Vegetable v animal protein

MissMaggie3

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that protein from vegetable sources is somehow 'worth' more than protein from animal sources. Can anyone shed any light on that please?

portexploit

I am working on a alkalarian diet, it's 70-80% alkalizing foods, and 20-30% acidic foods. The alkalizing foods are green vegetables pretty much, no fruits, breads, pastas, meat etc..

Through a wide variety of vegetables, you can get all your amino acids. Meat's are usually 20-25% protein. Broccoli is 47% protein. Common question is "then what is the other 75% of meat?" Mostly water. A good example is, you know as you cook meat it starts to shrink, broccoli really doesn't shrink just a little a hair.

Raw vegetables also have enzymes, this helps absorbtion of protein and helps with other physiological reactions. You dont get this from cooked meat. Enzymes are destroyed at 118 degrees.

MissMaggie3

Right, that sounds very interesting. Does that mean that gram for gram, vegetable protein helps the body build muscle more? I think I heard that even though some people on a vegan diet consume less protein, the fact that it is from vegetable sources means they don't need so much. It is perfectly possible that I misunderstood though! :laugh:

Frannswaz

Sooo...I'm not an expert by a long shot and I haven't noted the sources for what I'm about to say but I also seem to remember reading that with protein like other nutrients the key question its the quality of the protein and quantity of the absorption.

So the issue might be what kind of protein is easier for our bodies to extract the amino acids and other nutrients our bodies need. Seems to me that if the the food has a higher percentage of protein and this can be easily broken down and absorbed by the body then that protein source is 'worth' more than another kind of protein source where the protein nutrients are not so readily accessible to our bodies.

Maybe people assimilate protein differently depending on the source and what else is going with their bodies.

Sometimes even if you are consuming a large amount of protein if it does get used by the body it must be stored somewhere or excreted by the body.

This is perhaps why some people talk about excess protein being s strain on the kidneys and I think liver.

The issue then becomes how effecient is your body at extracting the nutrients from food. Some will say that the closer the food you consume is to its 'natural' state the easier it is for your body to 'recognise' and use the nutrients in the food source.

That's why some say butter is better than margarine because the chemical composition of margarine does not exist in nature and your body does 'recognise' it and so can't use it. It must therefore be stored or disposed of as waste.

Depending on the origin, manufacturing, cultivation methods etc. animal protein and yes some vegetable protein - maybe - to a lesser or greater extent - so far removed from the state which the body can recognise and so assimilate the amino acids and other nutrients that we get far less of the nutrients than we would other expect. Even I might add when we consume large amounts of it.

So the 'worth' of a protein source I think is dependent on how effecient and effective your body is in extracting the nutrients with the minimum of 'waste' by-products and how much of that nutrient is still available in the 'source' food to be extracted by the time it gets to our plates.

Perhaps its not so much whether animal or plant sources are the better but whether plant sources are just better for overall health as it my be counterproductive to artifically distinguish between carbs, fats, protein etc. since our body is so wonderfully complicated!

So that's my bit for the cause

portexploit

Sometimes even if you are consuming a large amount of protein if it does get used by the body it must be stored somewhere or excreted by the body.

This is perhaps why some people talk about excess protein being s strain on the kidneys and I think liver.

Your post was pretty good. The issue with the kidney's is protein is dehydrating to the body. Which can put strain on the kidneys.

portexploit

Right, that sounds very interesting. Does that mean that gram for gram, vegetable protein helps the body build muscle more? I think I heard that even though some people on a vegan diet consume less protein, the fact that it is from vegetable sources means they don't need so much. It is perfectly possible that I misunderstood though! :laugh:

I already discussed my diet, mostly vegetables. A great qoute by the creator of the alkalarian diet "Muscle isn't built by consuming dead animal, it's built in the blood." This quality over quantity. If you get one gram of chicken, and one gram of some form of vegetable. The chicken will have more protein.