Protein Deficiency

Protein deficiency

Like all animals, our bodies are largely composed of protein, a lack of which results in low blood-pressure, lack of energy, anemia, flabby muscles, obesity, poor digestion, low resistance to infections, etc.

Protein deficiency also causes a retention of waste fluids in the tissues, which give a deceptive plump appearance to the body. This is because there is a substance called albumin (made by our livers from protein) circulating in the bloodstream, which attracts fluids in the tissues and draws the back into the bloodstream.

In these fluids are dissolved the waste materials of the body’s activities, and they are thus removed from the tissues and carried away in the bloodstream to the excretory organ (the bowels, the kidneys, the skin, and the lungs). Therefore we see that if the diet is so lacking in protein that the liver is unable to manufacture sufficient albumin, there will be insufficient albumin in the blood to attract the tissue fluids into the blood, and consequently tissue fluids (containing the waste materials) will not be collected (or only incompletely removed) and will cause an appearance of overpuffiness and plumpness.

People with such an appearance think merely that they are too fat, and they try to reduce their weight by cutting down their food intake (including protein). This still further reduces the amount of protein available for the manufacture of albumin, and their protein deficiency becomes severe.

Their body tissues become puffy, the ankles, face, and hands swell, puffy bags appear under their eyes, and the whole body becomes waterlogged. The chubby appearance of children, which is usually associated with health, can be due to retention of waste-products and water in the tissues. When a protein-rich diet is given to them, people soon lose their puffiness, and children lose their chubbiness and are are then seen to be thin and underweight.

Protein enters into the composition of so many of the component parts of the body that its importance cannot be over-estimated. The part it plays in building bodily health should be better understood. It is the chief ingredient of the red blood cells, the white blood cells, the gamma-globulins produced by the liver (better known as anti-bodies’), the many different enzymes (digestive ferments), the hormones (chemical messengers) without all of which the body processes would come to a standstill. The afore-mentioned substance, albumin, is a protein-like substance which is also produced from food-protein (by the liver).