Recycle Your Proteins!

V. Vemuri, Pleasanton, CA

Just think! In 1800, the world's population was about one billion. That is, 1000 million people! Thanks to the Industrial Revolution, it took only 130 years to reach the second billion mark in 1930. The third billion came in 30 years, in 1960. The fourth billion in only 15 more years, by 1975. In 1987, the population of this palnet stood at 5 billion. The sixth billion is due in 1998. If this continues, by 2050 the population will reach 14 billion. That is, we are adding three more mouths to feed every second, 180 more a minute, or 10,800 each hour. How do we feed these people?

Another Green Revolution? May be. Sooner or latter, we will face food shortage. More severe, yet subtle, is protein shortage. Protein is most essential of our food groups. It is least plentiful and most expensive. Primary sources of edible proteins are beans, soybeans, seaweeds, algae, yeast, bacteria, and so on. Unpalatable primary sources can be fed to fatten animals. Then we can eat dairy products, poultry and meat. This is wasteful; only a tenth of the protein we feed animals end up on our dinner plates.

To feed and shelter the growing numbers we are cutting our forests, hastening wildlife extinction, and eroding millions of hectres of farm land. These acts are also contributing to global warming, depletion of the ozone layer and pollution of our environment. Yet, we are not showing any inclination to change our ways. How, then, do we feed these people? There is a way out! It is not the neatest, but it is a way. If technology got us into this mess, it sure can get us out!

Proteins are large (some times enormous) molecules which are built out of smaller units called amino acids. There are 20 different amino acids (all belong to the same family of chemical compounds, but different in the way they are built). Think of each protein as a long chain of colored beads (or, amino acids), each bead having one of 20 possible colors. One protein molecule may contain several hundred amino acids, including a number of each variety (or, color), arranged in some specific order that is always the same for a specific protein. The number of possible arrangements of amino acids is astronomical. Then, the number of different types of proteins is also astronomical. Obviously, each species has the luxury of developing its own unique proteins. In fact, one might find subtle differences among proteins within the same species. That is why it is so difficult to match blood and other organs (remember, blood and other body tissues are built out of proteins!) during transfusions and organ transplants.

It follows, that the proteins in our food (obtained from plant and animal species) are likely to be different from the proteins in our own bodies. When food is digested, these proteins are separated into individual amino acids, absorbed into the body, and reassembled in our cells in a particular order that is characteristic of our individual proteins. The plant family, as a whole, can manufacture all the different amino acids from carbon dioxide, water and other minerals absorbed from the air and soil. Animals (including us) cannot do this. They must eat whatever that is available to them. Their bodies pull these dietary proteins apart and reassemble them to suit their individual needs.

In summary, let us note two points: (1) As far as our diet and nutrition are concerned, there is nothing special about an intact protein molecule, except possibly the taste it might offer. There is no rule that proteins must be eaten whole and no need that the proteins be broken down during digestion. All that the body needs is amino acids. We can, in principle, eat the various amino acids and let the body do the rest of rebuilding. (2) Not all amino acids are equally important in the diet of an animal; the machinery in an animal's body is capable of taking some amino acids as raw materials and manufacture other amino acids from them. However, some amino acids (usually those that are in short supply) cannot be manufactured like this. These must be supplied by the food. These are the "essential amino acids." In the case of human being the eight essential amino acids are: isoleucine, leucine, lysine, metheonine, threonine, phynylalanine, tryptophan, and valine.

What happens if there is a shortage of the essential amino acids? The body cannot produce the proteins requiring these missing items as raw material. Just as vitamins and minerals, these essential amino acids are vital and we must supply them to our bodies. If we can cheaply produce these, then we can fortify our foods with these and get the same benefits as eating meat.

Because we are refusing to voluntarily limit our population, because we are fast running out of land (agricultural or otherwise), because there will be no more forests left to cut, because there will be no more pasture land to raise animals for milk and meat, where do we get the raw materials for producing these amino acids? By recycling proteins, by recycling amino acids! Recycling what proteins? By 2050, we would have inhabited most of the available land, we would have driven most of the land animals to extinction. But, as slogans go, people are our most precious resource. Why not recycle people?

Is this not a grisly solution? Well, there will be no more land left anyway to bury the dead. Wood is already scarce for a traditional Hindu cremation. The Parsees of have already shown a "humanitarian" way of disposing their dead. Instead of throwing ourselves to the birds (there won't be many of them left by then, any way!), let us recycle. But, how? In the emerging New World Order, we cannot resort to cannibalism. Why not parasitism? Why not send the dead to recycling centers where ALL proteins are recovered in the form of amino acids? Why not reuse them, as supplements, to fortify our foods? This is not as macabre as it sounds; we have been eating proteins like gelatin, extracted from bones. From a religious point of view, many among us already accepted reincarnation of the soul. Now it appears that we may not have much of a choice than facilitating the reincarnation of the body!


rvemuri@ucdavis.edu

Thursday the 8th, May 1997