Protein is a structural element of your body and your baby's body. New tissues and organs grow by laying down and combining millions of proteins. Protein is formed by amino acids, 11 of which the body produces naturally and 9 of which, called essential amino acids, must be added to the body through our food. To make sure this process happens properly, eating complete proteins is necessary during pregnancy.

Importance Number 1:
It helps develop your baby's brain while he or she is inside of you. Your baby's brain starts developing from the time that an embryo starts to develop inside the egg. This means that you need to start to getting all of the recommended amounts of protein in, as soon as you find out that you are pregnant. It may be hard at first, since a lot of women even after consuming a normal meal seem to become ill with morning sickness within the first few months of their pregnancy they are pregnant, but with a little extra amount of protein such situations can be avoided. Poor protein intake also has a higher risk for impaired brain development of the baby.

Importance Number 2:
It not only bulks you up, but it helps aid in muscle repair and growth. This is very important for you as a carrier, in order to make the delivery process a little easier. It is also good for your baby because every human needs some form of muscle. Muscle is what helps your baby learn to hold his head up, which is very important for the growth of your little one. Many women do not realize how much muscle they will loose while they are pregnant due to lack of exercise. With the help of protein you might not loose all of the muscle which you need, to stay healthy and carry on with your everyday life.

Importance Number 3:
Protein provides you with the nutrients and antioxidants that is needed to keep your immune system healthy. A lot of women think that vitamin C is what keeps their immune system going strong, but a lot of it actually comes from protein. Although vitamin C is also of big help, but it is best to stay away from an overload of vitamin C, when you are pregnant. This is becaouse, vitamin C hard to digest during pregnancy. Protein on the other hand is much easier for you and your baby to digest and does a lot of work on your immune system, to keep you and your little one as healthy as he/she can be.

During lactation period mother’s milk is a major source of nutrition for the baby. So mother's milk should have the right amount of protein for the baby.

Generally, women’s daily requirement of protein is 44gms. But they need an extra 20-30gms of protein during pregnancy and lactation respectively. Increasing the amount of diet for extra protein can be harmful during pregnancy, so protein supplements can be taken to promote health for the mother and the baby.

Protein plays a vital role in children's development as well as in their performance. Protein in children is critical for important functions such as:

Thus proteins are important for everything from your child's growth to building their immune system to help protect them from illness to keeping everything from their hair and nails to their skin, bones and organs healthy.

A silent epidemic of “Well fed yet undernourished” is spreading at an alarming rate due to the following factors:

Childhood and adolescence is a period of continuous growth and development. In this period, children accumulate stores of nutrients. During the next adolescent phase, there is rapid growth in height and weight called as growth spurt. The nutrient intake becomes inadequate to meet increased demands.

At this time, the body uses nutrient stores to support the rapid growth. Hence, the way in which children eat, influences their health during childhood, teen years and the years later on. An active child always has an increased apetite. This demand for more food because of the greater level of physical activity. The periods of rapid growth in teens only compound their hunger. During these growth spurts, the increased metabolism makes the body demand more nutrients. It is due to this combination, it may appear to parents that their child is eating all the time. Children and adolescents have a slightly higher need for protein than adults, because young people are still growing.

Thus, there is a need to provide extra protein to growing children through soya supplements. Soya contains many essential nutrients important for growth and development, and works well as a primary source of protein without contributing excess calories Studies of soya in children and adolescents have shown that soya eases constipation, lowers high cholesterol, and may even decrease risk of breast cancer later in life.

Muscle loss need not necessarily be a part of the ageing process, if adequate protein is supplied in the diet.

Many elderly people have diets that are low in protein and therefore, experience weakness due to muscle loss. At the same time, high protein foods can be difficult to chew as they require more preparation than carbohydrates. And many are unaware that their diet is low in the muscle craving proteins. Thus, a protein supplement is enough to do the job of preventing. Ingestion of a protein supplement, receives the same muscle protein synthesis stimulation that occurs in the non-elderly.

Many elderly people may have reduced appetite. This is because elderly persons experience a loss of autonomy. It takes place with impairment in performing essential activities of daily living because of functional and physical disabilities. The nutritional implications of frailty include poor appetite, low food intake and involuntary weight loss.

