Vegan homemade protein powder?

Pierre_is_a_cat

G'day folks,

Anyone got any good ideas for a vegan homemade protein powder? I am not keen on pre-packaged stuff and generally eat pretty clean/whole foods as I genuinely prefer them. At the moment I am generally cobbling together various scoops of high protein ingredients like hemp seeds, flax, chia, and cacao nibs. Added to my morning oat bran with soy milk it makes a pretty respectable protein serve.

Love to know if anyone else has any tips.

T0M_K

gawd that sounds so yucky.

trigden1991

Eating a balanced diet including all the food groups is helpful. Chicken is lean and high in protein.

Seffell

trigden1991 wrote: »

Eating a balanced diet including all the food groups is helpful. Chicken is lean and high in protein.

OP is a vegan.

vanmep

I make granola out of those ingredients - oatmeal, pumpkin seeds, chia, flax, hemp, sunflower - just go to the bulk barn and pick out the seeds and nuts I like. I'm not sure if you mean that you are grinding it up to make a powder? That sounds kind of gross to me. But if I mix 1/4 cup of my granola with 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt I have about 16 g of protein.

Pierre_is_a_cat

vanmep wrote: »

I make granola out of those ingredients - oatmeal, pumpkin seeds, chia, flax, hemp, sunflower - just go to the bulk barn and pick out the seeds and nuts I like. I'm not sure if you mean that you are grinding it up to make a powder? That sounds kind of gross to me. But if I mix 1/4 cup of my granola with 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt I have about 16 g of protein.

That sounds like a really great idea! I haven't had any pumpkin seeds in my oatmeal, I'll look for some this weekend and try. Great tip.

I don't grind up what I use right now, apart from the flax seed (apparently it's the only way our digestive systems can access the Omega?). It's super yummy with everything mixed in with the oatmeal. I was just interested to know if anyone out there did make some sort of ground up mix they could add to smoothies and so on. Perhaps most people simply add the whole ingredients and blend as they go.

trigden1991

gebeziseva wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

Eating a balanced diet including all the food groups is helpful. Chicken is lean and high in protein.

OP is a vegan.

I am fully aware of that. Veganism is a choice. Choosing to eliminate whole food groups is not optimal for life.

charlieandcarol

trigden1991 wrote: »

gebeziseva wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

Eating a balanced diet including all the food groups is helpful. Chicken is lean and high in protein.

OP is a vegan.

I am fully aware of that. Veganism is a choice. Choosing to eliminate whole food groups is not optimal for life.

Its optimal for the animal's life

trigden1991

charlieandcarol wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

gebeziseva wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

Eating a balanced diet including all the food groups is helpful. Chicken is lean and high in protein.

OP is a vegan.

I am fully aware of that. Veganism is a choice. Choosing to eliminate whole food groups is not optimal for life.

Its optimal for the animal's life

Ok then

rainbowbow

trigden1991 wrote: »

gebeziseva wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

Eating a balanced diet including all the food groups is helpful. Chicken is lean and high in protein.

OP is a vegan.

I am fully aware of that. Veganism is a choice. Choosing to eliminate whole food groups is not optimal for life.

Veganism is an ethical choice, and one can certainly eat a balanced, complete, and nutritionally adequate diet even without animal products.

p.s. veganism doesn't eliminate or limit any one specific macronutrient. Just wanted to point this out since you seem to be under the impression this means one must be missing some sort of nutrition and one's diet cannot be "balanced".

rainbowbow

OP, here's the deal... those are not "high protein" foods. Those are high fat foods.

I wrote a huge post about this recently, but i'll share an excerpt from it here:

Often we see inadequate or poor sources of protein being touted for vegans and vegetarians. These include nuts, seeds, and some grains. In general these have less than 1 gram of protein per 15 calories. This list is not all-inclusive, but I’ve done my best to include as much as possible.

Vegan

• Tempeh & Natto– 10 grams of protein per 100 calories
• Lentils– 8 grams of protein per 100 calories
• Tofu– 11 grams of protein per 100 calories
• Soybeans/Edamame- 9 grams of protein per 100 calories
• Pea Protein Powder- 20 grams of protein per 100 calories
• Hemp Protein Powder- 12 grams of protein per 100 calories
• Soy Protein Powder- 24 grams of protein per 100 calories
• Brown Rice Protein Powder- 23 grams of protein per 100 calories
• Protein Bars- Including many popular bars like: Simply protein ®, Cliff Builder’s Bars ®, NuGo ®, and more! Calories vary but generally range in the 9-10 grams of protein per 100 calorie range.

While there are many other protein sources found in plant foods, many are not “good” sources of protein. I consider these poor sources of protein as they lack the full amino acid spectrum and you would have to consume a high number of calories to obtain the same range of protein as the above.

Just a Few Sub-Par Protein Sources:

• Brown Rice- 2.3 grams of protein per 100 calories. You would have to eat over 500 calories of brown rice to obtain a measly 10 grams of protein.
• Oats- 4.25 grams of protein per 100 calories. You’d have to consume a whopping 400 calories for only 17 g of protein.
• Nuts and Seeds (Almonds in this example)- 3.6 grams of protein per 100 calories. You’d have to eat over 550 calories worth just to get 20 grams of protein.
• Nut Butters (Peanut butter in this example)- 4.3 grams of protein per 100 calories. You’d have to eat over 460 calories for 20 grams of protein.
• Quinoa- 3.6 grams of protein per 100 calories. You’d have to eat over 550 calories worth just to get 20 grams of protein.

