Summer is the season when we eat the least and move the most. Daily activity rises by around thirty percent - more walking, more swimming, more standing - and at the same time lunch shrinks to a cold soup and a slice of watermelon. That is not light eating. That is a hole in the ledger that the body collects on in September.

Nutritionist Paloma Quintana frames the problem in a way that leaves no room for negotiation: „Proteins are the bricks we build the body with. This is not an ingredient just for athletes, it is an ingredient for living better.” The official minimum is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight a day. The functional recommendation for an active adult is twice that - between 1.2 and 2 grams per kilogram.

After the age of forty the sums change. Muscle mass naturally begins to decline, and the need for protein rises precisely as appetite falls. That is a combination nobody publishes in summer detox articles.

The mistake Quintana sees most often is not insufficient protein in itself, but replacing an entire meal with something that looks healthy. Gazpacho, cold soup, creamed vegetable soup. All of it is fine as an accompaniment and catastrophic as a main course. Her rule is short: every main meal must contain a clear source of protein.

Animal sources - eggs, fish, seafood, meat and dairy - are used more efficiently by the body. Plant sources work, but they require planning to cover B12, iron and zinc. That is not an ideological question, it is a question of the shopping list.

And here comes the sentence that makes the whole piece worth reading: „Let us not fall into the mistake of believing muscle will grow on its own if we take in enough protein.” Protein is material. Material does not build itself. You need a stimulus - strength training a few times a week, otherwise the bricks stay in the yard.

In practice, that means keeping things to hand that need no cooking: boiled eggs, tinned fish, beans. And being wary of products labelled „protein enriched”, which mostly sell you a label rather than a composition. Reading the ingredients takes ten seconds. Trusting the packaging lasts an entire season.