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Controlling protein intake

How would you control the protein intake. If you had to test the influence of protein intake on the body how would you do it?

Reply 1

ayesha2210

wel i'm not sure but have 2 diets where one is only protein and this other doesn't include protein at all and then measure things like blood pH or urea conc in urine :smile:

Reply 2

martin101

Ok, you cant just cut out protein totally from someones diet because that would simply be unethical. Measuring protein in foods accurately is also one hell of a difficult task and would probably result in your test subjects eating sloppy goo for the duration of the test (which would have to be weeks in order to see much). If this is for A level coursework just drop the idea and do something else... this is really a non starter because it is bloody hard to do in a way that produces any quantitative values (and thus would screw your chances of a decent mark even if youve put in stacks of effort)

Reply 3

neilnpatel

well i have no choice its a plan to show the chnages inprotein intake affect urea production (from muscle wasting)

Reply 4

Iscariot

Show how? Do you have to show via a practical experiment or simply discuss the theory of it? You could do urine analysis for urea but honestly that's a million miles away from the standard of experimentation that is undertaken by A-level students.

Reply 5

neilnpatel

well we just have to plan it not actually do it, we were told a titration with hcl could be used as an approximation.(it will be conevrted to ammonium sumthing with urease)

but i dont undersatdn how i would control it accuratly

Reply 6

martin101

Accurate control requires your subjects to be eating EXACTLY the same things.. not just the same food, but the same quantity, which means processed lab prepared crap very much like what kids get who have PKU. Your urea prodution would jump with more protein and would fall with starvation, I dont think the muscle wasting would be responsible for urea production. Urea is just the final product of nitrogenous waste disposal.