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How Soy Protein Benefits Athletes

By Edna Booker


Those at the top end of sports and fitness are always looking for the latest dietary research and advice to utilize to improve their performance. They know that what we eat affects the body in all kinds of ways. Diet can be used for good general health but also to give optimum health and additional performance. Here we are looking at how soy protein benefits the body.

Meat has traditionally been thought of as the main way to get complete proteins into the body and athletes tend to eat a lot of it. However, in recent years there has been a trend away from this as meat also contains harmful elements, especially when it is produced on a large scale. Many are now looking to plants as an alternative and the legume family is now consumed in large quantities instead.

Soy contains all of these nine missing amino acids and is therefore called complete. There are only a few plants which are complete and so consumption has grown massively in recent years as vegetarians became aware of this. It is also high in other essential nutrients; fatty acids, micronutrients, fiber, calcium and B vitamins. At the same time it is low in fat and cholesterol and so is a great way to get lots of benefits without much harm.

Part of the switch to plant based protein has come about from looking at the diet of people in the far east. Japan has more people who live to be over one hundred years old than any other country. Not only do they live longer they are healthier and more active. Researchers have been looking at their dietary habits to understand the affect of the foods eaten there on health and have found some very interesting things.

Modern diets are often too high in fat and sugar and do not contain sufficient nutrients. This has been linked to all sorts of problems from cancer to heart disease and even mood disorders. The brain requires a high level of nutrient to function properly and without them cannot produce sufficient neuro chemicals. Serotonin production often suffers and this leads to lower mood. A healthy diet is necessary not just for health, but also for happiness.

Soy powders are used by more and more body builders and sports people to aid in recovery after a workout. It was maligned for many years as research suggested that maybe soy lowered testosterone levels but this has now been shown to be negligible. The benefits outweigh the negatives. Soy is really the only plant with complete proteins and so can be used to build muscle mass.

This is because it contains relatively high levels of the amino acids arginine and glutamine. The first is a stimulant of anabolic hormones which cause muscle growth. Glutamine is great for bodies under stress and aids recovery of the muscle cells.

Another method of ingesting it is to take a supplement. Powders are now widely available and are used by body builders and athletes who want to increase strength and build muscles. It seems strange to some people that body builders might be vegans but it is entirely possible and there are a growing number of athletes who are shunning meat proteins in favor of plant ones.




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