Sports Chemistry: proteins and the body
By Foster Lasley

The protein is one of the largest and most complex category of structures in biology. Proteins are massive structures composed of amino acid chains that bend and fold and twist around each other in amazing ways. When you eat things with proteins in them, your stomach and intestines use enzymes to break the proteins down into all the amino acids, which your body then takes and reassembles into new proteins for whatever the body needs. Proteins are the main component in skin, hair, organs of the body, ligaments, tendons and muscles.

Muscles are particularly interesting. They are made up of many long fibers which contain smaller fibers that contain primarily the two proteins myosin and actin (there are others, but these two are the main ones). You cannot change how many fibers you have, or how many micro-fibers are in each fiber, but you can change how much myocin and actin are contained in each micro-fiber. When you want to move a part of the body, your brain sends a message in the form of an electrical impulse through a nerve (using electrolytes) and activates the muscle moving process in which an energy packed molecule called ATP stimulates the actin to pull on the myosin. This process happens all over the muscle and the muscle shortens and grows thicker, which causes the associated body part to move with the shortening muscle.

If you are trying to lift something heavy (such as lifting weights), or if you repeat a motion multiple times (such as running), or if you perform extremely strong sudden movements (such as jumping), little rips and tares form in the micro-fibers of the muscle being used. The body compensates for this by repairing the old fibers and enhancing them with more actin and myosin so the same rip won't happen from the same action. The result is that you get stronger as you work out. However, in order for the body to make these repairs, it needs amino acids to build the actin and myosin, and the body get the amino acids from the proteins you eat.

Proteins can be found in a variety of foods. Since all foods are different, and contain different proteins, the various foods contain different amounts of the particular amino acids you need for the various tasks like muscle building. Meats are particularly good because these are animal muscles. Red or dark meat is supposed to be especially good because it comes from more active muscles. For the vegetarians, beans, soy and legumes (contain good amounts of protein also. Eggs, cheese and various other vegetables also contain good amounts of protein. If you eat a good amount of protein after a workout, muscle recovery will be much more efficient and better, which then makes you stronger.

Here's some other random protein facts. Turkey is high in proteins containing the amino acid tryptophan, which through a long process, makes you calm and often sleepy (not good on test days). Eggs however contain proteins with specific amino acids that supposedly enhance brain functioning. Cottage cheese supposedly contains all of the amino acids your body needs to perform its tasks.

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