Heal your bones with protein powder
Does protein help bones heal?
Dietary protein intake plays an important role in bone formation and repair. Approximately 30% of bone mass is protein, and bone metabolism is dependent on continuous dietary protein intake. When you suffer a bone injury, your body needs protein to build and repair new bone tissue. Dietary protein intake also promotes muscle growth, which is important because maintaining muscle mass and strength is crucial for protecting and supporting bones.
What type of protein is best for bone healing?
You may have heard that collagen protein is the best protein for bone healing, but this is not true. Although collagen is one of the main components of bone tissue, eating it will not help you build or repair bone tissue faster or better than eating any other type of dietary protein. This is because the proteins that make up bones are synthesized (made) by your body – they do not come directly from food. In order to synthesize collagen or any other type of protein, your body simply needs amino acids – the building blocks of protein.
There are 20 amino acids, nine of which are essential, meaning we cannot make them ourselves. Essential amino acids must come from the foods we eat. If you are eating a balanced diet, you should be getting all the essential amino acids you need. If you are relying heavily on protein supplements to meet your nutritional needs, however, you may want to prioritize supplements made from complete proteins.
A complete protein contains all of the essential amino acids. Examples of complete proteins include eggs, fish, and meat. It just so happens that collagen is not a complete protein, so if you are going to be getting a lot of your protein from protein powder, it is not a great choice. That said, if you are eating a variety of protein powders, the amino acid profile of your protein powder is not very important.
In short, any type of protein can help with bone healing. My advice is to go with the protein source that makes you feel best.