Protein For Growth*
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Confused about protein and amino acid requirements? No wonder. At one extreme we have the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) of 0.75 grams of protein per kilogram bodyweight for sedentary folk. No additional protein is specified for athletes, no matter how intense their trainings. Uninformed physicians, nutritionists, and dietitians (often funded by the meat or dairy industries), parrot the RDA as right for everyone. And (with paychecks in mind) they usually specify that your protein should come from animal sources like beef, eggs, or cheese - all high-fat, high-cholesterol foods that have been losing their market share like crazy.

At the other extreme, we have the wild claims of some supplement suppliers. Their tubs of "protein" powder are now so big they make great garbage bins once you empty them. Take a few handfuls of these "wonder" amino pills or this "ultimate" protein shake, say the ads, and Bingo! You'll grow bigger than God.

Like Tweedledum and Tweedledee the tame commercial scientists and the supplement hustlers snipe at each other with very little science and even less common sense. To clear up this mess, I will spell out the science of protein nutrition in as nontechnical a way as possible. I will explain what types of protein you need and how much, what amino acids you need and when, in order to achieve the premium athletic body.

This stuff is leading edge. It is therefore a ready target for criticism by researchers whose thinking is biased by obsolete theories, or the source of their next research grant. If you quote this chapter and someone tells you different, then read the research references given. You will see that I have kept the scientific faith. As you pursue your quest for excellence, remember the words of Maeterlinck, "Each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand mediocre minds appointed to guard the past."

Building Blocks for Bodies

Suck all the water out of a lean athletic body and what is left? Mostly protein. Over 50% of the dry weight of your body is protein. Even the hemoglobin that carries the oxygen in your blood is protein. The structure of your genes and your brain cells is totally protein. All bodily functions, from the blink of an eye to the creation of new muscle, are controlled by thousands of different enzymes — and all enzymes are proteins. So you better get your protein nutrition right if you have aspirations to become a champion.

And you have to get it right all the time. You can make big mistakes with fats and carbs and correct them easily. But your mistakes with protein build right into your structure, and hamper performance for months. Whenever I lecture on this topic, at least one student will object that I am overstating the case. "Aw, come on Doc, you have your genes at birth. They may be made of protein but they can't be affected by nutrition." Dead wrong. Many athletes don't appreciate the dynamics of body structure. Body proteins are not there forever. They die.

Experiments using radioisotope techniques show that over 98% of the molecules of the human body are completely replaced each year. Bits and pieces of all your structures are constantly being replaced with new proteins. In six months your biceps, your blood, your enzymes, even the structures of your genes are all completely replaced. The body you have today is built almost entirely from what you have eaten over the last six months.

If the proteins you eat are poor quality, then all the structures of your body, muscles, bones, blood, teeth, and pinkies will be poor quality. Oh, the human system is super ingenious at making do with inadequate building materials, patching, stitching, and pinch-hitting, but it can't build premium tissue from garbage. A Twinkles and coffee diet produces a Twinkles and coffee body. For optimum performance you have to eat optimum protein to build optimum structure -- period.

That Pesky RDA

In attempting to assess the RDA for protein, successive committees of the US National Academy of Sciences, Food and Nutrition Board have repeated a basic error for the last 50 years. They have studied only sedentary individuals. They have relied on data from protein put in and protein excreted from the body in feces and urine of subjects confined to metabolic wards. Other losses in skin, sweat, and hemolysis (blood loss) are usually estimated. No allowances are made for exercise or muscle growth.

These studies have little relevance for athletes. Losses of protein in sweat, for example, increase substantially when you exercise. So do losses by hemolysis (death of red blood cells). Use of protein for energy also increases dramatically, providing 5-10% of the total energy supply. If you push exercise so that muscle glycogen becomes depleted, then the body literally eats its own muscle tissue for fuel.

How then can the RDA committee and numerous media pronouncements on nutrition still come to the conclusion that exercise does not increase protein requirements? Simple, they have not kept up with new research over the last decade that demonstrates the increased protein needs of athletes. The 1989 handbook of the RDAs (the latest issue), quotes as its reference sources studies done from 1964 to 1977. If you want to be a champion, get this handbook, study it carefully to confirm what I say, then see how it makes like a discus, over a large, deep body of water.

*from Micheal Colgan's "Optimum Sports Nutrition", ISBN 0-9624840-5-9, Advanced Research Press, New York, 1993