Chapter 3 - Protein – The Body’s Building Blocks

acid building blocks are then reassembled in specific sequences to build the required proteins. Proteins are what our muscles are made of as well as our connective tissue (like tendons, ligaments and bones) our hair and skin, our organs, our blood. Even our hormones contain proteins. Protein is the most vital player in every healing process in our bodies, especially after an injury.

Protein is so vital to our survival that if a person is starved of protein from other sources, the body will begin to break down its own protein to get the necessary amino acids to replenish the proteins that need replacing, inadequate as that process is. You’ve seen emaciated people like this in the pictures from the German, World War II concentration camps and some of the starving children in Africa.

There are 22 amino acids that make up proteins. Eight of them are called “ essential amino acids” and the rest are termed “nonessential.” Our bodies have the ability to make the fourteen nonessential amino acids on its own. But our bodies must obtain the eight essential amino acids from outside sources, in other words, from what we eat. If we’re short on any of the amino acids, our bodies simply cannot manufacture all the healthy proteins it needs in order to maintain normal health and repair. This is an aspect that many who decide to become vegetarian, unfortunately, don’t consider. Perhaps, they just don’t fully understand how important this is. Getting a complete complement of amino acids requires a detailed knowledge of the amino acid content of foods, especially which amino acids are missing from which foods and how and where to get them. Often, to get all the required amino acids to make the proteins we have to have, a vegetarian has to eat certain foods together, like corn and beans or brown rice and beans. Each has some essential amino acids but not all of the necessary ones. Only by combining these foods, can the vegetarian get the full complement of amino acids we have to have to make the vital proteins we need to maintain good health.

All three of the above-mentioned foods have high carbohydrate content, however, so you can see that a type II diabetic who chooses to be a vegetarian faces some profound dietary challenges.

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