NNU

NNU

Net Nitrogen Usage - NNU is the unit of measurement for Body Protein Synthesis (BPS).

1. Of all the food groups proteins, carbs and fats, only proteins contain nitrogen.

2. When one eats proteins, they can be used to make more of our own body protein or be broken down and used for energy.

3. When proteins are broken down they release nitrogen.

4. When proteins are used to make our own proteins, no nitrogen is released.

5. Nitrogen that is released is a waste product and the liver makes it into urea or ammonia (these are both toxic) and it come out mainly in the urine.

6. One can measure how much of protein is used to make protein by knowing how much nitrogen was taken in (proteins are 16% nitrogen so 100 grams of protein = 16 grams of nitrogen) and then collecting urine and stool and measuring how much comes out.

7. To do this one puts someone on a diet of only for example, whey protein, with fruits and vegetables for 3 days and measures how many grams of nitrogen they took in and how much came out by collecting their urine and stool. If 100 grams of nitrogen was taken in and 83 came out then only 17 grams was retained.

8. This is what NNU measures. IN this case the NNU would be 17%, such as whey or soy.

9. For Master Amino Acid Pattern (MAP), taking in 100 grams less than 1 gram comes out. Nearly all of it gets made into protein. Thus the NNU is 99%.

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