CAN I GET HIGH VALUE PROTEINS IF I AM VEGAN OR VEGETARIAN?

In the first place, it is necessary to know what determines that one type of protein is better or worse than another. The better the protein source is, the better the biological value.

This biological value is determined by the amount and proportion of essential amino acids that a food presents.

Simply put, amino acids are the compounds from which proteins are formed. It is called essential amino acid that can not be produced internally by our body, so as its name suggests it is considered more essential introduction from the diet. There are 9 essential amino acids: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine.

Once the concept is understood, if one or more essential amino acids are not present in sufficient quantities it is called incomplete protein and its value would be below 100. These quantities are based on the recommended amino acid profile and elaborated on the food and nutrition board of the institute of medicine:

An example of incomplete protein would be the following, whose value is 63, due to a lack of the essential amino acid methionine.

Most incomplete proteins are usually found in plant sources. However, a combination of several incomplete sources can result in a complete protein. For this, it is necessary to analyze which amino acid is limited in the food and complement it with those that are high in this amino acid.

For this I attach the following link where you can easily consult the protein quality of a food and see what amino acids are deficient in it to be able to complement it effectively. In addition, the page itself gives you options to do it

Follow the next steps:

Go to http://nutritiondata.self.com/

Look for some food, such as rice.

Choose the variety you consume most frequently. For example: Short grain raw rice.

Once you click you can see different categories with a lot of information about the food as a percentage of macronutrients (fats, protein and carbohydrates), glycemic load of the food per 100g or by quantity that you introduce, or the nutritional value of the food from 1 to 100. However, we will focus on how to supplement the biological value of an incomplete protein.

For this we find a box called "Protein Quality" or quality of protein.

In the case of rice we found an incomplete protein with a value of 71. To know which amino acid we need to complement we must click on "Find foods with complementary profile" and the following window will appear:

In the case of rice we should look for foods with a high ratio of Lysine and Valine. The program itself gives us the possibility to filter the results ("narrow your search") and can choose the category of food with which we want to combine the analyzed one. Some of the categories are vegetables and legumes, fish, meat, dairy products, sauces, spices, etc.

I leave a link to a presentation in which the steps are collected in a much more summarized :)

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DhF0wtcNtgDD1S1oer2YiKFWLUD73eh0DgRxRH9tT38/edit?usp=sharing

From here it would be a matter of making combinations according to tastes and preferences. However, it can be a bit tedious to perform and I would like to offer an alternative proposal to facilitate the search for combinations.

This is the food composition database of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Through the following link you can easily find foods rich in the nutrient that you want, and you can also enter the category of them. Continuing with the example of rice we will do a search with foods rich in Lysine and Valine, filtering the results in the category of legumes (legumes and legume products) and ordering the results for higher content of these nutrients (Sort by Nutrient Content)

https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/nutrients/index

Then we press the "GO" key and we will find the soy protein isolate as the first classified:

However, if you do not want to dip a bucket of protein powder with rice ... I recommend more palatable alternatives such as peas or lentils:

At the beginning it can be very tedious and complicated, but once you find a combination that you like you will not have to be constantly looking for alternatives and you can expand your list of meals when you have time and you want to innovate in your diet.

How do I know that the most lazy thing is to start doing it ... I propose several alternatives to start filling your initial menu:

The legumes combine very well with cereals, since as we saw with rice, they are low in lysine, whose presence in legumes is higher.

The legumes are usually low in methionine and cystine as in the case of lentils. Foods rich in these amino acids can be in order of quantity of Brazil nuts, sesame seeds, sunflower and pumpkin seeds or pistachios, which offers us the possibility of making simple cold dishes such as salads ;P

Another alternative can be a traditional cooking of vegetables in stew or with broth, vegetables such as potato, which shows high content in methionine and a few garlic, also high in this amino acid.

In conclusion, the combination of legumes, cereals and nuts is usually a good option to supplement incomplete proteins.

Unfortunately, not all is good news for vegans and vegetarians, since despite being able to equate the amount and biological value of vegetable proteins with respect to animals, it does not mean that their absorption and bioavailability are similar, as one of the pages analyzed indicates:

It affirms that the biological value considered does not take into account its absorption and bioavailability, so if we took it into account, the value could be even lower ...

In addition, the digestibility and absorption of the protein, understood as the ease with which the digestive system breaks them down into amino acids and peptides and introduces them effectively into our body through the small intestine, also varies from animal to vegetable sources. Some estimated values ​​of absorption of animal and plant sources are the following:

PROTEIN SOURCE	ABSORPTION RATE (GRAMES PER HOUR)
Whey protein isolate	8-10
Free aminoacids	7
Casein	6,1
Soy Isolate	3,9
Egg Protein Cooked	2,8
Egg raw	1,3

However, these values ​​may be variable depending on how we combine these sources, since, for example, simple carbohydrates such as sugars can favor faster absorption and, on the other hand, fats or foods rich in fiber can slow down their absorption resulting in a longer and less concentrated protein intake.

Once the protein is absorbed by the small intestine, it would be necessary to know how much absorbed protein is used correctly by our tissues, which is known as bioavailability. The greater the bioavailability, the lower the residual protein in the form of residues. The estimated values ​​for this bioavailability are the following in different sources, estimating egg value as 100 reference value:

PROTEIN SOURCE	BIOAVAILABILITY
Whey Protein Isolate	100-159
Whey Protein Concentrate	104
Whole Egg	100
Cow's Milk	91
Egg White	88
Fish	83
Beef	80
Chicken	79
Casein Milk	77
Rice	74
Soy	59
Wheat	54
Beans	49
Peanuts	43

CONCLUSIONS:

Once all the information is analyzed, we can observe how foods frequently used in vegan and vegetarian diets to cover protein deficiencies, such as soybean, offer a low absorption value and bioavailability, so it may not be a good option for active population groups with greater wear. and muscle damage, which requires greater recovery and greater need for quality proteins. In addition, the greater the importance in people who perform several trainings a day and require a quality recovery between them.

Through a vegetarian diet protein deficits can be well covered through the consumption of eggs and dairy products. However, in vegan diets a greater control of the dietary contribution of quality protein will be necessary, being more necessary in more active population groups being able to resort to plant protein isolates of high biological value.

If you have found interesting, I will launch a theme for the next post. I would like to encompass and summarize the main nutritional deficiencies and problems that can lead to the realization of a vegan or vegetarian diet and give, as far as possible, more tools and practical proposals that facilitate their maintenance under a good state of health.

IF THIS ARTICLE EXCEEDS 500 VISUALIZATIONS, I'LL GET TO WORK ;D

REFERENCES:

United States Department of Agriculutre (USDA) (2018) Agriculture Research Service: USDA Food Composition Databases. Recovery from: https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/nutrients/index

Nutrition  Data (2018) Self Nutrition Data: Know what you eat. Recovery from http://nutritiondata.self.com/

Schneider, M. (2016) Dioxyme: Protein Absorption. Recovery from https://dioxyme.com/protein-absorption/
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