Dana Carpender wrote:
> Krusty wrote:
>
> > "Dana Carpender" > wrote
> >
> >>If the body can make it, it is considered inessential. That's the
> >>definition. Carbohydrate is inessential.
> >
> >
> > The body can make protein. By your logic. Protein is "inessential".
> >
> >
>
> Not my logic. Basic nutrition. The body cannot make all the proteins
> it needs without protein from foods. Protein is therefore essential.

Dietary protein is not essential. Dietary amino acids are essential.

Please listen this time: Protein is not the same thing as amino acids.
Amino acids are the building blocks from which proteins are made. The
body can make roughly half of the amino acids to make proteins by
itself. The others it needs to obtain from food sources. Here's the
really important part:
THOSE AMINO ACIDS DON'T HAVE TO COME FROM COMPLETE PROTEINS. THEY CAN
COME FROM GRAINS, OR LEGUMES, ALONGSIDE THE CARBS IN THOSE FOODS.
For example, take lentils. A skip over to the USDA database shows that
lentils contain every single one of the amino acids in some amount.
Combine those lentils with rice and you have "complete proteins"
because between the two foods you have sufficient amino acids to
support protein synthesis.
It's every bit as possible for a human to live well without appreciable
"dietary protein" as it is for them to live without appreciable
"dietary carbohydrates". In each case the body will pick a different
metabolic strategy. That's why saying that carbs are "inessential" and
protein is essential is wrong. Neither one is necessarily essential,
there just has to be something.

Carmen

> OTOH, the body can make the the glucose it needs. Carbs are therefore
> inessential.
>
> Of course, we have one example of a population who lived virtually carb
> free for much of the year, the Inuit. Want to tell them that carbs were
> essential?
>
> Dana