It’s easy to think that since we represent chicken farmers , we’re going to push people to consume more protein. Well, yes and no. Let me explain:

We don’t want people eating more protein than they need.  True, we might like that protein choice to be chicken instead of something else, but the truth is, we all need variety in our diets. So, as much as we’d like it, we don’t expect you to eat chicken 24/7... well, maybe half of that time. Kidding...

I was just reading the April 2011 copy of the Canadian version of Nutrition Action Health Letter and the cover story is about how important both exercise and protein are, especially for an older population. If you have a keen interest in your health, this is a great little publication to get and read. It is well balanced and is based on science, not the latest trends.

This article talks about how when we age, starting in our late 30’s; we can lose about a 1/4 of a pound of muscle every year. The only way to stop or slow down this process is by doing weight or resistance training.

We’ve talked about the importance of exercise before in CFC’s nutrition fact sheets and elsewhere on our site and blogs.  We can’t stress enough how much this will help you. It will improve muscle strength, bone density, speed, balance, energy and your mental alertness, to name a few!

If you are already including weight or resistance training as part of your regular routine, then you might already know what I am talking about.  If, though, you are thinking about starting to get fit, the other important factor is making sure you get enough protein. Protein is extremely important; our bodies need it to build and repair tissue.

How much we need depends on our age and level of activity. The recommended daily allowance for protein is .36 grams per pound of body weight. This means a 126 lb person needs just over 45 grams of protein per day. Many professionals involved in health, diet or fitness believe that this number is too low – especially as we age and if we routinely weight train or if we are very active.

Also, as we age, our bodies don’t metabolize protein as well. The right amount of protein for the aging and those who are very active or weight train is likely .50 grams per pound of body weight. So that same 126 lb personactually needs 63 grams of protein per day.

It seems that our bodies can only use a certain amount of protein at a time, about 30 grams, which is about what’s in a 100 gram serving of lean, white chicken meat. So if you are eating the bulk of your protein needs at dinner, say in a ½ chicken dinner, your body is only able to use about 30 grams of that protein. The rest is either stored as fat or we burn it off.

So, it is very important to split up your protein intake throughout the day and consume it at breakfast, lunch, dinner and in snacks. This is even more important if you are elderly, because you might not even be absorbing 30 grams of protein from your meal.

If you weight train, protein is a very important element for building and repairing muscle.  Preferably within an hour of working out, you need to eat some kind of protein. This can be as easy as making sure you have a chicken breast when you get home, or a smoothie.

I go to the gym very regularly and many of the guys talk about protein shakes and protein bars. While a smoothie with added protein is an important addition to your diet, it’s important to not have something with too much fat or sugar. Make your own protein smoothie at home with lots of fresh or frozen unsweetened fruit, soy or low fat milk, soy or whey protein (unsweetened and non-flavoured). Just put all the ingredients in a blender and voila, you have a smoothie. 

For our bodies to synthesize protein, we need all 20 amino acids. Our bodies can make 11 of the 20 amino acids necessary for protein synthesis, but we can’t make the other 9, which means that we must get them from other sources of protein. This is why eating protein is so important. Animal proteins are the best sources as they contain all 9 that we can’t produce.  

Further study of the role of amino acids has shown that, leucine, one of the 9 essential amino acids plays the biggest role in our body’s ability to build protein.  The highest complete source, with all 9 amino acids and the highest content of leucine is, hands down , a cooked, skinless chicken breast – at only 150 calories and 31 g of protein plus 2.4 g of leucine!

Beef, pork, fish and shellfish, tofu and quinoa (a seed) also have all 9 essential amino acids. The amount of protein and leucine are lower though.  I’m not picking on tofu – in fact, I do eat it occasionally. Just remember, you have to eat about twice as much tofu to get the same amount of protein and leucine as what’s in a chicken breast. As for quinoa you would have to eat 5 times the amount of quinoa as chicken breast.

There’s some food for thought – or protein for thought!

You can subscribe to Nutrition Action Health Letter at www.cspinet.org/canada.