Quaternary. The primary structure is the basic chain of amino acids, the secondary structure Is how the chain of amino acids folds and bind to itself and interacts giving it shape, it can either be a helix or a sheet shape, tertiary is the final shape of the entire chain which can be infinitely complex usually bound together by sulfur bonds, and Quaternary structure is when 2 or more chains bind together e.g. hemoglobin where 4 amino acid chains all interact and bond to help carry oxygen around the blood.

WHAT ARE AMINO ACIDS?

Amino acids are the building blocks of life; one amino acid is equal to 3 sub units of DNA called ‘bases’. A Protein typically consists of a chain of 21 amino acids and depending on the order of these amino acids they can interact with the other giving the chain a straight shape or a curled up shape (helix). This can give a protein a pretty much unlimited choice of structures and so functions in the human body.

WHAT DOES PROTEIN DO?

Our bodies need protein for a variety of reasons. Enzymes are molecules that enable the breakdown of fats, carbohydrates and other proteins in your body to help you digest food, in every metabolic process in the human body you will find enzymes that are made of proteins. Without proteins any process in your body will not happen, even breathing. The other major reason is in aiding in muscle contraction and repair, when a muscle fibers contract, proteins connected to the fibre’s surface bind to one another and pivot which shortens the muscle fiber and this causes contraction, when the muscles relax these proteins are separated and protein synthesis in the muscle increases. There are two ways your muscle can grow, known as myofibril hypertrophy (growing of muscle) or sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Both of which increase the size of visible muscle but the strength of the muscle can vary. Without protein our muscles would not grow and all of our metabolic processes that enable us to live would stop.

WHAT IS PROTEIN SYNTHESIS?

Protein synthesis is the process of your body creating new proteins from amino acids absorbed into the blood stream from the digestion of proteins. In a way it’s like you accepting a Lego house off a friend, taking it home, breaking the Lego house down because you would prefer it built another way and rebuilding it up to how you need it, this is the exact same principle with proteins. The stage occurs on the cellular level inside cells and can be split in to two processes known as transcription and translation.

Transcription occurs first. Inside every single cell of your body is a nucleus, the main control tower that monitors and runs everything inside the cell. Crammed inside this nucleus are millions and millions of strands of DNA, each strand containing millions of segments that each code for a different protein. Transcription happens when your cells recognize a chemical signal from muscles being torn down or an increased need for enzymes when digestion is happening. The nucleus then searches the DNA for the correct segment and sends out a complimentary copy into the cell juice (cytoplasm) in the form of a single strand of messenger RNA.  

Translation is when this strand attaches to a cellular component in the cytoplasm and moves along constantly adding the correct sequence of amino acids in order to build up a chain of them, creating a specific protein. When finished these proteins are released into the bloodstream to their destination where they rebuild muscle or aid in metabolic processes. This is why you may hear the term ‘essential amino acids’, the body cannot synthesize these amino acids and so must be ingested to enable the cells to make specific proteins.

WHERE CAN I FIND PROTEIN?

Protein can be found in chicken, beef, turkey, eggs, fish, cheese, yogurts, milk, nuts, seeds and protein shakes and supplements

WHAT IS CASEIN?

The type of protein you eat can have different effects inside your body. For example casein is an extremely valuable protein especially before you go to sleep, it is a hard protein to break down and so enables your body to slowly release the protein into your blood over a longer period of time,e specially valuable before sleep enabling your body to boost growth and repair which your body undergoes during sleep. There are lots of supplements you can take specifically built around Casein and its role in the body.