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All protein is made of amino acids. There are 20 different amino acids. Our body can produce 11 of them but not the other 9. Those 9 are called essential amino acids because it is essential that we eat them. In general, animal proteins are complete because they contain all 9 and plant proteins are considered incomplete because they are missing one or more essential amino acids. If you’ve got all the essentials covered it shouldn’t be an issue to use whatever proteins to get the rest of your daily requirement.
Good question,
So when we think of protein, we really want to think in terms of Amino (AA), but sometimes this is hard to convey.
Start with the basics:
A protein is > 100 Amino Acids (AA) strung together. Peptides are 2-100 strung together. As it is currently understood, there are 20 AA but in all probability there are likely more we just don’t know about. This is one reason why protein digestiability and protein bioavailabilty are important concepts. Digestion relates to your ability to break down the food items via physical or chemical means. You need enzymes and a solute (water) for this process to occur by chemical means ( which is kind of the main way). Absorption in this context refers to your body’s ability to up take the AA, or small peptides from your small intestines.
As mentioned, there are 9 essential AA which we can’t make ourselves are 11 that are non-essential, which we can make ourselves given that we have access to enough of the 9. Additionally, there are 3 AA that are conditionally essential depending on your health status.
Depending on your protein source, digestion and absorbtion vary. Plant sources of protein lack in sufficent quantity the AA that contain sulfur like methonine and cysteine and are much harder for the body to break down. If these are some of your sources, this could be one reason why you are not hitting your target.
A third concept not touched on is AA ratio, meaning the correct order of AA. Remember, nutrition is a branch of chemistry. Therefore, arrangements matter in terms of absorption and configuration.
When we talk about unbalance in nutrition, this is what we are talking about. The AA ratio is not correct. When you try to correct it with complementary proteins, often time you will here people say its complete. That is like a half truth because you end up either oversupplementing or undersupplementing AA.
Hope this helps.