Photo credit: rawpixel
Protein
Amino acids are the building blocks for all structures in your body. Cells, organs, tissues, hormones, neurotransmitters, bones, joints, hair, skin, RNA, DNA, your genes. Seriously everything. They also play in important role in liver detoxification.
Amino acids come from protein-rich foods that you eat. Your body breaks proteins down into those amino acids during digestion, and then they get absorbed so that your body can use them.
Nine amino acids are essential which means you need to get them from foods you eat because your body can’t make them.
Your body can make non-essential amino acids from essential ones. But in times of stress (physical, chemical, emotional, any form of stress), some of those non-essentials become conditionally essential, meaning you also need to get them from foods you eat because your body isn’t able to make them under those conditions.
When you are struggling with skin rashes, food allergies and sensitivities, gut problems, and any other health problem, this is a source of chronic stress, and under these conditions, you need to get essential and conditionally essential amino acids from food to support your body so that it can repair AND continue to function optimally.
Protein Sources
Animal foods like chicken, beef, fish, and eggs contain all of the essential and conditionally essential amino acids and therefore are considered complete proteins.
Most plant proteins are not complete because they do not contain the full spectrum of essential and conditionally essential amino acids.
Animal proteins have better digestibility and more protein per weight/quantity compared to plant proteins.
If you eat a completely plant-based diet, you will need more protein than someone who consumes animal foods to get the variety of amino acids you need.
Not Eating Enough Protein is one of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to heal their skin
Children need more protein than adults per pound of body weight because they are growing and developing, add a healing journey on top of that, they need even more.
Here’s why:
Protein builds and repairs all structures in your child’s body, including skin.
It doesn’t get stored in your child’s body like fats and carbs do, so they need to eat it every day to keep tissues from breaking down. A serving with each meal can help ensure enough is getting in.
Guidelines you see online for how much protein your child should be eating, and often what you hear from your doctor or other conventional practitioner, are for preventing deficiency. They are not for optimal health and certainly not adequate for skin healing.
Child standard published guidelines
Age 6 months, about 1.12g per kg of body weight each day
Age 10 years, about .74g per kg body weight each day
What’s needed to support optimal health, growth, development, and healing
Minimum of 1.5 - 2g per kg of body weight each day
If you're curious, search online for nutrition for wound healing to see what it takes to heal the skin. You'll see that true healing comes from increased intake of a variety of nutrients, starting with protein. And that intake is above the general guidelines.
To find out how much protein your child needs on their healing journey divide their weight in pounds by 2.2. Then multiply that number by 1.5 at a minimum. The number you get is the amount of protein in grams your child should eat daily.
To find out if they are getting enough in their diet from foods they are eating, use a nutrition tracking app like Cronometer. You can set up a free account, enter what they are eating, and it will show you how much they are getting in so you can adjust that as needed.
For adults standard published guidelines are about .8g per kg of body weight each day. To support optimal health and healing you need a minimum of 1.5g per kg of body weight each day.
Serving sizes
A rule of thumb is to eat a serving of complete, quality protein with each meal.
Kids aged 1-3 (3 servings per day)
1 ounce of meat, fish, or chicken
1/4 cup cooked beans
1/2 egg
Kids aged 4-6 (3 servings per day)
1 ounce meat, fish, or chicken
1/3 cup cooked beans
1 egg
1 Tbsp nut butter
1/2 ounce nuts or seeds
Kids aged 7-10 (3 servings per day)
2-3 ounces meat, fish, or chicken
1/2 cup cooked beans
1 - 2 eggs
1-2 Tbsp nut butter
1 ounce nuts or seeds
For older kids and adults (3 servings per day)
The size of your palm for meat, fish, or chicken
The size of a clenched fist for beans and legumes
2 Tbsp for nut butters
A small palm full of nuts
Final thoughts
Eating a combination of animal and plant proteins can make up a healthy, varied diet.
Choose healthier, more sustainable animal proteins like organic, pasture-raised, grass-fed, and wild-caught.
Resources
http://www.buildhealthykids.com/servingsizes.html
https://www.healthychildren.org/English/healthy-living/nutrition/Pages/Portions-and-Serving-Sizes.aspx
https://fullscript.com/blog/best-protein-sources?
https://justalittlebite.com/plant-based-protein-a-guide-from/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16902324/
https://www.chla.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/Nutrition%20for%20pediatric%20wound%20healing.pdf