Proteins are long chains of amino acids that are essential for carrying out various metabolic processes in your body. Amino acids help to breakdown, transport, and store all the nutrients your body needs: fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, water, and carbohydrates. Your body is capable of producing only certain amino acids, so it is essential that you obtain the remaining ones from dietary sources. Research suggests that amino acids can help prevent cardiovascular disorders, metabolic disease, neurological dysfunction, diabetes, infertility, and obesity. Incorporating high protein vegetarian food in your everyday diet is a great way to make sure your body gets enough of these essential amino acids.
Why Are Proteins Essential?
Your tissues, muscles, organs, and hormones are made up of proteins. Your body utilizes the protein you obtain from dietary source to develop and function. It’s for this reason that incorporating protein into your everyday diet is essential to prevent protein deficiency that can cause severe defects in your body. Studies have linked a high-protein diet with numerous health benefits including healthy weight loss, stabilized blood sugar levels, reduced brain fog, improved concentration levels, and increased energy levels. Proteins help promote bone health, support your muscles, and help in nutrient absorption.
Including a range of high-protein foods provides your body access to all nine essential amino acids. Inadequate protein intake can cause you not to get enough of some amino acids in your body, which can lead to health issues. Some of the symptoms associated with protein deficiency include brain fog, sluggish metabolism, mood swings, low energy levels, lowered immunity, unstable blood sugar levels, insomnia, stubborn weight gain, constipation, and difficulty in building muscle mass. The symptoms of protein deficiency and AFS can be closely related. Therefore, a high-protein diet can significantly help in adrenal fatigue recovery. A high-protein diet helps you keep fully satiated and helps you avoid blood sugar spikes, cravings, moodiness, and fatigue.
Health Benefits of High Protein Vegetarian Food
Getting enough protein in your diet is essential, and eating a variety of high protein vegetarian food is a good way to do this. Vegetarian food has many other health benefits as well. Some of the following are health benefits of making sure you are getting enough protein in your diet.
Stabilizes Blood Sugar Levels
High blood sugar raises the risk of developing type-2 diabetes. Including protein-rich foods in your diet prevents spikes in your blood glucose by slowing down the absorption of sugar. Stabilized blood sugar levels keep your appetite and mood in check.
Boosts Muscle Mass
Proteins are essential to the maintenance of healthy muscle mass and to supporting ligaments, tendon, organs, and other body tissues. A protein-rich diet also helps repair damaged tissues and muscles. Therefore, bodybuilders and people actively involved in sports are recommended a high-protein diet to keep their muscles strong and healthy.
Improves Mood
Certain high protein vegetarian food such as quinoa and edamame contain nine essential amino acids that naturally help fight mood disorders and anxiety which can be helpful in AFS. Proteins support healthy functioning of neurotransmitters. This helps in the synthesis of hormones such as serotonin and dopamine that calm the mind. Deficiency of amino acids can lead to moodiness, anxiety, depression, and weakness.
Weight Management
A high-protein diet keeps you fully satiated throughout the day, reducing any craving which, in turn, help you to maintain your ideal weight. Studies suggest that a controlled calorie intake along with a high-protein diet helps support healthy weight loss. Eating protein causes thermogenesis, a process where your body spends more energy on digesting food, thus burning more calories for weight loss.
Promotes Healthy Brain Function
Proteins are essential for making hormones, neurotransmitters, and enzymes that are crucial for cognitive function. Your brain requires amino acids for maintaining energy levels and concentration. Studies show that amino acid deficiencies can lead to poor cognitive function.
Supports Heart Health
Studies have linked protein-rich diets with reduced risk of heart disease. Protein helps reduce high blood pressure thus supporting heart health. Including high protein vegetarian food in the diet helps prevent diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.
How A High-Protein Diet Can Help Stress
Everyday stress can leave you feeling fatigued. Having a protein-rich diet nourishes your body and boosts energy levels, reducing stress-induced fatigue.
The NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) Stress Response System is your body’s natural stress-fighting mechanism. It is an intricate network of six circuits which function in close coordination to help fight stress. There is a pair of walnut-shaped adrenal glands located above your kidneys which is also a part of the response system.
During stressful situations, the NEM signals your adrenals to secrete the anti-stress hormone, cortisol, to deal with stress. However, with constant stress, the adrenals are forced to secrete more cortisol to deal with the condition. With time, your adrenals can become exhausted. As a result, they are no longer able to secrete adequate cortisol. This reduces your body’s natural stress-fighting ability which can lead to adrenal fatigue.
When you frequently experience extreme fatigue along with symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia, difficulty in waking up, low concentration levels, constipation, low energy levels, stubborn weight gain, brain fog, or cravings for salty and fatty food, then chances are high that you might have Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome (AFS).
The anti-stress hormone cortisol plays a crucial role in various bodily functions including blood pressure regulation, blood sugar regulation, suppressing the immune system, and metabolism of glucose.
Stress leads to an elevated level of cortisol, initiating your body’s fight or flight response. Several functions occur in your body during this phase which requires more energy. In order to meet your body’s increased energy demands, glucose from stored fat is broken down and released into the bloodstream. To conserve energy, cortisol identifies the body functions that are not critical for the immediate stress response and curbs those functions. This results in the slowdown of your immune system, growth process, digestive system, and reproductive system.
Cortisol reduces lean body mass and muscle mass but increases fat mass to increase your appetite and food intake. The hormone also affects the metabolic system of your body by reducing the quantity of protein stores in most of your cells except those in the liver.
During chronic stress, cortisol continues regulating these activities. With the reduction in lean body mass and muscle mass, your body turns weak. Further, the increase in fat mass leaves you feeling sluggish and fatigued.
With the consumption of high protein vegetarian food, your body and mood gradually return to a healthier state. Studies show that protein intake can help enhance glucose metabolism, boost cognitive function, and improve mood. Regular intake of adequate protein is essential for promoting adrenal health.
However, it is important to understand that not all proteins are healthy. For instance, processed meat is high in sodium and preservatives which can tax your adrenals. High protein vegetarian foods are healthy sources of protein with immense health benefits. A protein-rich diet can help fight stubborn weight gain in people with adrenal fatigue by boosting the secretion of satiety hormones, curbing appetite, stimulating hormones, and improving glucose homeostasis.
