By Dr. Luke Tolley, PhD in Chemistry (North Carolina) and former professor, Southern Illinois University

Protein comes from the Greek word protos, meaning first. This shows how important it is to life. We think of protein as making up our muscles but, though it does do that, it is so much more important. It holds our bodies together (collagen), makes our hair and nails (keratin), carries oxygen (hemoglobin), fights disease (antibodies) and facilitates essential chemical reactions (enzymes). Nobody knows for sure, but it is estimated that humans have more than 500,000 different types of protein. It is critical in every stage of life, so you can see that it’s much more essential than just for ‘bulking up’. So how much do we need of this essential nutrient? Before I can answer that question, we need to review a few things about proteins.

Protein In The Human Body

Proteins are made of long chains of amino acids. Though there are a bunch of different kinds of amino acids, there are nine that humans can’t survive without. The others are ones that we can make ourselves, at least to a certain extent. These nine are called the essential amino acids and a protein that contains all nine is called a complete protein. It’s difficult to measure the body’s need for protein directly, so scientists have taken advantage of the fact that proteins are the body’s main source of nitrogen. In order to determine the minimum protein that people need, what they did was feed volunteers a protein-free diet for a short period of time and then measure the amount of nitrogen that they excreted. This would give them an idea of the amount of protein that couldn’t be ‘recycled’ in the body and would need to be replaced to simply maintain the status quo. This was called obligatory nitrogen loss. According to a study by the World Health Organization (1985), obligatory nitrogen losses averaged 0.053 grams per kilogram of body weight. Since nitrogen is ~16% of a protein’s weight, this means that we need a minimum of 0.33 grams per kilo of weight of protein to keep from wasting away. For a person weighing 70 kg (~154 lb) this translates into at least 23 grams of protein each day.

Conclusion

While there is no solid consensus as far as how much protein we should eat each day, many nutritionists believe that we should consume significantly more high-quality protein than the minimum recommended amount, and I agree. The Blue Unicorn™ bar contains 15 grams of high-quality protein that can be a great way to increase the amount of protein in your diet.

WHO (World Health Organization). 1985. Energy and Protein Requirements. Report of a Joint FAO/WHO/UNU Expert Consultation. Technical Report Series 724. World Health Organization, Geneva.

By Dr. Luke Tolley, PhD in Chemistry (North Carolina) and former professor, Southern Illinois University

Protein comes from the Greek word protos, meaning first. This shows how important it is to life. We think of protein as making up our muscles but, though it does do that, it is so much more important. It holds our bodies together (collagen), makes our hair and nails (keratin), carries oxygen (hemoglobin), fights disease (antibodies) and facilitates essential chemical reactions (enzymes). Nobody knows for sure, but it is estimated that humans have more than 500,000 different types of protein. It is critical in every stage of life, so you can see that it’s much more essential than just for ‘bulking up’. So how much do we need of this essential nutrient? Before I can answer that question, we need to review a few things about proteins.

Proteins In The Human Body

Proteins are made of long chains of amino acids. Though there are a bunch of different kinds of amino acids, there are nine that humans can’t survive without. The others are ones that we can make ourselves, at least to a certain extent. These nine are called the essential amino acids and a protein that contains all nine is called a complete protein. It’s difficult to measure the body’s need for protein directly, so scientists have taken advantage of the fact that proteins are the body’s main source of nitrogen. In order to determine the minimum protein that people need, what they did was feed volunteers a protein-free diet for a short period of time and then measure the amount of nitrogen that they excreted. This would give them an idea of the amount of protein that couldn’t be ‘recycled’ in the body and would need to be replaced to simply maintain the status quo. This was called obligatory nitrogen loss. According to a study by the World Health Organization (1985), obligatory nitrogen losses averaged 0.053 grams per kilogram of body weight. Since nitrogen is ~16% of a protein’s weight, this means that we need a minimum of 0.33 grams per kilo of weight of protein to keep from wasting away. For a person weighing 70 kg (~154 lb) this translates into at least 23 grams of protein each day.