When we eat, the digestive process breaks down the three major food groups into their building blocks. These building blocks are then absorbed into the bloodstream and reassembled into the various products our bodies need in order to function. Protein Proteins are chains of building blocks called amino acids. Through digestion, dietary proteins are broken down by enzymes in the digestive tract into their amino acid components. These amino acids can then be reassembled not only into muscle, nerve fiber, and vital organs, but also into hormones, enzymes, and neurochemicals.
Protein is the second of our two dietary sources of blood sugar.
The liver, instructed by the hormone glucagon, can very slowly transform as much as 52 percent of the above 6 grams per ounce into glucose if blood sugar descends too low or the body's other amino acid needs have been met. Neither carbohydrate nor fat can be transformed into protein. Under the watchful eyes of physicians from New York's Cornell University Medical College and Bellevue Hospital, Stefansson and a colleague submitted themselves to a meat-only diet for a year. They ate 2,500 calories a day, of which 75 percent was fat. It's worth repeating that the men were eating a diet with 75 percent of the calories coming from fat.