Protein

Protein is an essential nutrient that is required by the body to repair and build muscle tissue as well as many other functions.See More When ingested, protein is broken down during digestion into individual amino acids and small protein fragments and these are what go on to perform all of the functions in the body that proteins are required for.As one of the three macronutrients, the others being carbohydrates and lipids (fats), protein is found widely in our diets, predominantly from meat, fish, eggs and dairy products, and to a lesser extent nuts, seeds and pulses. Regardless of its source, protein is a long chain of amino acids bound together by peptide bonds which are broken during digestion. By breaking whole proteins into their smaller fragments, the body can utilise the free amino acids and smaller peptide chains to perform numerous tasks from repairing and building muscle to forming hormones and DNA. Protein is quite simply, essential to life.

The amino acid structure of proteins differs greatly in terms of the ratios of the amino acids depending on the source of the protein. But as long as the protein source has a complete amino acid profile, it means that when ingested, it can perform all of the tasks required in the body. However, some protein sources are considered better than others.See Less