Protein - Eat for Health - Easily Understand Nutrients 4

Author: Wang Quanchu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: We consume various types of protein through food every day, but this protein cannot be directly converted into human muscles, cells, and other tissues. Proteins must be broken down into smaller substances to be utilized by the human body. These small substances that can be absorbed and utilized by the human body are called amino acids. Amino acids are the basic components of proteins. For example, if we consider amino acids as "building blocks," then different "building blocks" are combined in various ways to construct "building structures" (proteins) of various shapes, each serving different purposes. These diverse proteins (there are over 100,000 types in the human body) play their respective roles within the body. The amino acids that make up human proteins total more than 20 species. Among them, eight amino acids cannot be synthesized by the human body but are essential for maintaining life activities and must be obtained from food. These amino acids are called essential amino acids, and a deficiency in any one of them can lead to abnormal physiological functions and disease. The remaining amino acids can be synthesized by the human body or converted from other amino acids and do not necessarily need to be obtained from food, so they are called non-essential amino acids. It should be noted that "essential" and "non-essential" are merely nutritional concepts. Just like essential amino acids, a deficiency in any non-essential amino acid can also lead to abnormal physiological functions and disease in the human body. Both types of amino acids are necessary for the human body and are equally indispensable. They must be maintained in a certain ratio to be better utilized by the body.