Читать книгу The Alkalizing Diet - Istvan Fazekas - Страница 16

Derived from the Greek root for first, protos, (as in prototype and protoplasm) protein refers to the most essential nutrient for building structure, facilitating growth, and repairing tissues. As a matter of fact, your body is basically one giant protein matrix, being that protein is the bulk of muscle tissue, blood, connective tissues (for example, fascia, tendon, ligament), hormones, antibodies, and enzymes.

All proteins are composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. It is the inclusion of nitrogen that distinguishes proteins from fat and carbohydrates. The smallest functional unit in protein is an amino acid. There are about twenty common amino acids in total, but only nine are considered essential and are given the plausible title, essential amino acids. The body requires a dietary source for these nine essential amino acids. A chain of amino acids creates a distinctive protein structure called a peptide, or when many peptides glue together, a polypeptide.

Since meats can create either an acidic or alkaline reaction according to metabolic type, it is recommended that you know your metabolic requirements relative to protein intake. There is more value for the use of animal proteins when you are recovering from a major surgery or injury, when you need to repair and rebuild tissue. This is why chicken soup, a.k.a. “Jewish penicillin,” has been popular for recovering from colds, illness, and physical trauma. The large amount of calcium-phosphorus coupled with the amino acids in the muscle tissue is ideal for somatic recovery and reparation, especially for protein-dominant metabolic types. You can recover with vegetable protein, however: a soup made from carrots, leeks, garlic, parsley, cilantro, millet and almond butter is a nice recovery broth, one that carbohydrate-dominant metabolic types especially appreciate. There is also the old standby of miso soup to rely upon, made of fermented soybean paste.

Protein Sources:

Animal-based

• Eggs

• Milk (including cheese, yogurt, and other)

• Muscle tissue (usually just known as meat, but yes, you are eating the muscles and connective tissues of an animal when you eat steak, chicken legs, and pork loin)

• Blood (Numerous cultures eat the blood of animals, raw and cooked.)

• Organ (visceral) meats: spleen, liver, heart, brain, glands, and other

• Gristle (often the cartilage, ligament, tendon, and the like; all the collagen-rich connective tissues of the animal)

Vegetable-based

• Legumes: soybeans, split peas, lima beans, dried beans, peanuts, nut butters

• Grains: corn, steel cut oats, wheat, brown rice, millet, quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, and wild rice

It used to be thought that legumes and grains were not complete proteins in themselves—that is, they did not contain all the essential amino acids. Contemporary research indicates that whole grains do indeed comprise a complete protein. You get a very hearty, complete vegetable protein when you mix a legume with a whole grain. This combination is sometimes referred to as a light protein, distinguishing it from a heavy protein, a flesh- or visceral-based type, which requires many more stomach acids to digest. Light proteins are nutritious and much needed for carbohydrate-dominant types when they are trying to build muscle mass or to bolster their immune system (which should be ongoing maintenance).

This legume and whole grain combination is a dietary staple for many impoverished regions of the globe that cannot afford the luxury of growing animals for food. Eating a vegetable-based diet to fulfill your protein requirements is a logical choice for lowering your cholesterol levels and taking care of your circulatory system, especially if you are a slow oxidizer or a sympathetic-dominant metabolic type. The right lifestyle choices such as exercising, quitting smoking, and managing stress will also create a similar effect. Put the two together—light proteins and healthful lifestyle choices—and you have a well-known winner.

Proteins occur in nature often with fats, which is why a protein and fat food combination works well, especially for fast oxidizers and para-sympathetic-dominant metabolic types.