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Written by Dan Young If you are someone who works out in a health club regularly, you’ve inevitably heard people talk about protein supplements. Do you find it interesting that those who supplement their diets with protein usually look healthy and trim? No coincidence! There’s a reason for this. Read on! All of the current research supports protein supplementation as being very beneficial for your body for many reasons. The complex view is that your body is built with 60 plus trillion cells and approximately 300 billion of those are replaced each and every day. These cells are created using amino acids from protein. In fact, 30% of all your cells make up your immune system and those cells are virtually all amino acids from protein! In addition, protein makes enzymes, hormones and body chemicals; they’re important building blocks of bones, cartilage, muscle, skin, and blood. Protein is needed for life! The simple view is that exercise breaks down cells in your body and that your body then needs protein to rebuild those cells – also, very true! But, the cleaner the protein source, the better the cells that it builds. BIOAVAILABILITY One topic that doesn’t come up as often as it should when discussing protein is bioavailability (BV). BV measures the intake of nutrients on a scale of 0–100%. Basically, this is a measure of the absorption and utilization of protein. Not all proteins are created equal; in fact, no two are the same and as such, yield a different BV. Just because the label says that there are 20 grams of protein in a serving doesn’t mean that your body can absorb and use all 20 grams. For example, if a 20 gram serving of protein is 80% bioavailable, the average body would only absorb 16 grams. Beef, chicken, fish, egg, whey and plant proteins all have different BV ratings. For the sake of discussion though, we’ll break down the differences between whey and plant proteins. Continued on next page. PROTEIN POWER Nutrition Quarterly · 2020 – Volume 2 5 What We’re Reading