PROTEIN: Am I getting enough?

Now, this is a topic that's always seemed to spark debate in the wellness world.

Do we need high protein? Do we need low protein? Do we need powders, protein shakes? Or should we just be getting everything from our food? And because of all this conflicting information, it can sometimes feel a bit confusing about what you should be eating.

So let's strip it back and see what the science says.

So first of all, what actually is protein? Well, protein itself is actually made up of much smaller building blocks, and these are called amino acids.

And these amino acids are used throughout the body to basically build and repair tissues.

And that's a really key point because although we often hear about protein for our muscles, protein definitely isn't just about muscle growth.

In fact, pretty much every single part of our body is made up from some type of protein, from our hair, our skin, our nails, to enzymes inside of our cells, and even our immune system.

So it's absolutely fundamental to how the whole body works and maintains itself.

So this might make you think that maybe more protein is better because the more you have, then the more building blocks you have, right? Well, it's not quite true, because first thing is that our body can't store protein.

So it doesn't matter how much you take, it will just take what it needs, and then the rest it literally just gets rid of.

And the second thing is that when it comes to longevity and aging, there's been some debate that too much protein can actually drive aging because it overactivates a pathway in our cells, which is called mTOR.

And whilst this is involved in growth, it's also linked to speeding up aging, which is not what we wanna do.

So once again, what we find is that the body really does like balance.

It likes not too much, and it likes not too little.