8

PROTEIN

163

Sometimes it’s nice to start the day with a fried-egg sandwich, topped with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and fried onions. But imagine starting every day with three of those sandwiches. Then add a five-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast, three chocolate chip pancakes, and two cups of coffee.

This was the regular breakfast of Michael Phelps—the American swimmer who has won more Olympic medals than any other athlete in history—as he was training for the 2008 games in Beijing. In all, it was a 4,000-calorie meal, replete with fat, carbohydrates, and other nutrients to fuel his hours-long training sessions. But many athletes believe that the one key element is protein.

Without protein, we wouldn’t be able to breathe, contract our muscles, or complete numerous basic functions. It carries out the biological instructions written in our genes. Given protein’s vital importance, it’s crucial that people get enough in their diet—but, unlike our intake of some of the other nutrients (such as certain vitamins and minerals)—getting enough protein typically isn’t a problem in the United States. Most of us eat plenty of protein to meet our needs—and in some cases, much more.

This seems particularly true for competitive athletes, like Michael Phelps. The amount of protein he ate from eggs alone, just during breakfast, nearly matches what most 150-pound adults need for an entire day. And that’s not counting the cheese, any milk he adds to his coffee, and other extras he squeezes in. Plus, there’s lunch and dinner.

Many athletes who don’t have the time and Olympic staff to help them plan appropriate diets choose to boost their protein intake by mixing powders, guzzling shakes, and noshing on high-protein bars. If more is better, they reason, why not take in as much as possible?

But some experts disagree over whether that extra protein is serving any useful purpose in the body. If not, athletes—sometimes on strict budgets—may be wasting their money on supplements and extra servings of protein-rich foods. Plus, different organs and systems use protein in different ways, and it’s not clear whether such mega-doses, over the long haul, disrupt vital processes in the body. Could a protein-rich diet hurt more than just your budget?

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Whether you’re an athlete, or maintain a lightly active lifestyle, adequate protein is critically important to your body for many reasons. Proteins are responsible for the majority of dynamic and adaptive processes that keep us alive and functioning. Much of the structural material in the body is provided by protein; its constituents are found in muscle, bone, hair, skin, and fingernails. They also carry out critical functions, such as facilitating chemical reactions through enzymes, regulating most body and cellular functions by hormones, maintaining fluid balance, fighting off bacteria, and blood clotting. (INFOGRAPHIC 8.1)

Question 8.1