Surprisingly, these protein sources are generally touted as great options for vegans and vegetarians who may be unknowingly under-consuming total proteins or specific amino acids (lysine is a common deficiency).




Edit: Here's some perspective:
hemp seeds: You'd have to eat about 300 calories worth to get 15 g of protein
flax: You'd have to eat 534 calories to get 18g of protein
chia: You'd have to eat 486 calories to get 17g of protein
cacao nibs: You'd have to eat 228 calories to get 20g of protein

In all of these cases, these are "poor" sources of protein either 1.) requiring a huge number of calories to reach an appropriate protein amount OR 2.) requiring a huge serving size just to reach an appropriate protein amount

In my opinion, your best option for ACTUALLY supplementing protein is using one of the many great vegan protein sources included above. Pea protein, hemp protein, soy protein, etc. have all been "processed", yes, but processing a product doesn't mean that it is any less nutritious or healthy. If we didn't have processing for foods many foods would be unsafe for us to consume, would spoil easily, and more. Processing is not inherently "bad".

itsbasschick

Pierre_is_a_cat wrote: »

G'day folks,

Anyone got any good ideas for a vegan homemade protein powder? I am not keen on pre-packaged stuff and generally eat pretty clean/whole foods as I genuinely prefer them. At the moment I am generally cobbling together various scoops of high protein ingredients like hemp seeds, flax, chia, and cacao nibs. Added to my morning oat bran with soy milk it makes a pretty respectable protein serve.

Love to know if anyone else has any tips.

these aren't particularly high protein ingredients. seeds have as much or more fat than protein. 30 grams of hemp seeds have 14 grams of fat and 11 of protein, 1 ounce of chia seeds has 9 grams of fat and 4 grams of protein. and since fat has 9 calories per gram and protein has 4, making a shake out of these ingredients would be more of a fat shake with some protein.

if you're looking for vegan protein sources and don't want to buy pre-made, this may be a challenge. soy has a lot more protein than fat, which is probably why it's used for so many meat substitutes, but i doubt you could make as practical, easily to stir in or reduced fat soy protein powder as you could buy.

trigden1991

rainbowbow wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

gebeziseva wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

Eating a balanced diet including all the food groups is helpful. Chicken is lean and high in protein.

OP is a vegan.

I am fully aware of that. Veganism is a choice. Choosing to eliminate whole food groups is not optimal for life.

Veganism is an ethical choice, and one can certainly eat a balanced, complete, and nutritionally adequate diet even without animal products.

p.s. veganism doesn't eliminate or limit any one specific macronutrient. Just wanted to point this out since you seem to be under the impression this means one must be missing some sort of nutrition and one's diet cannot be "balanced".

I said food group (meat) not macronutrient. Essential amino acids from meat are missing.

rainbowbow

trigden1991 wrote: »

rainbowbow wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

gebeziseva wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

Eating a balanced diet including all the food groups is helpful. Chicken is lean and high in protein.

OP is a vegan.

I am fully aware of that. Veganism is a choice. Choosing to eliminate whole food groups is not optimal for life.

Veganism is an ethical choice, and one can certainly eat a balanced, complete, and nutritionally adequate diet even without animal products.

p.s. veganism doesn't eliminate or limit any one specific macronutrient. Just wanted to point this out since you seem to be under the impression this means one must be missing some sort of nutrition and one's diet cannot be "balanced".

I said food group (meat) not macronutrient. Essential amino acids from meat are missing.

what aminos, specifically? To my knowledge you can get all 9 essential amino acids from plant foods and many many foods "combined" produce a complete amino acid spectrum. Like beans and rice, hummus and pita, etc.

edit for clarity: there are plant foods which already contain all the essential aminos. Even if the foods you are eating DONT or aren't a complete protein source by themselves they often become one when eaten with other foods.

Pierre_is_a_cat

Hey guys,

Rainbowbow (especially) and itsbasschick -- thank you both SO much for your advice. No nutrition expert, that's the kind of information I'd perhaps only uncover if I was lucky. It's clear the difference between a 'good' vegan protein and one which is so calorically dense it negates or perhaps outweighs it's value as a source for this macro. Cheers for going to the effort of putting all that information together. When I first looked into protein sources, I did actually spreadsheet out my various foodstuffs and looks at calorie vs protein content -- one of my highest options was gram flour (or besan). I've been curious ever since as to whether someone out there has actually concocted their own mix, which is effective, doesn't taste terrible and is safe!. There's health concerns with using uncooked besan, if I'm not wrong.

I'll look into a processed powder. I prefer whole foods, but I don't necessarily subscribe to the 'processed is bad' school; it's not that I'd strike it as an option. The biggest challenge for me? I'm an expat in Vietnam, living in a national park. Availability is a legitimate issue! I found the hemp, cacao nibs, chia and so on, during a recent trip to the city. There is a place which sells VegaOne in Hanoi...for about USD$120 a tub! Import prices!!

Anyway, off topic. Just wanted to thank you both!!