Proteins, or what is scientifically referred to as amino acids, are the building blocks for life. Your cells, bones, muscles and neurotransmitters are all made up of specific proteins that have key functionality within the confines of your body.

I have nothing against supplements; I take many. It is okay to enhance your nutrition with supplements. Some provide great sources of antioxidants and amino acids that we can’t collectively get in a traditional non-supplemental diet.

In its most basic and fundamental endeavor, protein sources do not matter. In a more practical sense, it should matter very much. Take soy protein isolate for example. A 32 gram serving of soy protein is equivalent to eating a few pounds of soybeans. That’s a lot of soybeans.

In nature, as a biological basis, would you think we would have access to pounds of soybeans for our nutrition? No, we wouldn’t.

Before the practice of agriculture, we did not plant nutritious food. We hunted and gathered it. This is known as a Paleolithic method. The hunter gatherers would hunt and scavenge meats. They would also munch on a few berries, nuts and whatever else they could find.

They did not plant their protein. This was the diet that human beings evolved to eat over the past 100,000 years. Only in the last 10,000 years have we shifted our means of nutrition into more agricultural means.

And what has become of it? Obesity has skyrocketed, westerners are living shorter lives than ever and dental cavities are up. Carbs are just long chains of sugars added together; isolated plant proteins are unnatural and come at the cost of concentrated nutrients. The body did not evolve to take in all these concentrated nutrients.

Another common protein is whey protein. This is basically leftover waste from the production of cheese. That’s fine. Don’t think the term “waste” means garbage.

Is whey healthy? Well, that’s a tricky answer. Whey is high in all the essential and nonessential amino acids, but it’s only as healthy as the milk that’s being used in it. Many of the cows are pumped full of hormones (rBST) in order to get them producing more milk. That rBST is in your whey regardless of plant processing.

Also, high heat treatment of whey in processing strips the quality of the proteins. Investing in a less heat-treated whey would mean consuming more efficient/less denatured proteins.

What should you eat exactly? Eat real, unprocessed foods. Animals sources of proteins are a great source of protein. The added benefit is a low glycemic index count, which in turn lowers the amount of sugar in your blood. Insulin resistance (blood sugar regulation) or failure to properly metabolize carbohydrates is one of the main reasons behind diabetes.

Remember that the protein you eat is only as healthy as whatever it’s eating, so if you’re munching on conventional beef, just know you’re munching on antibiotics and genetically modified organism (GMO) corn as well.