what we put into our bodies is important to keep it working we need to eat a balanced diet to ensure our body gets everything it needs to carry out its activities a diet should include fatty acids or lipids carbohydrates proteins or amino acids vitamins minerals fiber and water in this video we're going to
take a look at the role of proteins in our diet and what happens if we don't have enough or we don't have the right mixture proteins are well known as the building blocks of life every single cell in the body contains protein proteins are made up of amino acids and can be sourced from meat or fish eggs dairy products and nuts beans pulses and mushrooms which is lucky fo vegetarians the recommended intake of protein for healthy adults is 10% to 35% of calorie needs and children and pregnant women need even more protein in the diet because they need the amino acids for growth or for fetal development when these foods are digested they are broken down into their amino acid building blocks which are in turned used in the cells in our body to make new proteins that they need to carry out their work the new proteins might be used for growth and repair or for energy or to create hormones or for enzymes or for transport or for the antibodies to fight off infections so proteins with their amino acid building blocks are extremely important for our bodies to function properly amino acids are essential or non-essential the nine essential amino acids are supplied in your food whereas the 11 non-essential can be made up by your body from the essential amino acids our bodies then use these amino acid building blocks to make the proteins that we need all of our cells are constantly producing proteins to protein from the diet is very important in producing the types of new proteins for all of the uses I mentioned earlier but what happens if you're deficient in protein symptoms of protein deficiency include low energy levels muscle bone
and joint pain slow wound healing and
low immunity did you know that you can
eat enough calories a day but not taken
enough protein this means you're eating
too many carbohydrates or fats if a diet
is severely protein deficient a malnutrition condition called kwashiorkor can develop the main sign of kwashiorkor is too much fluid in the body's tissue which causes severe swelling under the skin particularly in the gut the swelling is also known as
edema proteins help retain salt and water inside the blood vessels rather than leaking out into the tissues so if you do not have sufficient protein in your body the fluid can leak out and control other symptoms can also include a change of hair color and hair loss loss of muscle mass increased risk of infection and failure to grow kwashiorkor is more common in developing countries and countries facing severe food shortages due to drought or civil war or other reasons overpopulation or insufficient investment in agriculture can be some of the reasons why developing countries suffer from protein deficiencies so to sum it up a balanced diet is important to stay healthy we can use protein for energy but we usually break it down into its amino acid building blocks and use them to build more proteins these proteins have lots of different uses a lack of protein in the diet can make you unwell with symptoms like low energy levels muscle and joint pain and more dangerous conditions like kwashiorkor remember it's always important to put the right foods into your body so it can function properly.
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