5 Ways To Keep Your Protein Balanced Diet Working

Protein is found throughout your body. It is in your muscles, bone, skin, hair, and virtually every other body part or tissue. At least 10,000 different proteins make up the you that you are.  

Protein consists of twenty-plus basic building blocks called amino acids. Your body does not store amino acids but makes them in two different ways: either internally from your body’s own sources, or by modifying amino acids from food you consume. Nine of the amino acids: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine are known as the essential amino acids, must come from what you eat. 

Protein runs your body. It makes up enzymes that drive your biology, and particularly your hemoglobin that carries oxygen in your blood.  While protein is vital to build your muscle growth, too much of it and the wrong kinds of protein can shorten your life. If protein is not processed by the body effectively, it can encourage harmful cells to grow, which can lead to cancers and other issues. To maintain balance, and thereby getting the exact right amount of protein to both grow and maintain longevity, here are five important tips:

1. Understand how much protein you need.   
   The National Academy of Medicine recommends that adults get a minimum of 0.8 grams of protein for every kilogram of body weight per day, or just over 7 grams for every 20 pounds of body weight. For a 140-pound person, that means about 50 grams of protein each day. For a 200-pound person, that means about 70 grams of protein each day. 
2. Know where your protein comes from.
   The source of protein is important. Excessive protein from protein derived from milk, fish and poultry increase production of a hormone called insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1). IGF-1 helps in muscle growth, it is vital to the process of repairing and growing muscle, and so also enhances your longevity. Too much of it however can reduce your lifespan instead.  IGF-1 gets into the brain and has a healthy effect on neurons.  It helps grow new neurons and those have an impact on brain health.  On the other hand, higher IGF-1 has been shown to enable higher impact of cancer. Because it is a growth hormone, it can also enable tumors to grow as well as muscle tissue. Damaged cells in the body that could become cancerous are generally expelled. With excessive IGF-1, however, those cells are encouraged to grow instead. 
3. Exercise to manage your protein so it does not become excessive. 
   Exercise is an important way for IGF-1 to get into your brain and muscles where it does good and enhances health.  Sculpt Spa’s Infrared Sauna therapy of 30 minutes can produce a rapid and robust boost to growth hormone levels (increase IGF-1). This increases lean body mass improvement, cognitive function and memory. This uses the body’s supply of IGF-1 and keeps it from going to places where there are damaged cells and encouraging them to grow into tumors. Exercise and physical activity is a really good way to make sure that IGF-1 is being used effectively in the body. People who have high protein intake with a highly active physical regimen, who don’t smoke, and who are not obese, have the same mortality rate as those with low protein, and low IGF-1 intake.  If you are going to give your body this protein fuel for growth – use it. If you are taking that fuel in, but not using it, it will be left in the body to do bad things.  
4. Keep a balance in your consumption of branched-chain amino acids  
   Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) are leucine, isoleucine, and valine. They are nutritionally essential because the body cannot create them and they must be supplied by diet. BCAA metabolites were found to be a significant indicator of lean mass in a population of young and middle-aged adults. If you eat a moderate dose of essential amino acids that contain BCAAs with every meal, you are likely to have less visceral belly fat and more muscle mass. BCAAs are found in protein-rich foods such as red meat, dairy, chicken, fish and eggs. For vegans, nutritional sources of BCAAs include lentils, nuts, and soy proteins. A study from 2013 in Korea found that BCAA supplementation improved energy metabolism and lowered levels of muscle damage substances, leading them to conclude that BCAA can improve exercise performance. Although BCAAs are highly effective at growing muscle, new research from Australia suggests that when taken in excess, BCAAs can have detrimental effects later in life. Too little of the BCAA leucine is bad, too much is bad. Leucine may help in healing skin and bones. It may increase muscle growth and lean body mass. It may increase production of human growth hormone (HGH). It may help control blood sugar. Persistently low leucine levels can result in decreased appetite, poor feeding, lethargy, poor growth, weight loss, skin rashes, hair loss, and skin peeling. Very high doses of leucine may cause low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). It may also cause pellagra. Symptoms of this can include skin lesions, hair loss, and gastrointestinal problems. Excessive consumption of any protein is not ideal and excessive intake of protein powders or shakes could be dangerous.   Excessive intake may reduce lifespan, increase appetite, lead to weight gain and have a negative impact on mood. 
5. Eat a balance of different types of amino acids, and in moderation 
   Research shows that amino acid balance is important.  Vary your sources of protein to ensure you’re getting the best amino acid balance. Have a diet that features a wide range of proteins. Make sure your meals contain food rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals. 

A balanced and moderate protein diet is great for maintaining physical and mental health. You can enhance your diet and workout plans in other ways, too.  SCULPT SPA  offers a wide variety of body contouring and other wellness treatments which can help you  TONE MUSCLES, KEEP POUNDS OFF, and  STRENGTHEN YOURSELF  while enjoying a spa-like setting.  

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