The cold hard truth is that most people do not get sufficient protein in their diets. The scary fact is that protein is essential for nearly every cell in your body. It helps your body build and repair tissue, while at the same time used to make enzymes, hormones and other body chemicals. Protein is an important building block for your bones, muscles, skin, blood and cartilage. So maybe it is time to take a closer look at your diet, are you getting enough protein?
Protein is part of the macronutrient family, just like carbohydrates and fats, but your body has no way of storing protein like it does with the other two. Therefore, it has no safety stock to pull from when your body is running low on protein.
There are no immediate side effects from having a low protein diet and you will most likely function normally on a day-to-day basis. But if you are not consuming enough protein for an extended period of time, it can result in a range of negative health effects.
Poor Sleep:
One of the reasons you may be getting poor quality of sleep is because of your protein intake. Lack of efficient sleep can be related to unstable blood sugar levels, rise in cortisol and a decrease serotonin production. If you don’t already know, serotonin is one of the most important brain chemicals for regulating the human body sleep/wake cycle. Eating foods with a high protein value, especially before bed, can help with serotonin production while having a minimal effect on blood sugar levels.
Weakened Immune System:
Your immune cells are made from protein. Without a healthy immune system, it is tough for your body to protect you against harmful microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses. Lymphocytes, Cytokines and Phagocytes are all important immune cells that are created by protein. Therefore, without sufficient protein your body won’t be able to produce these immune cells, leaving your body vulnerable.
Muscle wasting:
Protein is the building block for our muscles, it is needed to help repair and strengthen our muscles, especially after working out. Therefore, if have a low protein diet, it can result in muscle atrophy or also known as muscle wasting. Symptoms of this condition are one of your arms/legs smaller than the other, experiencing marked weakness in one limb or you’ve been physically inactive for a very long time.
Hair Loss:
Your hair is primarily made up of protein. If you are experiencing hair thinning and hair falling out, then that can be one of the first signs of inadequate protein in your diet. Without sufficient protein, your body will take precautions to help save protein in the body, by shifting your hairs from the growing phase into the resting phase.
To sum it up, there are a range of negative health effect from under consuming protein. As I have listed above, signs include poor sleep, muscle wasting, weakened immune system and hair loss. Some other negative effects can be muscle/joint pain, food cravings and slow recovery from injuries. You can combat these negative effects and increase your protein intake with a number of steps, for example replacing processed foods with whole foods like fish, chicken, eggs, fruits and vegetables. Lucky for us protein can be obtained in many forms, raw or cooked, and because of this you can add it to your diet in a variety of ways.
Leave a comment below, have you ever experienced any of these side effects from your diet? If so, what did you do to help combat those effects?