Chapter 3 - Protein – The Body’s Building Blocks

particularly important to diabetics, since poor healing is a common symptom in both types of diabetes.

What might an “adequate” amount of protein be? Professional bodybuilders can give us some useful insight here. The process of competitive body building involves repeatedly over-working the muscles to the point that they start to break down and sustain microscopic injury. Then the bodybuilder allows time for “recovery” (the healing process). During that time, he or she eats proteins to maximize that repair process and minimize healing time. Then the bodybuilder goes through that whole process again and again on a regular basis.

Examining the protein intake of professional bodybuilders during this kind of training can, therefore, give us a good indicator of what may be an optimum regular protein intake for optimum healing after we sustain an injury or undergo surgery.

In one very informative book called, “Get The Pump,” written by a consortium of eight of America’s most winning body building champions, the authors recommend eating at least 1.5 grams of protein in the daily diet for every pound of body weight. So, if a person weighs 150 pounds, for instance, according to their recommendation, he or she would need to consume 225 grams of protein daily. For a 200 pound person, 300 grams would be optimum. And, just in case you’ve forgotten your conversion tables, there are 28 grams in an ounce. Three hundred grams would therefore be between 10 and 11 ounces of protein for the day.

This isn’t to say that if you eat these (adequate) amounts of proteins, you’ll automatically put on massive muscle volume, not by a long shot! Believe me, most body builders only wish that it were that simple! It only means that you’ll be sure to provide yourself with enough protein and you can have the confidence that your body can make the appropriate repairs whenever you’re injured or have had a recent surgery.

Another thing you should be aware of is that simply consuming adequate amounts of protein is no guarantee that your body will

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