My husband and I had a discussion about protein in foods recently and he believes that if you make a complete protein by combining let’s say peanuts and brown rice, the value of that protein is just as good as a readily complete protein in e.g. chicken or a steak…
Often when I read online about nutrition, it’s said that these so-called combined amino acids (by mixing different foods) are still ‘low quality proteins’. How does this work exactly? Is there really such a thing as ‘low quality protein’? I find it a bit of a vague term personally.
quality refers to the amino acid makeup and „incomplete/completeness“ doesn’t really matter if you aren‘t eating extremely restricted. By eating a variety of protein sources you easily get enough of all essential amino acids even without animal foods.
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/protein/
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/incomplete-protein#food-sources
Soy/Tofu are only 0.1% less bioavailable than beef protein. Most other sources are within 80-90% of beef. Wheat and nuts sit on the lowest end of the score at around 50-60%. Some form of heat treating or processing (as in really most forms of cooking your food) increases the bioavailability of most plant proteins.
A plant diet high in soy probably averages out to 80-90% bioavailability. So your 60g protein RDI changes to 66g-72g. I’ve run the math and even without consuming protein powders you could easily hit 80g of protein just from plants and stay under 1400 calories.
“Low quality” is a pretty relative statement here. The quality is slightly lower but in most cases still more than sufficient.
Please also keep in mind that our bodies constantly recycle protein from our cells and can assemble these aminos into anything we need.
The only incomplete protein source and one we cannot live on is gelatin.
Lookup DIAAS, it should pretty much answer your question. Bottom line, yes, by combining two sources with complementary DIAAS profiles you can get to basically the same result as with a single higher quality source.
Is this question about animal protein vs plant-based protein? In general, animal proteins like meat, fish, dairy and eggs contain all the 9 essential amino acids (histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine). Plant-based proteins from foods like beans, grains, nuts, and soy are rich in some amino acids but may lack others. A well-balanced diet with a variety of foods can provide sufficient protein for the body’s needs.
TL;DR Animal foods are the highest quality protein / amino acid sources. Plant sources lack one or more amino acids, which makes it more difficult to get all the amino acids that your body needs.
Animal protein has a better aminoacid profile and is more absorbable than plant protein. If you can’t eat much it us generally recommended to eat animal protein because it’s more “bang for you buck” so to speak.
You can combine non-animal sources to make complete proteins but the aminoacid profile isn’t exactly the same and how bioavailable it is is also not the same.
Generally though, this isn’t something the average person needs to think about as eatibg a variety of foods is fairly common.
Saying low quality isn’t exactly correct, it’s about bioavailability, this means that even though the amino acid profiles maybe very similar the body won’t absorb as many grams of protein per 100g of the plant sources, I’d have to look further into it but I imagine it’s to do with the fact that we’re animal flesh so to consume animal flesh it easier for our systems, as an omnivore, to extract more protein from the same amount.
Not all proteins have the same biological value. Complete proteins are preferable because they supply your body with all of the essential amino acids required to function properly. Animal foods, such as eggs, meat and fish, are the best sources of complete protein. Vegetable-based protein, such as found in cashews, are incomplete. In the case of i.e. cashews and nuts in general, the essential amino acids lysine and isoleucine are in short supply.
Animal proteins do have better quality and bio availability. That is why they have been highly valued in all traditional cultures, with the exception of religious movements like the Adventists and some hinduist sects.
There are scientific studies like this one you might want to check out cited by the American Society of Nutrition:
https://nutrition.org/not-all-dietary-proteins-are-created-equal/
Be careful with propaganda spread by vegans and the big corporations that promote “plant-based meats”.
You can stop stressing about it. All plants have all the amino acids, and the only reason why animal protein is called complete protein is because protein itself was first extracted from eggs so it became measure for the rest by sole merit of being first.
Complete vs incomplete doesn’t actually matter. The ones missing are important, yes, but your body is building all kinds of proteins all the time, and they have different proportions of amino acids. As long as you’re eating a solid amount of complete protein on a near-daily basis, any worries are a massive overthink.
>if you make a complete protein by combining let’s say peanuts and brown rice, the value of that protein is just as good as a readily complete protein in e.g. chicken or a steak…
You can get complete proteins from eating combination of plants, however you’d need to eat up to 50% more proteins compared to animal based proteins because plant based protein are lower quality proteins compared to the animal based proteins. In consequence this means that your caloric intake will be much higher on plant based diet in order to get the same amount of protein.
Protein quality reffers to the bioavailability of their absorption. For example, you can eat 100g of chicken, and absorve all the protein in there.
With poor quiality protein sources, you’ll still absorb some, but it will be much lower depending on how bioavailiable they are. Corn flakes do have some protein, but corn is not particularly bioavailable, thus you’ll not absorb the full 2 grams by every cup.
Milk is the most bioavailable food. You will absorb much more protein and better protein by mixing your corn flakes with milk.
You dont really need a lot of “complete” proteins. The daily recommended amounts are really low, and actually all common foods have all essential aminoacids. You could reach your daily requirements eating only one food(idk why you’d want to).
A study has shown gelatin, an “incomplete” protein, to be more effective in building tissue in untrained individuals than whey.
The source doesnt matter, eat enough protein and eat a varied diet and youre golden
it doesn’t matter at all just eat what you want make sure you hit your protein goals you can use protein shakes if youre eating healthy dont just eat chips than protein powder youll die quickly but eating vegg ye good stuff
Basically, the amino acids (AAs) we use to create proteins are broken down into AAs we can produce from other sources (non-essential) and those we can’t normally produce (essential). A complete protein does not mean that it is an optimal ratio of AAs, just that it contains significant amounts of the essential AAs. Mixing different types of proteins (complete or incomplete) gives a wider variety of AA ratios, thus giving a better chance that you receive optional dietary levels of all the AAs.
TL;DR Compete proteins aren’t necessarily optimal. Combining multiple protein sources means better levels of all amino acids.
Complete proteins contain all the nine essential amino acids in the same source. But, incomplete proteins do not contain all essential amino acids in the same source. A combination of two or more incomplete proteins together will produce a complete protein in the diet. For example, cashews don’t have enough lysine or isoleucine to be considered a complete protein.
Complete protein sources are from animals - meat, fish, eggs, dairy, and the like. Incomplete sources of protein include legumes (beans, peas, lentils), nuts, seeds, whole grains and vegetables. If you combine non-animal sourced foods, you can get a complete protein. Peanut butter alone is incomplete, but when paired with something else, such as toast, you have all the amino acids. Pair your cashews with legumes or grains and you’re set. In the end, though, you’re probably better off getting your protein from animals, especially if you’re concerned about complete/incomplete proteins. Animal products, assuming you’re not vegetarian/vegan, have more bang for your buck in terms of protein and can be pretty calorie- and nutrient-dense.
i always look at the rice & beans combination - to mimic the protein in 100 grams of chicken you have to eat a LOT of rice & beans (done the math before but i’m lazy atm).
so while it does give you the protein, you’re eating a whole pile of food instead of a couple bites, and the calories are much higher as well.
it’s a compliment, not a substitute imo.