Malnutrition is more common in this age group. It is caused by deterioration of nutritional status which occurs during illness. Such Chronic diseases that may further increase dietary protein needs. It becames necessary to ensure adequate dietary intake of high quality protein for this reason. Chronic diseases being more frequent in the elderly, and can lead to periodic temporary losses of body protein through fever or simply loss of appetite. Such losses have to be replaced from the diet and ensure an added need for dietary protein. It is important to supplement the diet effectively to impove outcomes for older people who remain at the risk of malnutrition.

Therefore, elderly individuals are more likely to be influenced by various biological, environmental and social factors, the effects of which would be generally to increase protein needs above those for younger adults. Thus, in practice, the protein needs of elderly people are probably higher than for the young. The decline in energy intake, together with its possible consequences for reduced dietary protein utilization, will also tend to increase the protein need of elderly subjects, compared with that for physically more active young adults.

Adults require protein to repair body cells and tissues. The protein requirement for adults is 1g/kg of body weight daily. Young adults are mostly engaged in exercises, stressful work environment and a hectic schedule.

For work outs and exercises, protein supplements can help meet their higher needs. They are very essential, specially for males, who often use them to aid body building. Apart from a greater lean mass and greater need for tissue repair, they burn a small amount of protein, during physical activity. As such, athletes have a higher protein requirement. On an average the normal person should get approximately 0.8 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight. Exercisers should get in between 1 to almost 2 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight, depending on the severity of exercise performed.

After a hectic day, it is protein that plays a very important role in the body. Here protein is a kind of maintenance person keeping the body in tact
Protein is also responsible for making antibodies and haemoglobin which serve in delivering oxygen to your blood. 

Protein is essential to maintain a healthy body. If the body sustains an injury, such as a cut, protein helps with tissue repair. Protein helps the body to fight illness, diseases and keeps the immune system functioning properly.

Protein is essential for the repair of damaged tissues as well as for the creation of new tissues. With amino acids working as building blocks, cancer patients specially, experience a significant health benefit from diets high in protein.

Protein excretion increases in times severe illness. For patients in trauma and those with severe body burns, it can reach upto 250 g/day. The major role of increased rates of protein degradation during metabolic stress is to provide amino acids, especially branched-chain amino acids which donate nitrogen for the synthesis of glutamine. This glutamine, after released by the muscle, is essential for functioning of the immune system.

Under metabolic stress, the muscle and plasma concentrations of glutamine decrease. It has been shown that, there is a correlation between the concentration of glutamine and the rate of protein synthesis. The overall result is that the skeletal muscle breaksdown to provide metabolic control during periods of high stress. It also helps to explain why there is such a large increase in protein degradation in skeletal muscle during injury and stress and indicates that it is essential for the survival of the body under normal conditions.

During illness, protein is not only required for repair but is generally used as an energy source; 1.5 to 2gms protein/kg/day is required during illness.

All moderate to severe illness cause a loss of body protein, mainly from skeletal muscle and a fall in body weight. If an injured person takes no food during the first three days and expends 6000-8000 kcal in that time , to which protein contributres 20-25%(1200-2000 kcal_ the lost muscle which is about 80% water and 20 %protein will amount to 1200-2000gms.

Amount of protein loss depends on the severity of illness , including the amount of pain suffered. Fractures of long bones and extensive skin burns are likely to have much protein loss. Prolonged bed rest also produces loss of protein because of atrophy of skeletal muscle. Disease process destroys body tissue. So when loss of body protein is large, it is accompanied by weakness, poor healing and lowered resistance to infections.

Thus, during recovery period, there is a marked need of high biological value as the protein requirement in illness becomes similar to the protein requirement of that in a growing child.

Protein plays a significant role in reducing obesity.

An important mechanism by which dietary protein promotes weight loss is by decreasing food intake.

This is due to the ability of proteins to produce greater satiety (feeling of fullness) than do other macronutrients. Increase in energy from dietary protein, at constant carbohydrate intake, produces a sustained decrease in excessive caloric intake and results in clinically significant weight loss. Protein when substituted for fat has a better ability to stimulate insulin secretion. Insulin contributes to the increased satiety observed with the high-protein diet. So, the person feels less hungry and consumes lesser food.

The high protein food replace the refined carbohydrates in the diet which have a high glycemic index. These foods tend to decrease satiety and increase energy intake and blood insulin levels which leads to weight gain. So, proteins by reducing refined carbohydrate intake, indirectly prevent postprandial insulin rise and thereby, lead to weight loss.