Introduction to Protein
Proteins is a macronutrient that is composed of long amino acids. They are needed in all living organisms. Proteins help in multiple tasks inside of your body. They work as enzymes to increase chemical reactions, antibodies to fight illnesses and diseases, hemoglobins to carry oxygen around the body, hormones to regulate body functions, and are the building blocks for growth and repair of body tissues.
Chemistry of Proteins
In this activity, students were able to construct protein molecules to be able to see their different structures. We were able to construct glycine, alanine, threonine, and valine and see how each is individually composed with carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen molecules.
Refelction
Protein structures are really complicated. Carbs were so easy to identify and a lot easier to read but proteins are so long and are easily confused. Plus they don't smell that great. Extracting proteins was quite smelly. Before this unit, I thought proteins were only needed to create muscles. But I've learned they do so many more things in your body like being enzymes, antibodies, hemoglobins, hormones, and structural components that helps the body's tissues. I also realized that eating more protein rich food isn't going to make you gain any more muscle. All that excess will just get stored as fat. Completely different than expected.