Not necessarily the chemistry/science behind it, but physically what is it. Ive never seen just a container of Protein for sale. Same with things like caffeine. When a product says “20g of Protein” what does that mean? Like how was it measured? Is protein like a powder? Liquid? When making the recipe did they literally scoop 20 grams worth of Protein from a container and mix it in?
In: Biology
Proteins are a whole class of very large molecules which are all made of amino acids, they are polymers like plastic made up of long chains of smaller units. There are an incredibly large number of different proteins and so they behave differently to each other depending on their size and structure.
When most things list a protein content they aren’t talking about literally scooping crystallized proteins into the mixture, they are just measuring the amount of protein which is present due to other ingredients like plant or dairy sources. Most supplements with added protein use whey protein which is essentially a protein rich liquid derived from milk.
Egg whites are fairly close to pure albumin protein. (…and some water.) You know that reddish-pink goo that leaks out of beef, that isn’t exactly blood but kind of looks like blood, and turns to brown gel when it cooks? That’s the protein globulin.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen pure whey, the milk component, but that’s another one that’s pretty much protein + water. *[Edit: Apparently I have. If you open a yogurt and find some clear slimy liquid sitting on top of it, that’s whey.]*
There are some proteins that humans can’t digest. I can’t name a bunch, but keratin, the protein in hair, is one example. When they give a protein amount for a food, that’s the approximate amount of the *human-digestible* protein that’s in a serving – the amount our system can break down into a mixture of the 22 amino acids.
Sure you have, google Whey Protein powder, or other proteins mixes that some people use when working out/trying to build muscles.
And as for what protein is, it kind of hard to define it without talking about it chemically, because proteins are pretty much any chains of amino acids. which can come in a lot of different shapes, sizes, configurations, make ups, properties.
But i guess if you were going to having 20 grams of pure protein, it would be 20g of amino acids, what exactly that would look like I cant tell you, Idk if anyone really can, since even those protein powders are just pure proteins.
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