The Anti-Aging Effects of Protein By Leokadia Angela Protein is the chief building material of your body. Eighteen per cent of your total body weight is pure protein. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, then approximately 27 pounds of you are pure protein that needs constant repairing, replacing and rebuilding-with more protein, of course. If you were to analyze a single cell taken from any part of your body-a hair in your head, the tissue in your heart, the lining of your intestines, the muscles in your legs- you would find this tiny cell composed chiefly of protein. And, like the parts of any constantly operated, non-resting machine, your body cells are continually wearing out, needing repairs or replacements. So what are you going to do? Patch up your protein body cells with carbohydrates? Just try patching a rubber tire on your car with flour-and-water paste, and see how far you'll get! Protein should be the featured food in your diet at all times.
The perpetual-motion human machine must have abundant protein every day in order to repair, replace and renew worn-out cells in every part of your body. When you don't supply enough high-protein foods in your daily diet to make certain that these vitally needed cell repairs and replacements can go on without interruption, you're inviting old age to take over. In the laboratories, nutritional scientists and biochemists have proved that a diet poor in proteins hastens aging in the human body. I could cite you case after case of elderly persons, weakened by tea-and-toast diets to the point of imminent death, who have been restored to life and usefulness by gradually converting their meals to high-protein foods. Their weakened bodies gained new vigor, and their minds become keen and alert once more.
Nobody who has witnessed these recoveries, as I have, could ever deny that protein foods are truly nutritional wonders. A grievous error has been committed for many years by some medical men who ban high-protein foods such as red meats and cheese as "too heavy" for older digestions. Through this ignorance of the vital part protein plays in preserving youthfulness and maintaining life, such men have "prescribed" invalidism and premature death for many an older person who otherwise could have enjoyed many more years of an active, useful life. Protein foods are the main factor in prolonging youth for the past-forty group, and in maintaining physical vigor and mental alertness in the aged. Several things start happening to your body cells as the calendar years begin slipping past the forty mark. Biologists tell us that "aging is a matter of changes in your tissue cells." First, the tissue cells in older bodies are less elastic, less resilient, less able to recover quickly from fatigue and injury than the cells in younger bodies. Second, the active cells in the older body (especially those in your glands and muscles) gradually grow fewer. Bearing in... | 